Upward Bball 2019 - Week 6

** Guest Blogger **

Eric Hendrickson

Silas Game #6 vs. Storm - February 16th

Silas played well and made 8 baskets.

Look at him jumping for this shot and doing layups.

Grandma Sharon was the superfan this week.  She came up on Wednesday to spend some time with us and to watch their games.  She got to see the best games for each of them so far this Upward season.

Phoebe Game #8 vs. Rockets - February 16th

Another rematch with the team that has beat us twice in a row (if you recall one week they didn't play their line-ups properly and the last week we played them they played an illegal defense, not that I am keeping track).  Our girls were pumped up and ready to go.

I nicknamed Phoebe, Shutdown, after this game because she shutdown this black-haired girl who is the best girl on the other team.

The girls did a good job of setting screens and making easy shots.

To keep the other team from playing their illegal defense (they are to be within an arm's length of the player they are guarding), I spread the girls out away from the basket, which forced the other team to come out and play on their person.  We then set screens and drove to the basket.

Phoebe made 1 of 2 free throws and 7 baskets ending up with 15 points.  5 of our 7 girls scored.  We ended up winning 37-28.

I was disappointed after last week's games, but thrilled after this week's game.  I very much enjoyed handing out stars this week for some much deserving girls.

Sarah Game #6 vs. Celtics - February 16th

We kept the momentum of Phoebe's game rolling into Sarah's game.

Much like last week, I told the girls that Sarah and Amiyah would be doing much of the ball handling for this game.

We played shutdown defense and offense.  The other team likes to do the Charles Barkley backdown where they basically just put their butt into your midsection and keep pushing backwards as they dribble.  I told the girls to fall back and they would call a charge.  Sarah did this and even exaggerated the flop.  It was great and they called the girl for a charge. 

After the first period, I told our girls the goal was to score 40 points.  We came up just short 38-6.  Sarah had 18 points (the only negative was she missed all 4 of her free throws).  4 of our 5 girls scored.  One had 8 and two others had 6.  Our girl who didn't score had several shots.  It was good to see everyone scoring and getting an opportunity to score.

Grandma Sharon got to see the kids play some great games.