Lake Travis Select Basketball Wins First League Game of the Season

By Coach Carter December 08, 2009 at 07:36 PM ESTSaturday December 5th marked the opening of the 2009-2010 season for the 6th grade boys Lake Travis Select Team. Although our tournament was postponed due to bad weather, which never arrived. We did play our first game in the Cedar Park Youth League against the TX Heat. Last season the Heat beat us twice in tournament play so we knew how tough the game was going to be.Both teams began the game in man-to-man defense. Both defenses looked good thoughout the game, (or perhaps our offenses struggled..lol). The Heat had a very tall post player who is excellent and towers over our tallest player, Michael McBride by almost 8 inches. We knew this was a huge challenge for us, but Micheal along with Hugh Robertson did a great job containing their big man. As a team, we did a tremendous job on their point guard and kept his penetration to a minimum.Jack Wakefield and McBride started us off offensively with a couple of quick scores. Although our offense is not in peak performance as of yet, we moved the ball fairly well and had decent motion. We were able to create shots off of the dribble. Late in the game, Erik Hamilton scored a couple of times to keep us in the lead. In the final seconds, up 26-24, we were able to get the ball down the floor where Collier Schatz was able to get a lay-up opportunity. As the whistle blew on the foul, the ball went in-and-out. Collier hit the 2nd free-throw to put us up 27-24. The Heat take the ball up the floor and call time-out. The Heat ran a series of picks and had a player end up with a great look at a 3-pointer just to the left of the key as the buzzer goes off. (I tell you, from my vantage point, it looked good.) The shot was missed and we were able to survive a competitive, yet semi-ugly game.We learned a lot about ourselves and I learned more about our players. Our defense got a grade of a B+. Our offense got a grade of C-. In fairness to our players, we have worked on offense, maybe a total of an hour. We have spent far more time on defense. We hope to get some quality work in this week of practice.We will play CP Cavaliers at 11:45am in League. They are 1-0 in League play. Our previously postponed tournament will be taking place this weekend. Schedule to come.Lori Wakefield is a real estate agent with Keller Williams specializing is Lake Travis Real Estate including waterfront and luxury hom