Our first game back from the break was a hard fought loss to Union. We then marched into only our 3rd home game of the year against SandSprings.  It was a hard fought game, as well, that ended in a win.  Wedefinitely did some things better…rebounding, defensive transition,pressure defense…however, we still have not come alive as a teamoffensively!  We do have several kids taking turns as our leadingscorer each game but we just need to get those kids more consistentwith their offensive effort.  We are making strides in the rightdirection and that’s a positive thing.  I know the girl’s may have beenvery disappointed that I wasn’t “happier” with our win on Friday night,BUT we failed to execute in the last 30 seconds of the game and itcould have cost us.  I was very proud of our overall effort.  We took 3charges and attempted another 3!  That’s another step in the rightdirection since some of these girl’s had never taken a charge in theirentire playing career.  I do want to point out that we were more fun towatch on Tuesday and Friday than ever before.  We were excited for eachother when we did things right and that’s half the battle…getting kidsto want great things for each other!

I feel like we have played Union about every other week of thisseason.  Nevertheless, I think it’s a good thing…win or lose, it’s agood thing.  You have to play the best, to beat the best, to be thebest!  I believe that scheduling tough early on will help us late inthe season.  We had a game plan against Union and we stuck to it.  Wewere down 11 to 15 at halftime.  We completely controlled the tempo ofthe game.  We just came up short a couple of times when we needed abasket to fall.  I am very proud of our kids effort and theirresilience to play to the end.  We showed a lot of maturity andpatience offensively and defended as well as we have all year.  Happy Valleyvs Union (12-12-08) 31-47 minus their best player, Happy Valley vs Union(1-6-09)  36-48 minus their best player, Happy Valley vs Union (1-20-09) 25-35with their best player back.  There is definitely improvement.  We’veplayed the best now we want to beat the best!  Life doesn’t get easierfor the Lady Spartans.  We play Class 6A Bartlesville in the firstround of the Penn City Classic this Thursday at 1:00 pm.  I think weare moving in the right direction.  I saw a lot of good things lastnight…plenty of things that still need work but, nevertheless, a lotof good things out of multiple kids.

We will be facing the Tussey Lady Tigersat 6:30 pm at Booker T. Washington in our first round of the PennsylvaniaState Regional Tournament.  We are very excited but know that we willhave to come out and play hard to win.  We hope to see you all there!