Sunday 14th April saw the end to the U12s 2012-2013 Season with two defeats at the hands of AGS Hornets and Aylesbury Dux, but the team did not go down without a fight!

Facing AGS Hornets, a team with only two losses all season, the U12 Scorpions really started to look organised and aware of the game plan that had been laid out for them in training. Offensively there was very good court-spacing and an improvement in the team’s movement without the ball. Defensively players were far more capable of keeping their opposite number in front of them and helping their teammate when necessary. Shots were not falling in the first quarter for either team and with the much improved defensive effort from the Scorpions the first quarter ended scoreless. Things started to get going as the game progressed and everything was tied up at 6-6 at half time. The team started to fall behind in the third quarter as the game started to look out of reach, ending the quarter down 8-15. However, in the fourth quarter the Scorpions began to pull the game back (actually outscoring the Hornets 10-4 in the fourth quarter) behind some strong play from Toby G. and Juan K. who shared the duties at Point Guard who, while working on their ability to find open teammates while keeping their dribble alive, were also able to read the defence well and penetrate to the basket for multiple layup opportunities. The Scorpions had several chances to win the game as the clock ticked down. Juan K. was put at the line for two free-throws on two occasions after being fouled on strong drives to the basket but was unable to capitalise. Also, despite working on a baseline inbounds play for the last two weeks, the team were unable to take advantage of this when given the ball in this position several times at the end of the game which would have given them an opportunity for easy open shots if they had been able to execute better, which is something else they can learn from.

The game ended 19-17 to the Hornets and while the loss was disappointing the way the team played certainly was not! There has been an improvement in the team’s performance after every game and every game day throughout the season and I have no doubt that this will continue. It is also worth pointing out that our team fielded only two Year 7 players, meaning that the majority of our team were significantly younger than a lot of the teams they were competing against and most will have a chance to do better in the U12 division next year. The other important thing to point out is that in our earlier game against AGS Hornets we lost 9 – 50 so this was a dramatic improvement and with slightly better organisation, fitness, free-throw shooting and defence the result could easily have been different.

Our second game against Aylesbury Dux was somewhat of a let-down as their league position would suggest they were the weaker of our two opponents that day but we were not able to capitalise and possibly just didn’t have enough left after our defeat in the game before. The first quarter ended with Scorpions leading 5-4, the second with Dux storming ahead to lead 5-10 with Scorpions failing to score in the whole quarter. The third quarter saw Scorpions score only once and Dux remain scoreless, ending the quarter 7-10 and the game finally ended 11-16 to Dux. This was the first game all season where we have not played as well as or better than the game before so it was a disappointing way to end the season but the players still performed well and kept it close for as long as they could.

Things to work on…

  • Fitness – there will be a lot more running in training and players are encouraged to do this themselves out of training to improve their fitness levels to aid their performance in games
  • Triple-threat/Pivoting – although we have got better at this it needs to become second nature in order for players to see the options available to them and make the right decisions
  • Moving without the ball – again this has improved but it does need to continue as we had a tendency to stand at watch at times and this left teammates with no one to pass to.
  • Free-throw shooting – as we get better at dribble penetrating and receiving passes on cuts to the basket we are more likely to be fouled and therefore must all be able to make free-throws more consistently
  • Laces – sounds silly but it speaks to a bigger issue which is FOCUS! If you are not focused enough to tie your laces up tight enough before the game that they don’t come undone during the game then you are also unlikely to be focused enough to follow instructions and execute a game plan. It’s also dangerous and really annoying for the coach!☺