Spring Fling

The Wilmington Hurricanes had their first "big" tournament of the spring last weekend in Greensboro. The was an AAU "showcase" tournament where college coaches/scouts have access to look for potential talent. We did see a number of them around, but there didn't seem to be an over abundance of them. Anyway, the tournament was held at the Greensboro Sports Complex which is an amazingly HUGE and BUSY place. There are eight bball courts which are only separated by curtains, literally. That and a minuscule walkway. All of the courts are surrounded by numerous indoor volleyball, hockey and soccer courts. All of the whistles and players/parents moving from court to court, etc., made it very taxing on the brain. At least from a parent's standpoint. As one would expect at such an event, the competition was very stiff. On Saturday we had our first game against a team from West Virginia that jumped to a early 12 point lead on us. The girls settled down, however, and came back to take it to the wire. Trailing by two points with about 15 seconds left, B got the ball on the inbounds and drove full court for a short jumper to send the game into the first overtime. Yeah, the first. We finally prevailed after three overtimes! A great game and a great win. The problem with three OT's is that tournaments are played on a tight schedule and we had just played our way into the start time for our next game. A three overtime game and playing back to back? What a way to kickoff the weekend. Needless to say, the girls eventually ran out of gas in the second game and wound up dropping a close contest to the Lady Phoenix. We all did have enough energy left for an enjoyable team dinner at Texas Roadhouse before hitting the hay at the motel. Sunday was an afternoon game against Phoenix South. It seemed that half of the teams there were some sort of Phoenix. The girls played hard, but were well over matched. Instead of discussing the final score, I would prefer to leave it with "that which does not kill you will make you strong". In the end, it was a good trip and B played well overall with her best effort being 16 points or so in the first game. It was good experience for her both from the court time as well as seeing what a showcase level tournament is like.