Competition: vs Pine Island 

Location: Farmington High School, Court 3

Time: 3PM

Score: 34-13 W

Competition: vs Fergus Falls

Time: 6PM

Score: 39-17

Competition: vs Dover-Eyota

Time: 7PM

Score: 33-19

------ Notes for the game ------

First half of game 1 was an absolute grind!

• It was a very low scoring game, 0-0 for nearly 6 min.

• The first time out taken was with less than 10 min. remaining in the first half, and my message to the girls was nothing technical.

  • • • The message given was - Right now it is a little uncomfortable, but I love your effort and energy. Keep working through this discomfort and good things will happen for us. Keep giving positive touches. Keep the effort high!

      • The girls' response was to increase their pressure during the full court press and that relentless pressure paid off, as we put together a nice run to end the first half.

• During half-time we discussed our defensive shapes and I reassured the girls that my expectation is for them to change defensive shapes on their own; which means they need to communicate and choose appropriate times to make the change.

• They executed the shape change with great communication.

  • • • We played 5 different defensive strategies - - - all 5 were communicated by the girls on the court - -- I did not call 1 defensive shape change! (Next we will grow into applying them more strategically, but what was great to see was the shapes changing by on-court direction!)

      • We played 2 different full court defenses and 3 different half court defenses.

      • This is EXCELLENT!

Game 2

• We were expecting a 1-2-2 press that never came.

• The Fergus Falls team was aggressive and athletic.

• We won the rebounding battle and our defensive pressure, both full and half court, was high energy and aggressive.

• Fergus Falls had trouble with the aggressiveness and physicality we played with.

Game 3

• We struggled to convert on our in-bounds plays (we really need to get on the same page for this).

• Our defense, once again, was aggressive and created transition opportunities.

• Our mix of double team and man to man press was effective, as the shape changing was confusing for the other team.

• Additionally, on 1-1 on ball defense we encouraged lock-left, which was also effective as the majority of plays went to the right.

• They put us in a 1-2-2 and caused a couple turnovers early, but it was a short turn around before the girls understood and made the adjustment on press break.

• Our presence in the post needs to increase as we had mismatch opportunities, but struggled to convert.