Monday, January 16, 2012

Matthew Scores! Reds Win

Matthew banked in a shot to score his first basket of the season, and his Red team won easily Saturday.

Though he missed two shots in the first quarter and one earlier in the second period, when Ryan tossed him the ball, you could hear several people encourage him to shoot. Matthew tossed his shot high, and the ball hit off the backboard on the way down…and right into the basket. A big smile spread across his face.

Matthew played his best game, making a pest of himself on defense, and repeatedly handled the ball on offense. Several times he brought the ball up court, and got more comfortable shooting the ball. While his coach said Matthew had “4-1/2” rebounds, I only counted one. Coach might’ve been including Matthew’s three steals.

Though I found a pair of adidas Samba indoor soccer shoes that fit, Matthew chose to wear his grey velour Nike high-tops, with orange swooshes and shoestrings. Now they’re his lucky shoes, so he’ll have to wear them every week.

Ryan took the inbounds pass to start the game, and immediately hit a three-pointer. Little did we know, but the Reds would never trail. On the next possession Ethan hit a shot. After the Blacks scored to make the score 5-2, they would not score again until the fourth quarter. The poor Black team couldn’t make a shot, and it seemed like everything Matthew’s Red team put went in. The Blacks had ten players, so their best players only played half the game. They did not score in the second or third quarters.

The Reds scored 21 in the first quarter, seven in the second, eleven in the third, and eight in the fourth quarter, to win 47 - 6. When everyone on the team can score, it makes playing defense tougher for the other team. Six of the Reds’ eight players scored, and Tristan and Rolf took several shots.

Ryan…20 points, 6 RB, 8 steals, 2 assists, 2 blocks

Chris…8 points, 20 rebounds, 3 steals, assist

Darryl…8 points, 5 RB, 2 steals (two 3-pointers)

Ethan…4 points, 3 rebounds, steal, assist

Matthew…2 points, rebound, 3 steals

Sam…2 points, 2 rebounds, 2 steals

Tristan…9 rebounds, 2 steals, assist

Rolf…2 rebounds

After making his first shot, Ethan was encouraged to continue shooting, often from the same spot. He’d take the ball and dribble to his right, and shoot near the baseline. On the other side of the basket, Tristan gathered several rebounds off Ethan’s misses, but couldn’t convert them into baskets. We just need the other players to position themselves for rebounds as well. Chris scored at least three times off rebounds, and Darryl once. When he has the ball, Rolf seems only interested in shooting.

After the game Chris’s mom organized a post-game pizza trip to Frankies, a local Italian place at the corner of Roswell and Old Canton. The six scorers went. Matthew and Ethan didn’t touch the big Italian pizza ordered for the boys, leaving more for big Chris. Instead they gobbled up my small pepperoni (kinda why I ordered it). The boys had a swell time, playing with the unwanted onions from the Italian pie.

Ceil missed all the excitement…she and Anna went antiquing south of town. Will ran to the game, them ran home afterward.

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