This is one of the many quotes from Coach Borelli. I think we all kept this in the back of our minds going into the Fairchester Championship game Friday night. Let me tell you, even though we ended up winning by 20 points, it certainly didn't feel like it. Masters, NY played us to the very end like they were only down by 1 point. Every second of the game was intense and filled with emotions from both teams.
Coming off the devastating lose from Christian Heritage in the CISAC tournament, we had to somehow forget about it and move on because we have had two more tournaments to play. This comes to show that winning isn't everything, and the best lessons come from tough losses. In the regular season, we beat Christian Heritage by 41 points; it was one of our best wins collectively as a team. Obviously, Christian Heritage would come back with a vengeance, but I think we were shocked by their overall play the second time around. They basically just outplayed us, plan and simple. We won't get that game back, but what we took from the loss led us to believe that we would capture the Fairchester Championship.
In the opening round, we played Holy Child. We beat them, and then played King in the second round. King always poses a threat on every team they play because they do not become complacent when they are losing. They are known for cutting down large deficits in a matter of just a couple of minutes. We were able to come out victorious and had one day to prepare for Masters on Friday.
Friday came and our juices were pumping. Before the game, we all were just hanging out in the locker room. Usually what happens in the locker room stays in the locker room, but I'll let you know that we dance to numerous songs before game time. Everyone is singing; everyone is just having a really good time. Then 5 minutes before we have to go shoot around on the court, we turn the music off and get focused.
So it was the tip-off of the Fairchester Championship; I won it and we were off to the races. Masters played a mixture of a triangle-and-two and a box-and-one throughout the majority of the game. This left openings for other girls on the team to get their offensive games going and that is just what they did. Our defense was a little questionable at times because we kept letting their guards penetrate wide open seams to the basket. Fortunately, they missed a bunch of lay-ups otherwise there were times they could have taken the lead. But we stayed aggressive and tried to battle with them on the boards. I think we had a double digit lead on them, but it was dwindling. I was forced to take a seat with about 9:00 minutes to go in the second half with 4 fouls. The girls stayed in it and tried not to let the large crowd affect them. I always feel like I let my girls down when I get into foul trouble, whether they are good call or bad calls, I am going to be on the bench. Although I worry, they seem to do just fine without me.
Down the stretch in the last couple minutes of the game, Krystina Reynolds, Rachel Plotke, and Kelsey McCray came up big for us. Bianca Tomassini kept battling underneath trying to get her hand on every rebound. And the I have to credit Jaime Charles and Ariana Martone for coming off the bench and producing hard-working minutes. It was impressive.
As I dribbled out the last seconds of the basketball game, I could not contain my smile. All my years on the varsity level and we always came up short in the Fairchester Tournament, but not this year! There were many factors that went into that win.
Although most of us are on a "championship high", we have to tuck away this memory and shift our focus to the New England Tournament. This is what I live for. to be back-to-back New England Champions would be a dream come true.
Thank you to Coach Borelli for coaching us to our first ever Fairchester title. You are the greatest! "It's not what we do...it's how we do it!"
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