DAILY DIARY: Day Five had Ups and Downs

The Highs and Lows of Hoops

Dear Hoopla,

The late writer, Aaron Hill, once penned the words, “As lively as a smiling day.” Ours started off that way. But we ran out of grins too soon.

We had a good sleep before our shoot around at 11:10am. Our pre-game practice went well, though it seemed like the 30 minutes on the court flew by.

The weather felt significantly cooler than it was yesterday, which made us miss home more than we already did. Afterwards we came back to the hotel to clean up to go to lunch.

Vice President Phipps gave us a great meal

Our team went to the Boathouse for lunch, which is the best restaurant in the city. The food was amazing, and it was courtesy of VP Terry Phipps. We were all very, very grateful.

We took some cool pictures next to the lake, as they had an outside eating area right on the water. The weather kept us indoors, but we could view the lake from our seats. It was a great time and was a very thoughtful gesture.

After lunch it was back to the hotel to prepare for our game. We left the at 3:45 and arrived at the Orthopaedic Capital Center prior to the Emmanuel College and Bethel College game at 4pm (CST).

Jirah Rodriguez, Sierra Hankins, Gabby Bruner, and I all went to receive treatment from Grace College’s athletic trainer, Kevin Schwartz. By the way, he is a very good host trainer for the tournament. He showed Gabby and me some really good stretches to help us loosen up before the game.

Hoops, when I say he showed us some helpful ways to stretch and warm-up, I wasn’t “pulling your leg!” Ha!

Tournament Chaplain gave us a good word

At half time of the game before ours we had a team devotion with Shanna Crossley, with just our team. She brought a really good word telling us how we are all different parts in the body of Christ. She told us how bad it is to compare ourselves to others, in all areas of life, but in the area of basketball as well.

She told us how important it is not to look at someone else on our team and say, "Oh I wish I could do that" or "I wish I had her talent." It takes everyone on the team to make up the team. If you had a team full of point guards that could only dribble without any posts, it would be hard to win any games. Every part of the body, of the team, is important.

I thought this was a really good and appropriate word for our team. It was an honor to be able to have her come and talk to our team.

Wesleyan gave us a setback we didn't like

Then it was game time. As you probably already know we didn't really like the outcome. At all. The first half, for some reason, we just didn't play with “heart” at all. I don’t know why.

Yesterday we played “SAGU basketball.” Today I don't know what kind of basketball we played. It definitely was not ‘our game.’

They (Roberts Wesleyan) came out and hit a few quick shots at the beginning and we missed a few, and we just weren’t able bounce back. I think we went 0-11 from behind the 3-point arc in the first half, which is not normal for us.

In the locker room at halftime we got a reprimanding from our captains, and then our coaches too. Before the coaches came in – they always give us a few minutes to unwind amongst ourselves - Stephanie Hawkins and Chelsea Jones let loose. They told us that we needed to start working hard, that there was no excuse for the way were playing. They didn't point fingers as though they were perfect, but did it in a way that really helped us.

The whole game was tough for us. Roberts was a good team. But the second half we actually came out and played much better, outscoring them by 10 points. We were ready to play in the second half, though our effort wasn't enough to dig us out of the hole we were in.

It was a rough end to the day.

After the game, the seniors and Gabby went to eat with our families at Applebee's, while the team went to McDonald's. We all met back up at the hotel and are ready to hit the hay for the night.

Saturday will give us one more chance to play and win

I will tell you this, Hoopsie. We will definitely come ready tomorrow and take 3rd place. We play Emmanuel College tomorrow at 2 o’clock (CST). For four of us, this will end our collegiate careers at Southwestern. After we take care of business tomorrow we are hitting the road to come back to Texas.

We are scheduled to leave for a meal at 11am on Saturday. Then we’ll check out of our hotel in Warsaw.

We miss you and all of the guys on campus! We are ready to come back home!

One last game, Hoopla, and then we’re on the road again!

Adios,

Lamb Chop (Rachel Harris)