Full Court Press

The finer points of Basketball have always been a mystery to me. Pick & Roll? Sounds like a lunch special, and not a very good one. In spite of this, I have noticed one aspect of the game this season- the incredible effectiveness of the full court press. Earlier in the season, I noted how the varsity boys almost fell victim to Scranton's use of the tactic, Thursday night saw both teams use it to turn the freshman game.
In the first quarter, Hazleton seemed to be able to score at will, penetrating the Royal defense consistently for easy lay-ups. HR employed the press, which seemed to disrupt the flow for the Cougars, and turned the momentum of the game in favor of the Royals. HR took over the lead and carried it through most of the game, even after an injury took Christian Choman out for the night. Your Royals lead fluctuated between 5 and 7 points for most of the second half, and as time wound down, confidence was building among the faithful.
Once again. the full court press turned the game. Hazleton pressed in the final minutes, battling back to tie, then eventually take a slim lead. Time ticked away, the Royals had to resort to fouling the Cougars to try to win posession, but in the end Hazleton emerged with a 4 point victory.
Give credit to Hazleton- from what I can recall (from my playing days), the full court press takes a lot of effort to run. To say that they had a short bench is an understatement- I think there were 2 subs. Late in this game, they had to be fatigued, yet they summoned the energy to take control when they needed to.
Congratulations to the Freshmen Royals as well- After losing to this Hazleton team earlier in the year, they knew that they had to play well to stay in this game. A break or two goes HR's way and this game could have been very different.

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