What’s up basketball world, I am back with entry 35. Monday I went to work out with a few of the players from St. Joes. We first did a few ball handling drills to warm up. Afterwards all we did was put up a lot of jump shots from off the dribble and stationary, which I always need.
Tuesday after school I went to work out with a few kids from Gill St Bernard’s, while there we didn’t do a lot skill work which is common but we did play a lot of 5 on 5 which was fun! When the games were done I got up a few shots before we had to leave to go to my game at Hoop Heaven. We got to the game late and when we walked in the gym and were down by 30 points. Therefore my dad told me that I needed to play because they had me on the roster for these situations. That was one of the most tiring games I ever played in. For 20 minutes I had to do everything from dribble, score break the pressure, and also calming the team down. Unfortunately we ended up losing by 8 but I think if it wasn’t running clock we may have won. I wanted to beat that team for the kids of Metuchen. The opposing team was pressing and completing embarrassing the Metuchen group before I arrived.. Next time I’m going to arrive at the beginning and the outcome will be different. My dad said I had 35 points in 15 minutes (running clock) and although they were 7th and 8th graders I am used to being the least strongest kid on the court and youngest not the biggest and strongest. I probably was not the oldest since I am only 14 and in the 8th grade.
Thursday I had practice with the Team Final 15’s. At the beginning we did a few drills with the 16’s and after we just reviewed our plays and sets. The practice ended up being only about an hour and thirty minutes since we had a tournament coming up that weekend in Maryland.
Saturday we woke up at 6 AM because we had to drive all the way to Maryland and my game was at 11. When we finally got there, my whole body was tight and I had to really stretch before the game. The first team we played was NJ Got Game and we ended up only beating them by 10. We should have blown them out but we had a really slow start which kept the game close. Our next game we played King Street Kings. They were really never in the game and we won by about 30 points.
Sunday I had to wake up at 6 again because we had an 8 o clock game against the All Ohio Red. We started out the game blowing them out and going up by 18 points but in the second half we were flat and they ended up tying the game and sending it into overtime. This game was crazy because I didn’t get a chance to shoot the ball until there were 10 seconds to go in overtime and made the wide open jump shot to put us up by 2 with 6 seconds to go, and we end up with a close win. Finally it’s the championship game against Boo Williams. This game was also never close and we got the easy 25 point win. After our game we stayed and watched the 16u beat Triple Threat to win the 16u championship. Next week I have another tournament coming up so I will be telling you all how that goes.
This is Tyus Battle signing out Peace.
