Silas Basketball - 5th Grade - Season Two

 ** Guest Blogger **

Eric Hendrickson

Game One - Saturday, January 20th 12:00

I decided to start a team in a new league at the YMCA.  I have 5 kids from my other team and 5 new kids, two of which I had never met.  Sarah is my assistant coach.

Silas skyed when he made this pass (below) to one of the new kids, Lyrik.

Silas made 3 of 6 of his free throws.  He is good at making people foul him.  

The five below plus one kid that wasn't there today are my core players.

 The game was close the entire game.

We had a last second shot that missed that would have won us the game.  We lost 23-22.  It was a hard fought game and we showed that we can compete in this league.

Game Two - Saturday, January 27th 11:00

Stacee and Sarah couldn't be at this game because Sarah's team was playing in a tournament in Mulvane. Thanks to Popee and Phoebe for the pictures and livestreaming the game today.

This was a really aggressive team.  We didn't play very well and lost 29-25.  Glad to see we are competing.

Game Three - Saturday, February 3rd 10:00

This team was undefeated going into this game.  We started off strong and had a 10 point lead at half.

Silas has been leaving his feet on a high percentage of his passes.  I am trying to get him to break this habit.

Silas made a few three pointers today.  This was a contested one.

I don't know why boxing out is so difficult to do for younger players.  It is nice to see Silas boxing out below.

We lost our 10 point lead and got down by 4 points.  We had a chance to go ahead with about 9 seconds left and missed a layup.  We then had an opportunity to win it on a last second half court shot and missed.  A hard fought loss 30-31.  Silas played well and had 7 points.

Game Four - Saturday February 3rd 12:00

We got an hour break from Game 3 and played a double header.  This team practices next to us every Monday night.  We didn't have a great first half and were only up 1 at half.

We played better the second half and won 46-35.

I was able to play our bench players some additional minutes because we got a pretty substantial lead with the starters.

Game Five - Saturday, February 10th 12:00

We played a team that has not yet won and not been competitive in any of their games.  They weren't competitive in this one either.  Silas came down with a sickness right before the game started so he didn't play a lot of minutes.

We won 43-17 and it would have been much worse if I had played the starters more.  I have been able to play the subs a lot these past two games so should be able to stick more to the starters these last two games.  

Game Six- Saturday, February 17th 1:00

This was a rematch against the team we played the first game of the season.

The intensity that we came out with was not where I would have liked it to be.

Silas was getting over an illness so didn't have the stamina that he normally has.

We were driving well and getting easy shots.  We just weren't making them.

This was a close game.  The other team made a few shots late and we didn't.  We lost 31-27.

I told the kids I can live with the poor shooting but not with the lack of intensity.  We will likely need to win our last game of the season if we are going to make the end of season tournament.

Game Seven - Saturday, March 2nd 1:00

This was our last regular season game and it was a must win game if we were going to play in the post season tournament.  We had lost to this team earlier in the year by 4.  This is a physical, aggressive team.

We started off strong, as did the other team, with a quick 8 to 7 lead.

All of my players including my bench players were contributing.

Silas Hendrickson...FOR THREEEEEEEEEE!  He was 3 of 5 from the THREE.

We went to half time up 12-9.  We were equaling their physical and aggressive play but I was concerned we couldn't keep it up for another half.

We came out the second half and not only equaled their intensity; we dominated the half.

Silas played a great game as did all the kids.  Everyone was contributing.

The other team barely scored the second half and we scored over 20 points.

We won 36-12.  Silas had 11 points and played great defense.

Arnez (Arnez and Adonez dad) will be coaching a 12u advanced team next session.  Silas and Carson will be playing on it and I will be the assistant coach.  Arnez has helped Sarah and I at practice a lot this year. 

This was a great way to end the regular season and we were going into the tournament with a lot of confidence.  If we played like this in the tournament, none of the other teams would be able to compete with us.

Above, back row, left to right: Kiyan, Lyrik, Corban, Carson, Blake

Front row, left to right: Adonez, Silas, Arnez, and Luke (missing Kale)

Tournament - Wednesday, March 6th 5:30

After our last win, we went into the tournament with a lot of confidence. We were the #4 seed playing the #1 seed.  The #1 seed was a team that we almost beat earlier this season.

Our confidence was quickly deflated after going down 9-0.  We had a deer in the headlight look when I called timeout.  

We then got down 15 points about halfway through the first half.  We ended the first half strong and were down 7.  We got the lead down to 6 in the second half, but the other team pulled away and won by 15.  It was a disappointing game and disappointing way to end the season.  We lost 36-21.

Silas had an off game as did everyone else.  Overall, Silas had a good season.  He can play any position on the court, is a good shooter, and plays with intensity.  We have a strong core group of kids and should have a good season next year.