Hornets plunder bearly there defence

We finished the regular season undefeated after overpowering a Norths Bears team that regularly left gaping holes in its defence 82-24.

The game was a contrast in execution that reflected well on the boys, their training and our coaches. 

Hills sharp offensive sets saw the great majority of shots taken in the key and right under the basket after bullet passes or scything drives. The only exceptions to this were a couple of three point shots from Jay and a nice mid-range two from Will. Even the point guards were able to get right in under the basket.

Norths sagging defence left passing lanes wide open and even when they anticipated a play, they were a step late as the Hornets finished. On the offensive end the Bears resorted to deep shots as the game wore on and on the few occasions that they started a fast two- or three-on-one break they often broke down under pressure from a single man.

Will took full advantage, playing strong down low and had an outstanding game that saw him pick up a double-double to lead all scorers with 25 points and 11 rebounds. He is turning into our team's Mr Consistent.

While Will dominated, everyone contributed. A highlight was Luke's full length of the field pass which found a waiting big man right under the basket for an easy lay-up but the good news continued right through the line-up. 

Jay found his three-point range and has been dishing more assists with every game. 

Mark posted really well under the basket and along with Mitch deflected and stole the ball repeatedly from a frustrated Bears team.

Jayden had a couple of cracking drives to the basket, as did Arran who continues to match the guards on steals and assists. 

Thomas is becoming a key part of the Hornets defensive wall. Nobody can defend as closely as Thomas and still stay in front of his man. He had a couple of really strong drives, rebounds and plays down low. 

Finally Big Ads was dominant on the boards with 10 of his 13 rebounds on the offensive end and 10 points to post the teams only other double-double.

It's a big week ahead with most of the team attending the talented athletes program - except for the Rookie who is too young but definitely talented enough - and then it is off to Gosford (we think at this stage) to determine our position at the Nationals in October.

After that, those semi-finals at Manly.

Achievements
Will: 25 points (personal best). Efficiency 27 (equal personal best)
Arran: 8 defensive rebounds (personal best)
Mitch: 2 blocks (personal best)
Addam: 10 offensive rebounds, 13 total rebounds (personal best). Blocks 2 (equal personal best).

Hornets leave bears with a sore head

Sometimes people say the most unfortunate things (why else do you think I turn down the sound on the video).

Well, it wasn't my turn at Norths on Sunday.

Sometime during the first quarter when we were up by about five points, a voice can be heard on the video from the back of the stands suggesting Hills has stacked this team.

It is surprising that it has taken this long to hear this considering the dominance of the boys in the Sydney competition.

It is, of course, completely wrong.

Anyone who has read this blog from the beginning will know that Addam - after a year away from the sport - decided to play for Hills after doing trials elsewhere. The coaches and the welcome from the other players made it an easy decision. You can read about that here.

Mark and Thomas came from Penrith because they had played club games at Hills and  had made friendships with the other boys on the team during PSSA games. Every other boy on this team has always been a Hills player.

No one from Hills went hunting the boys and no special considerations were given to anyone on the team.

The Hills program is impressive and our coaches Delmas and Brett are basketball nuts who live for the game. They have both had a huge part in developing these players over the years and it is unfair to suggest they loaded this team with talent. This team is talented because they and the club nurtured these boys.

In addition we are very fortunate to have a wonderful group of parents who, along the boys and the coaches in this Hills team,  are really committed to the season and the game of basketball. It is an incredibly supportive group.

Anyway, that's the way it really is - now on with the game.



This game was an interesting one and despite an early lead, Norths gave us a brief scare when they came back at us towards the end of the first quarter and even took the lead briefly in the second.

We started the game playing half-court defence, with only the point guard pressuring the ballhandler. Initially Norths struggled to penetrate against our size while we scored on three successive possessions against a sagging bears defence. For some reason the bears stayed out of the passing lane and allowed us to move the ball from the strong to the weak side with ease.

Our first goal was off a nice inside / inside out play which gave Mitch an open mid-range jumper. The second came from a team defensive rebound and break-out by Arran that gave him an easy lay-up. It was the first of a huge number of fast-break points for him in this game as he led all scorers finishing with 28 points - - shooting 75% from the field.

On the very next possession Will bullied his way in from the top of key and picked up a three-point play.

In that time Norths scored only once and it looked like we were going to run away with the game until one of their guards started to aggressively attack the basket. He got to the free throw line three times in a row and sunk all six shots allowing them to finish just behind 17-14.

Norths then opened the quarter with two quick baskets and followed it with a three pointer and suddenly they were up 21-17.

Brett called the boys in, changed up the defence and the complexion of the game altered rapidly. Our high pressure defence forced repeated turnovers and suddenly we broke out to a nine point lead finishing the half up 33--24.

Thomas was a key part of this period and went on to have an excellent game. He matched his personal bests in steals, had one of the sharpest assists of the game off a break that he initiated from a stolen pass and also topped his personal best in rebounds.

The third quarter sealed the game as we started to catch the bears out with our two man trap. Mark was merciless in this part of the game, earning his nickname of Gadget with some great intercepts and flying rebounds.

Even when Norths broke free of the trap they struggled to complete as with a big man waiting under the basket and some fast transition defence the Bears players often had to change their shots.

On those possessions where we actually had to play a half court set up, Norths defence continued to give us options by not closing out the defender or moving into the lanes. They were fortunate we had an awful outside game, with Luke the only member of the team to shoot a three.

However they were very effective at picking up our first and second cuts.

Jayden got around this defence with a blink-and-you-will miss it drive off a sharp give-and-go play that had the Hills parents out of their seats.

We then started getting the ball down the centre on drives and interior passes giving Brane and Will some deep catches down low.

After that we didn't have to take our offensive pattern much further. It was interesting that we seldom had to go through a complete set as shown by the small number of shots taken by Thomas and Addam.
When we did get an interior pass to the four man late in the fourth quarter, we were unstoppable.

In the final quarter we scored 32 points, compared to Norths 6, finishing with a scoreline of 81-36.

However, it was a game that gave us an early scare and was a learning experience we can take to Melbourne in a few weeks.

Some quick congratulations are in order for the boys who earned or matched some personal bests. I'll be running these at the end of each report for the rest of the season.

Arran: 28 points and three assists (both matched previous personal bests)
Jay: 2 offensive rebounds
Mitchell: 7 assists
Jayden: 3 assists (matched personal best)
Thomas: 7 rebounds, 5 defensive rebounds, 1 assist, most efficient game (11)  and matched a personal best with 4 steals.

Gosford Coastal Classic

On a hot and very humid weekend, Hills headed north to Gosford where we had our first games against some of the NSW teams that we would be playing in the season ahead.

Neither Manly, Bankstown or Sutherland made the journey but we were able to have a good look at Hornsby, Penrith, Alexandria and Norths.

PENRITH

The Panthers may have been a small team but they played with plenty of heart.

However, there was not much they could do against our complete control of the boards. They also struggled to cope with our full court pressure defence which constantly forced turnovers.

At the end of the first quarter Penrith were down 15-0 but they hadn't given up.

Late in the second quarter they hit a few outside shots and picked up some free throws after driving into the heart of the key. Despite getting a score on the board they were unable to stop us, particularly down low.

Brane, Will and Addam scored down low, while Arran decided he would be a point guard for a game and came away with nine assists.

On the outside Jay was on fire, dropping 12 points, many from the top of the key.

As the score continued to grow, our lock-down defence kept Penrith out. In the third quarter the Panthers did not score one point from the field.

In the fourth quarter and with the score at 61-16, Brett and Delmas decided to work through some variations on our offensive plans. Penrith scored as we worked through the new offence but we still finished with a 62 point difference coming home 87-25.

GOSFORD 2

Canberra were supposed to send up a team but when they pulled out at the last minute Gosford's division two team stepped up to fill the void.

Not surprisingly this was a blowout game.

Again we dominated the boards, again we got an extraordinary number of steals with Mark snatching eight by himself and again we had an opportunity to work on our offensive patterns.

We finished this game with an 89-17 win.

NEWCASTLE

Newcastle had length but their big men were too slight and lacked the skills of our own.

We were able to dominate them in all facets of the game. By half time it was 52-8 and Newcastle would only score another 9 as we went on to win 89-17. To this point, Hills had yet to be tested.

HORNSBY

The humidity disrupted the Hornsby game, causing a number of stoppages with the refs having to regularly wipe the floor when players slipped and fell.

The slippery conditions didn't stop Luke who showed what defence at the top of the key was all about in this game. He was constantly picking pockets off the dribble and snatching clean steals after using his acceleration to get into into the passing lane.

He set up may of the fast breaks that gave us the easy buckets later in the game.

We needed it early as we struggled to hit baskets, often shooting off balance as the Hornsby defence got quickly to their players. We came away with just 12 points in the first quarter despite plenty of shot opportunities.

In the second quarter we started to find our pace but Hornsby continued to hurry us through our plays and they fought hard for loose balls.

But in the fourth quarter we overwhelmed them, accelerating to a final score of 71-20.

NORTHS - SEMI FINAL

Just a minute into the game Norths called a time-out after we dropped in two easy goals. The first went to a streaking Mitch off a long pass from Addam. The second from Will who had dropped down to the low block and picked up an easy pass from Mitch who saw that Norths had left a mouse in the house to guard our big man.

After the time out North started to isolate defenders and work down low but had problems completing. Some loose passes from both sides led to a strong of turnovers before we settled again. We started picking up points as we stepped in for weak-side rebounds and picked up some simple lay-ups.

A pleasing component of our defence was that Norths could not get any fast breaks as Hills got quickly back on defence every time.

A lucky three-pointer towards the end of the first quarter kept Norths in the game and we finished it ahead 13-8. A close score but we still looked like we were in control.

It was more of the same during the second quarter although it started to become apparent that Norths were struggling to defend off the dribble with Jayden, Jay and Mitch all penetrating deep into the key. But the scoreline was still relatively tight at half time with Hills up 33-25.

However, our classic third quarter surge kicked into action and Norths leapt ahead 44-31.

That surge broke Norths back and, despite not playing one of our best games, Hills came away with a convincing 61-41 victory that put us in to the grand final.

However that grand final was almost called off when the Gosford courts looked like they might become unplayable because of the humidity. But it wasn't going to stop Gosford or Hills, who had a long history against each other and decided to play to really test themselves against quality opponents.

GOSFORD - GRAND FINAL

This was a cracker of a game played in sultry conditions that had the ref spending a good half of the game wiping the ball and the floor.

We also lost our most aggressive defender Thomas in the second quarter to a nasty sprained ankle after he came down hard on an offensive rebound.

The game was physical, fast and skilled. Early on Gosford used good ball movement to get behind our defence and with back cuts and baseline cuts got open looks close to the basket.

Jay returned it in kind with a number of crucial drives and on one particular occasion as our big men moved out to the three point line taking their markers with them, he ankle-broke his defender, made a penetrating drive and finished with a layup one step ahead of the rushing defence.

We hurt ourselves at times in this game by not boxing out on the defensive end, giving Gosford second and third shots and they often made us pay.

The game stayed tight the whole way until our usual third quarter surge.

First quarter: Hills 13 - Gosford 8

Second quarter: Hills 21- Gosford 18

Third quarter: Hills 37 - Gosford 26

Against other teams this would have been a comfortable buffer but against Gosford it was anything but.

Gosford kicked up the defence and it took a great fake and turnaround jumpshot from Mitch to score the first points in the final quarter. In the meantime we had brought out the great wall again - Arran, Brane and Addam.

Addam worked particularly well on the defensive end, boxing out and often only allowing Gosford one shot and getting the team moving with good outlet passes.

Gosford were quick to get back and we had to work our half court offence but Hills were remarkably patient and worked the ball slowly to set up plays and take good shots.

Early in the final quarter Gosford changed up its defence and tried to get a two-man trap with full court pressure. Fortunately we were able to avoid the trap and made strong plays to the basket through the broken defence.

Brane was quick to get to the low block when the trap was broken and it paid dividends with a foul on a missed shot. A little later Jay made a strong baseline drive and put in a simple basket unopposed.

Next time up Addam found himself with a mouse on his back and a perfect high arc pass from Jay turned into an easy basket.

Gosford scored with foul shots after a strong drive but got jammed up by our bigs who made successive stops before Will got down low and took a great lofted pass from Mitch over his defender for an easy basket.

Piece by piece we were moving away.

When Mitch made a steal and scored on a full length of the court fast-break, he sealed the game.

We came away with a 51-34 win and stamped our authority on the Classic. That said, Gosford were down a key player and are undoubtedly going to take it right to us when we next meet.