Liberty 7th BB Plays Hard

On Thursday night, my 7th grade boys were tested by Huffman and the official. That's right, there was only one referee for 4 games that night and she sucked. She was so wishy-washy. At one time she would call a foul for barely touching someone and then the next time let my center get elbowed in the eye so hard, his contact came out. Needless to say, I thought I was about to get my first Technical Foul as a coach. I was really hot and I let her have it most of the night. She let the problem escalate to the point where the 8th grade teams were basically fighting.

**Disclaimer**

Huffman has always been a problem causing school, all the way back to when I used to play against them in 7th grade. It seemed like everytime we played Huffman, they started fights. Of course, we always were happy to finish it!! Thusday night was no different.

All and all, I thought my 7th graders played really well. The B team had a rough start. Huffmans press proved to be our breaking point. The score was lopsided after the first quarter, 8-0. We changed our press break and began bringing the ball down the court. We were getting good looks at the basket but could not make our shots fall. The game ended with us on the short end by 8 points. The boys played extremely hard, I am proud of them. The A team came out on fire, taking the lead early in the first half. This was the first time that the kids actually took control of the game and slowed its pace down to our level. Huffman tried to employ a half-court press but we prevailed. In the second half of the game, my kids started getting in foul trouble. The referee was again taking the game from me through crappy calls. My point guard was assessed his 4th foul in the 3rd quarter forcing me to take him out. My backup point guard began feeling sick so I had to put my first stringer back in. Early in the 4th quarter he was given his 5th foul and had to sit out. Now we were involved in a close game and I didn't have a person to bring the ball down the court. Huffman took the lead with about 3 minutes left and we could not come back. At the final buzzer, we lost by 5 but I was proud of my kid's efforts. As a 7th grader, it is hard to accept defeat but I was all praise in the locker room!! I was proud of the players who stepped up and played when they were needed.

On Monday, we will travel to Barbers Hill to bring our season to a close. My first game with Liberty was against Barbers Hill in early January. This will give me an opportunity to measure our level of improvement. I am proud of my boys!!