Second Half Explosion Leads Saints Past Raiders
In the last game before Christmas break, the Salem Saints traveled to Crown of Life in West St. Paul on Thursday to take on the Raiders.
For not having practice all week, I thought our Saints came out of the gate with solid offensive execution in the first half. Our offensive sets looked fairly sharp, which created many opportunities for us to drive and attack the basket. On the other side of the floor, I was also pleased with our positioning, communication, and awareness in our active 2-3 zone defense. Although we did a good job forcing the Raiders into many outside shots, we struggled to close out many of our defensive possessions in the first half by not boxing out or simply grabbing rebounds and loose balls. With only seven players on their team, I thought Crown of Life gave an excellent first half effort, keeping the game close going into halftime (halftime score: 20-19).
The Salem Saints came out of the locker room looking like a different team in the second half. Led by eighth graders Griffin (24 points) and John (12 points), our Saints displayed excellent overall teamwork in the second half by sharing the basketball and creating numerous opportunities at the rim. Whether it was in the half court offense or during fast breaks, I was extremely proud of the way Griffin and John worked together to attack the defense and looked to dish the ball to each other for easy baskets. They really looked like natural leaders on Thursday, and the rest of the team followed them with incredible second half energy in the victory (final score: 42-28).
Overall, it was a very fun night of basketball! Our performance on Thursday showed how much sharing the basketball and working together empowers the sum of our Salem Saints to be greater than the individual parts.
As we go into the holiday season, it is my prayer that everyone has a very special Christmas as we celebrate the birth of our Savior!
