Past Weekend - Big Weekend

This past weekend was a big weekend for both the boys and girls teams. We both had two games, one on Saturday night and one on Sunday.

For the girls team they looked to continue their streak, from being on a roll the last couple of games. After a poor start to the year they really have been playing quite well, and really seem to be gelling as a team. I think I might have said the same thing last week about the girls team, but they do look a lot better than they did at the beginning of the year and I enjoy watching them play. This month they are 5-1, with the one loss coming in overtime at the hands of a buzzer beating shot. So after a 1-5 start they are now 4th in the standings and if the season were to end today they would be in finals.

This weekend they played Ballarat and Sandringham.

Saturday night the girls team won 84 to 76. Katy played 14 minutes, went 2-6 from the field for 6 points and grabbed 2 boards. Sunday the girls won 74-64. Katy played 18 minutes, went 3-8 from the field for 7 points and grabbed 4 boards.

Even though there are not stat categories for some of the things Katy does she really helps her team out. She sets good screens and makes it easy for the other girls to get open shots. And even though she only ended with 4 boards I think she had her hand about three times that many. On many of the rebounds, even though she might not get it, she is able to get a hand on it and tap it to a teammate or keep it from going to the other team. She plays hard the whole time she is out there and you can really tell she is working hard. Sunday after the game her coach even came up to her and told her that she did very well and worked very hard. Nice to hear that from a coach.

This past weekend one of the starters on her team sprained her ankle once, sat out for a little bit, then went back in. Well she ended up doing her ankle again, only the second time she said she heard something pop. Last night at training she was on crutches and could barely put any pressure on it, so I don't think she will be playing on the weekend. It will be interesting to see how the rotations go and how Katy fits in. I think she will be getting a bit more playing time.

Link to Girls Story for the weekend:http://www.kilsythbasketball.com.au/index.php?id=21&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=368&tx_ttnews[backPid]=210&cHash=44af589ef0

For our team it was a must-win weekend. If we wanted to keep our final chances alive we needed to win. Saturday we played Dandenong and Sunday we played Sandringham. Saturday we found ourselves up by quite a bit early, but then they came storming back. The forth quarter ended up being pretty close, but we were able to hit our free-throws (something that has been hurting us all year) and ended up winning the game 109-100.

Sundays game was also another tight one for us. This game was close pretty much the whole game. We got to an early lead but we weren't able to keep it for very long and we went back and forth for a majority of the game. I decided to get into foul trouble (well, the refs decided it for me) so I got to watch a lot of the second and third quarters from the sidelines. It was tough watching but the guys played well and picked it up when it looked like they were going to pull ahead. Again this game came down to free throws in the end for us and our team did a good job of hitting them when we needed to. In the end it was very close but we edged them out 105-102.

Link to guys story for the weekend:http://www.kilsythbasketball.com.au/index.php?id=21&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=367&tx_ttnews[backPid]=210&cHash=6141dd3f26

Tassie Trip

This weekend was our trip down to Tasmania. The boys team had two games this weekend and the girls team had one game.
Our team flew down on Friday morning and got into Hobart (southern Tasmania) early afternoon. Our game that night was a tough one. We started out alright but were not able to stop the other team when they went on a run. They got the score out to double digits and really never looked back. At the beginning of the 4th quarter we didn't play some of the guys, probably to rest for the next night as we were down by quite a bit, but it was a little strange. In the forth we did chip away at the score and came back a little bit, but as we play 12:00 minute quarters a lot could happen in that time.
Saturday night for our team was rough. We played a team that has not been doing that well this year, but didn't play them well. Right out of the gate they got up by double digits, seeming to hit three after three after three. In the second half we chipped away, especially the forth quarter when we came back to 4 down but in the end we just ran out of time. Again this weekend we were a tale of two teams. We came out sluggish in the second game but then when we were down we really picked it up and looked pretty well. If we could play like that the whole game we could really do some damage, but at the moment we cant seem to put it together.
This weekend it was interesting on Saturday night, we got to the game preparing for an 8:00 game, but found out that the website had the game wrongly listed and it started at 7:30. It was interesting but it neither helped or hurt us.
Katy's team had better luck this weekend. They played on Saturday night after their flight down on Saturday morning. This time they did not play before us as we played about an hour away from Launceston (northern Tasmania) at the same time - 7:30 (we did stay at the same hotel though). Katy had a pretty good game. I think she played about 18 minutes and had 9 points. She almost had a three but her foot was on the line, and took the ball hard to the basket a couple times getting a three point play off one of the them (made the shot as she got fouled and made the free throw). They ended up winning by 9. Their team has been on a role as of late and can hopefully keep it going next weekend.
This weekend after the game our teams went out to the night clubs/bars. All the guys were heading to one place. With my jeans and a nice dress shirt on I went with them. Well, here they have a rule that you cannot were tennis shoes in and they tell you that you have to leave. So since I did not have any other shoes I was out of luck. Seems funny that you can wear shoes like airwalks or vans but you cant wear tennis shoes. Oh well.
The plane flight out of Tasmania was very bumpy right after take-off. The turbulence was nuts. We were bouncing all over the place. I have to say I got that feeling in my stomach a couple times-the feeling you get when you are on a roller coaster. Katy said her flight in was pretty good, but our flight in was the same way. I felt that roller coaster stomach feeling then as well. Only usually it is only for a split second, but no kidding it lasted for a good couple of seconds. It may not seem like much but think about being on a plane, having a lot of turbulence, bouncing around in your seat, and then all of a sudden your stomach drops for not just a split second but for a couple seconds. We were pretty close to the ground at that time, but still it was a little nerve-racking.

Mom's here - weekends games

This past Friday my mom flew in. She got in on Friday morning and will be here in Australia until next week. Even though she will be here in Australia for 12 days she was only able to spend the weekend with us. She is going to be very busy while she is here. She spent this past weekend with Katy and I, then on Monday she took off for her friend's house, who lives a couple hours from our place. Her friend, who lives on the ocean, met my mom when they were both on a trip to Europe when they were younger. They happened to meet in a hostel and became friend's. She has been over to the States to visit a couple of times and so it is nice for my mom to be able to come her and spend some time with her. Her friend drove up for our games on Sunday, stayed the night Sunday night, then the two of them drove down to her place on Monday morning. They will spend a couple days there and then fly over to see my brother, who is on the West Coast of Australia, this coming weekend. There they will be able to spend some time with him and get to see him play footy.
Even though mom was only here for a short time we really enjoyed having her. Friday when I picked her up from the airport when drove into the city and saw some of the sights. Since we had a couple hours to walk around until we had to pick Katy up from school we parked and had lunch at Federation Square, walked down Graffiti Alley, and went into the National Gallery of Victoria.
Friday night we let mom take a nap and almost couldn't get her up-the jet lag makes you so tired. But eventually we got her up and we all watched Marley and me - good movie if you haven't seen it.
Saturday we went to the shops in Croydon and walked around and went to our game at night.
Sunday-Mother's Day-We made mom a breakfast of Scrambled eggs with tomatoes, peppers, onions, cheese and kangaroo sausage with banana, M & M, pancakes. She liked it. We served it with a card and flowers which she enjoyed. After Brenda came we were off to our basketball games for the afternoon. Then at night Katy and I made our Chicken and pumpkin (squash) in a cream sauce and had a nice dinner. After ice cream at Dairy Bell it was off to bed.
The next day Brenda and mom took off at 10. It was a short couple of days but it was great to have her here!

Our games this weekend were both disappointing and positive. On Saturday night both teams lost. Katy's team got beat by 1 point on a last second shot. The Kilsyth girls were up by 2 with a couple seconds to go. One of the girls on the other team launched a prayer from 5 or 6 feet beyond the three point line with 1 second to go and hit it. Katy played pretty well. She said she wasn't feeling all the best but she still played hard. She played 18 minutes but her minutes came in two 9 minute stretches (sort of interesting). She played hard and seemed to have her hands on a lot of rebounds. Even though she didn't get some of them she was able to tip them to another teammate.
For our game Friday night we lost to the worst team in the league (they were 0-10). They had just gotten rid of their coach and brought in someone new. We just looked a little flat footed especially at the start of the game. At a couple times during the game we found ourselves down by double digits. At the end of the game we came back, but just didn't have enough. I think if we would have had a couple more minutes we would have gotten it but it was a just a little too late.

Sunday afternoon's games were a little better for both teams. Katy's team played well and ended up winning by 9 points. They beat a team that the lost to in the first game of the year by quite a few points. Even though they lost on Saturday night it was still a close game and over the last 3 or 4 games they seem to be playing better and if they can keep it up I think they could do pretty well the rest of the year.
Our game was also better. Coming into the game we knew we had to get a win to get back on track. Bendigo was on a 5 or 6 game winning streak so we knew it was going to be a tough game. Like the girls team we came out hard right away and found ourselves with a nice lead. I had a little bit of trouble with fouls for the second night in a row and had to sit a majority of the second quarter. Like the girls game, the other team made a couple good runs, but we were able to stop them and keep our lead around 10 points at all time. In the end we came out on top 110-95.

Link to girl's story: http://www.kilsythbasketball.com.au/index.php?id=21&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=355&tx_ttnews[backPid]=210&cHash=6734d6d6ab

Link to guy's story:http://www.kilsythbasketball.com.au/index.php?id=21&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=356&tx_ttnews[backPid]=210&cHash=c9323b2966

Girls Box Score vs. Nunawading:http://www.sportingpulse.com/round_info.cgi?a=MATCH&fixture=129385823&c=1-3363-0-81435-0&pool=-1
Girls Box Score vs. Bendigo:http://www.sportingpulse.com/round_info.cgi?a=MATCH&fixture=129386006&c=1-3363-0-81435-0&pool=-1
Guys Box Score vs. Nunawading:http://www.sportingpulse.com/round_info.cgi?a=MATCH&fixture=129385769&c=1-3363-0-81436-0&pool=2
Guys Box Score vs. Bendigo:http://www.sportingpulse.com/round_info.cgi?a=MATCH&fixture=129386014&c=1-3363-0-81436-0&pool=1

Short post-weekends games

This is going to be a very short post. Just wanted to let you all now that Katy's team got back on track last weekend with a win. They beat Sandringham in a good win for them. Hopefully they will be able to turn it into a win streak this weekend as they have 2 games.

Link to game story:http://www.kilsythbasketball.com.au/index.php?id=21&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=347&tx_ttnews[backPid]=210&cHash=ec178a0608

Our team lost to Geelong. We played well at times but then not so well at times. There was one point where we were down by 17 but came back to lose by 4. At the end of the game we had a chance with some free-throws but missed a couple of them. Our coach says that if we win this weekend, both games (which are double headers with the girls teams) we will be in second place in our conference. So it is a big weekend for us.

Link to game story:http://www.kilsythbasketball.com.au/index.php?id=21&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=348&tx_ttnews[backPid]=210&cHash=07e236c541

p.s. - My mom is coming tomorrow (Friday) and we are very excited to see her
p.s.s.-Happy Mothers Day!!