Game Recap:12/6/05
Game Recap: Home vs. Guilderland, 12/6/05: Arrived at the game around 7:15 for a 7:30 tip-off. Not a bad crowd for a Tuesday game. The student section is 3/4 full and the Shaker adult section is almost full. The Guilderland stands are empty on the Shaker student side, but close to half full on the scorer's table side. (Click here for a discussion of Shaker's gym). Watching warmups, it seems obvious that Guilderland is undersized to take on the Bison, but then again not many teams won't be this year. Guilderland posted a 13-8 record last year, but on paper this looks like a Shaker victory. I turn to SJC and predict a blowout on par with the Amsterdam game. From the looks of it, Guilderland's only chance is if their 3-point shooters get hot...
...which is exactly what happened. Shaker starts Sheehan, McLoughlin, Duclos, Hooks, and Hans. The game opened with Shaker moving the ball easily into Brad on the first few trips, only for him to rim-out some soft jumpers from the baseline area. Even so, the offensive glass looks to be owned by the Bison tonight, and they manage to put in their first two baskets on putbacks. Shaker jumps out to a 9-2 and I turn to SJC and comment that this one might be over by halftime, which would give us a chance to see a lot of Shaker's bench in action.
But the the wheels fall off in a number of ways. First, the Guilderland pressure starts to get to the Shaker backcourt in ways that CBA simply couldn't on Saturday night. Saturday Shaker looked sloppy the way a high school team looks early in the season; last night they looked more rattled by the pressure. Probably 6 or 8 turnovers due specifically to the Guilderland press. Second, Guilderland gets hot from the outside. They made 7 3-balls on the night, and they seemd to get one every time it was crucial. They literally didn't try to go inside all game - their interior baskets were mostly on fluke rebounds, and their firepower came from 15--20 foot jumpers, which they hit at an impressive clip. After the 9-2 start, Guilderland rallied to tie it all 11, but then Shaker ran off 8 straight to end the quarter and things were looking up.
The second quarter was more of the same. Shaker looked a bit off tonight - Guilderland was triple-teaming Brad in the post, and the Bison offense didn't seem to be moving the ball around to the open man fast enough. Guilderland won the second quarter, 11-8, to put the halftime score at 27-22 Shaker, a scarily close score with Guilderland shooting so well from the outside and Shaker somewhat off its game. I waded through the hallway jungle and bought a Twix.
Shaker's third quarter was miserable. No two ways about it. In the first half the offense looked troubled as to how to handle the triple-teaming of Brad, the third quarter saw the Bison shy away from sending the ball into him. A comedy of bad calls by the officials didn't help either, with one call - a backcourt violation of John Hans - that really sent Holmes, the bench, and the crowd over the edge. At the end of the quarter, it was Shaker 33, Guilderland 32.
I felt sick. This was building up to one of those games that just gets away for no good reason. What a miserable loss this would be to start off league play.
Luckily, the Bison came alive in the 4th quarter. And it was a good thing they did, because Guilderland saved its best longball for late, consistenly dropping 3's in the 4th quarter every time Shaker looked to build a lead. Tom Duclos came alive on offense, Brad gabbed some great boards for putback hoops, and the foul shooting held up when it needed to. Hooks hit a big 3 with about 4 mintues left that seemd to seal deal by giving Shaker a 7 point lead, but Guilderland came back, enough so that Brad was on the foul line for 1 & 1 with 20 seconds to go and Shaker only up 1. He made the first, but missed the second. The whole crowd collectively held its breadth through a timeout and a tense final possession for Guilderland which resulted in a three pointer being launched at the buzzer...that hit the rim and bounced off.
My first thought: thank god. My second: let's all get out of here before they reverse the call and we have to play more tonight. Take it and run. This is the definition of "a win is a win." There were some good things to take away here, for sure: they held tight under pressure, just like Saturday, but there were some clear kinks in the offense as well. The turnovers will be reduced as the season goes on, but the offense looked a bit sluggish.
Final score: Shaker 50, Guilderland 48. TU box score here. Shaker improves to 3-0 and 1-0 in the Suburban Council.
...which is exactly what happened. Shaker starts Sheehan, McLoughlin, Duclos, Hooks, and Hans. The game opened with Shaker moving the ball easily into Brad on the first few trips, only for him to rim-out some soft jumpers from the baseline area. Even so, the offensive glass looks to be owned by the Bison tonight, and they manage to put in their first two baskets on putbacks. Shaker jumps out to a 9-2 and I turn to SJC and comment that this one might be over by halftime, which would give us a chance to see a lot of Shaker's bench in action.
But the the wheels fall off in a number of ways. First, the Guilderland pressure starts to get to the Shaker backcourt in ways that CBA simply couldn't on Saturday night. Saturday Shaker looked sloppy the way a high school team looks early in the season; last night they looked more rattled by the pressure. Probably 6 or 8 turnovers due specifically to the Guilderland press. Second, Guilderland gets hot from the outside. They made 7 3-balls on the night, and they seemd to get one every time it was crucial. They literally didn't try to go inside all game - their interior baskets were mostly on fluke rebounds, and their firepower came from 15--20 foot jumpers, which they hit at an impressive clip. After the 9-2 start, Guilderland rallied to tie it all 11, but then Shaker ran off 8 straight to end the quarter and things were looking up.
The second quarter was more of the same. Shaker looked a bit off tonight - Guilderland was triple-teaming Brad in the post, and the Bison offense didn't seem to be moving the ball around to the open man fast enough. Guilderland won the second quarter, 11-8, to put the halftime score at 27-22 Shaker, a scarily close score with Guilderland shooting so well from the outside and Shaker somewhat off its game. I waded through the hallway jungle and bought a Twix.
Shaker's third quarter was miserable. No two ways about it. In the first half the offense looked troubled as to how to handle the triple-teaming of Brad, the third quarter saw the Bison shy away from sending the ball into him. A comedy of bad calls by the officials didn't help either, with one call - a backcourt violation of John Hans - that really sent Holmes, the bench, and the crowd over the edge. At the end of the quarter, it was Shaker 33, Guilderland 32.
I felt sick. This was building up to one of those games that just gets away for no good reason. What a miserable loss this would be to start off league play.
Luckily, the Bison came alive in the 4th quarter. And it was a good thing they did, because Guilderland saved its best longball for late, consistenly dropping 3's in the 4th quarter every time Shaker looked to build a lead. Tom Duclos came alive on offense, Brad gabbed some great boards for putback hoops, and the foul shooting held up when it needed to. Hooks hit a big 3 with about 4 mintues left that seemd to seal deal by giving Shaker a 7 point lead, but Guilderland came back, enough so that Brad was on the foul line for 1 & 1 with 20 seconds to go and Shaker only up 1. He made the first, but missed the second. The whole crowd collectively held its breadth through a timeout and a tense final possession for Guilderland which resulted in a three pointer being launched at the buzzer...that hit the rim and bounced off.
My first thought: thank god. My second: let's all get out of here before they reverse the call and we have to play more tonight. Take it and run. This is the definition of "a win is a win." There were some good things to take away here, for sure: they held tight under pressure, just like Saturday, but there were some clear kinks in the offense as well. The turnovers will be reduced as the season goes on, but the offense looked a bit sluggish.
Final score: Shaker 50, Guilderland 48. TU box score here. Shaker improves to 3-0 and 1-0 in the Suburban Council.
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