UM Game #3 Results
UM's 3rd game was against TABC on 10/1/2008. We won 72-58 but the final score is misleading and doesn't reflect how close a game it was. Game stats have been done and can be downloaded here.
TABC was an above average team, with good basic fundamentals but we were clearly the superior team, both in terms of player and team talent. However, after getting a 6 point lead at the end of the 1st quarter, we were unable to break away and TABC stayed close throughout until the last 4 minutes. At times they came as close as 2 points and at most, our largest lead was 6 or 7 points .
The reason they were able to stay close was because we kept fouling their players ... almost on every other possession. In the first 3 quarters, we committed 4, 7 and 8 fouls each quarter! And TABC made a decent 60% of their free throws (15/25) for 15 points just on free throws through 3 quarters. Seeing as they only scored 44 points through 3 quarters, this is very significant cos it means they scored more than 1/3 of their points from the free throw line.
This point was not missed during the game and the coaching staff kept exhorting the players to stop fouling.
Only when the players finally stopped committing fouls in the final quarter, did we finally, steadily pull away. We committed only 2 non-shooting fouls and TABC did not attempt a single free throw in the final quarter. TABC lost their mental focus for just 2 or 3 minutes of the 4th quarter and with just a few steals and fast breaks, we had opened up a double digit lead and pulled away.
This was a very good game and good experience for our players as it was the first "close" game for us (the 1st two games being easy blowouts) and our players responded well by maintaining their mental focus throughout the 40 minutes of the game and were able to make conscious adjustment (by stop fouling). The game also illustrated the importance of mental focus as TABC only lost their focus towards the end for 2 or 3 minutes but those 2 or 3 minutes essentially allowed us to put the game out of their reach.
With this victory, we were assured of being through to the 2nd Round, regardless of whether we won or lost our last game with CSK. Well done, UM.
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