Week 2: Team 4 Earns Another Victory with Hustle & Effort

     1              2              F

Team 2                 26           21           47           1-1

Team 4                 40           27           67           2-0    

                     

With Zack Krupp making his season debut and without the services of Justin Perlut, Team 4 took on Team 2, captained by Joe Jenkins and Tobias Green, in a battle of 1-0 teams. From the opening tip, we immediately outhustled and outrebounded our opponents by grabbing offensive rebounds and getting easy buckets.

Trying my best to not be like Shaq from the foul line

We also looked great with defensive rebounding, boxing out sizable players and beating them down the court for transition baskets and 3-pointers from Vince and Brian. After building an early lead, we did get sloppy in the middle of the first half as Jenkins and company began trapping us, forcing us into a few bad passes/turnovers. However, once we cracked the code and got better ball movement, we found things easier going. Once Krupp knocked down his first 3-pointer, he began knocking down more shots and also driving to the hole with authority.  Couple that with several surprisingly easy layup opportunities for our team, and we built up a 40-26 halftime lead.

Matching up on defense

The second half was more of the same story-a strong start, a little lull in the middle, and a strong finish to put the game out of reach. With our team, it was nice to know we were going to get out on the fastbreak and either get an easy hoop or find a shooter for a three. Overall, it was a great team win to get to 2-0. We also may have found a team photographer in my dad, Bill Smith Sr., who took some photos of us in action.

Happy to get a win

We followed it up with a devotional titled “Which Jesus?”, a discussion on how we sometimes tend to define who God is and the danger in that.

Week 3 is a 10:30 AM tip against Team 1 captained by Gabe Clayborne and Josh Settles. Without sharpshooters Brian Ramsland (in Arizona) and Justin Perlut (lower body injury), we will have to work hard to get our third victory.