Crusaders Open Season With Win Over Moapa!

First things first, the surroundings were amazing. We got to play in the new gym at Moapa Valley High School, and wow is it beautiful. Two games took place at once with room in the center, and it was a really neat atmosphere. 

Faith jumped out to an early lead as Brianna got the first official points of the season off a putback on the opening possession - this was a precursor of things to come, as Bri added two more 1st half buckets after grabbing rebounds. Portlynn was also a force on the glass, as she had a ton of rebounds, both offensively and defensively. 

Neveah tallied 11 points in the first half, with one of the makes being a three pointer. Mia W and Annika proved to be a great pair, with Mia running the show and Annika draining two jumpers off nice passes, while Danielle added a basket after an scramble for the ball. Faith held a 23-6 lead at the half. 

At halftime the coaches challenged the team to correct some of the defensive mistakes that had occured in the first half, and wow did the girls respond. While the amount of points (6 in the first half, 4 in the second) didnt change much, the overall defense absolutely did, as Skylar, Mia B and Dena each had some great moments on the defensive end in the second half. None of those three scored this day, but we stress great defense, and defensive effort, even if the scoring isnt happening, and those did a great job of that in the 2nd half. 

There were two very exciting offensive moments in the second half - the first coming when Portlynn got on the scoreboard with a nice basket.  She has been doing amazing work on the glass in both scrimmages and in practice, but the lid was on the basket for her up until midway through the 3rd quarter. Once that lid was lifted, she poured in another basket and a free throw to complete and ELEVEN rebound, five point, two steal game. Well done! 

The other highlight was a perfectly executed out of bounds play. We had practiced this exactly ZERO times, and in fact drew it up on the spot. The girls on the floor executed it perfectly, Morgan made a beautiful pass, and we got a nice basket off of it. Just great to see. 

We worked on some things in the later stages of the game, and once the coaches figured out yelling "Mia" is counterproductive when there were two Mia's on the floor,  they went well, and our Manager/Statistician Sabrina got to play some late as well - thanks for being there for us Sabrina! 

Thank you to Mr. Dudley for the safe trip to Moapa and back, and thanks to all of the parents that came out to support the team. We look forward to a great practice on Thursday and two games next week, a home tilt against this same Moapa squad and a contest vs New Horizons Academy. 

Go Faith!