Huskies

Similar to the game the previous evening versus the 1st place Chill, the Huskies were shorthanded in their 23-19 loss to the 2nd place Rockets. The Rockets sprinted to an early 10-0 lead at the end of the 1st quarter and lead by as much as 23-10 with 2:10 left in the 3rd quarter. The Huskies valiantly battled back to scored the game's final 9 points, but the 1st quarter deficit proved to be too large an obstacle to overcome against such a talented and disciplined Rockets team. Fighting off the effects of the flu from the previous evening, Sally spent every bit of her energy in 2½ quarters of play, scoring 6 points, collecting 11 rebounds, 9 steals and blocking two shots. Just think of how she could have played if healthy! Rachel returned from her sickbed Friday evening to play as hard as she could in two quarters of play. The Rockets prevented a reoccurrence of Rachel's career game, in the teams' first meeting earlier this season, by double-teaming her. Rachel did a fine job of dishing out passes to teammates and earned 5 steals. With our guard ranks depleted by Ailey's absence, we needed Jackie to step-up and play despite entering the game with a 100 degree temperature. Jackie gave her all playing tough defense, stealing the ball 9 times, blocked 2 shots, gathered 5 rebounds and scored 4 points in 2 quarters of play. Thank heavens again for our shooting guard, Ashley, who showed her stamina by playing the entire game for the second consecutive day and allowed us to "limit" Rachel and Jackie to two quarters each. Ashley scored 6 points (all banked neatly off the backboard!), collected 2 rebounds and 3 steals. With so many girls missing, we asked our forwards to play 3 quarters each. Perla hustled on both ends of the floor, fought for rebounds and caught numerous passes from her teammates. She also had her first point of the season taken away on a dubious free throw line infraction call. Leah C-F played her 2nd consecutive big game at small forward. Leah "stayed home" on defense to provide the last line of defense against the Rockets' taller forwards, where she blocked a shot, garnered 5 rebounds and collected 2 steals. Leah also made the game's highlight reel with her 1st career basket (also banked neatly off the backboard!)! With Clarissa and Leah T out, we needed to rely on Nataly as we did in Friday night's game versus The Chill. Nataly gave her all by playing 1 ½ quarters at center and the remainder of the game at forward, where she held her own against a taller opponent in gathering 9 rebounds, 4 steals and registered a blocked shot. Leah C-F, Nataly and Ashley played huge roles in both of the weekend's games. All three of you showed tremendous improvement since the beginning of the year. We are proud of all of our Huskies, for their effort in playing so well despite fatigue and illness. Hustle Award. Ashley was awarded the Hustle Award for her second consecutive full game effort. She was very quick in getting back on defense during Rocket fast breaks and teamed with Rachel and Jackie to steal the ball from the talented Rocket guards. Heads-Up Award. Sally was presented the Heads-up Award for her excellent defense characterized by her 9 steals, 2 blocked shots and 11 rebounds.