A Rough Weekend!!

Hey everybody!! I know many of you are wondering how my games went this past weekend so here it goes. Saturday we played a team called Catz who is the best team in our league. It was a rough game from the tip. We immediately started the game down by 6 points and the lead only expanded tremendously lol I was doubled team from the moment our post tried to inbound the ball to me and was heavily guarded once I received the ball. The other team would sub in and out new players to pressure me the entire game. It was very physically draining and frustrating at the same time because I am literally the only person on my team who can handle that kind of defensive pressure and I was expected to do that the entire game. Catz defense forced us into committing turnovers well above our average, forced us into taking bad shots or simply missing easy ones. By half time we were down by 20 points and my team could not hang as a whole with Catz. They have 4 Professional athletes on their team whom each are getting paid very good money and two of them are 6'3 post players from Russia. My team on the other hand, has two Professional players and no true post player. We have three girls on my team who are 6'0 and two of those girls should be 3/4 players and they are expected to guard these legit 6'3 dominate post players but in reality they are no match for the Catz posts. By the time the game was over our fans had witnessed our desperate need for a post and the difference between the top team in our league compared to the bottom. It was completely embarrassing and frustrating to feel as if there was nothing I could have done to change the outcome of them game. The final score was 94-50 (which I am dreading to share lol) I was the leading scorer for my team with only 10 points and a bad shooting percentage. I also finished with 6 assists and 4 steals. On the bright side, I was in the local newspaper the following day and the caption under my picture stated, 'Amanda DeCoud was the only highlight for HoNsU' (Something along those lines)

Unfortunately, our second game which was on Sunday did not go any better. We traveled three hours to Helsinki to play Espoo. My team played very well in the first half with exception of a couple minutes during the half. Second half rolled around and all of a sudden we were down by 20 points. It was literally two minutes before the lead expanded like that. As soon as that happened we were done. Our shots were not falling, again their post took over and started scoring at will, my teammates started putting their heads down and bam just like that we had another 40 point lost. The final score was 87-44 and I personally felt emotionally drained because again, I felt as if there was nothing I could have done to change the outcome. My final stats included a lousy 6 points and 1 assist but an impressive 6 steals. As terrible as those games went and felt I am not letting that affect my hunger for personal improvement nor am I allowing those games define my team. I do believe we will get better and that when we play these teams again they will not beat us like that again. I also wanted to inform you that an American post player is coming down here for a try out on Thursday. So, if we like her game then she will help us, be the team we should be.

After those two game I was a little bummed because my scoring went down but I realized I should not be because at this point in league, I am leading the league in steals per game and am tied for second with assists per game.

Anyways, I hope California is treating you all well and I am sure you all are getting excited to vote in the Presidential election. I miss you and God Bless America!