After buying bargains galore at an outlet centre in the morning, and a great pasta lunch en route, we were greeted like rock stars as we arrived at Urbana High School ( http://uhsmd.org/ ) for our eighth game on tour. We are a little worried about how the boys are going to cope when they arrive back home at Sydney Airport with there being no cheerleaders, no marching bands and no adoring fans to greet them as they get off the plane - back to reality!
In the Freshman game our coach, Mr White, commented on how proud he was with the team because of the continued improvement they have shown on tour, even with the narrow loss they had tonight. Liam Brown, being motivated by either his mum and sister watching from the stands or the extra attention he was given from the Urbana female students, scored some valuable points at the low post. However too many turn overs in the fourth quarter swindled our lead. Yu Zhe Zheng commented - "We had a slow start to the game. There was a lack of court awareness early in the first quarter, however we soon got into a rhythm and were able to create our plays and register points. In the end it was a very close game in which a few simple things could have easily turned the game around." The quarter scores were: 10-10, 14-23, 26-28, 37-39.
In the JV game we were blown away by Urbana's outside shooting. Our defence was good, however we could never get in the game with their shooting being so dominant. Lucas Catts commented after the game - "Our coach really inspired us prior to the game to put our best effort in for this game and to bring together everything we have learned so far on tour. Our defence was good which can be put down to our team approach really starting to gel. However Urbana had some outstanding three point shooters who were very consistent - this is where they scored most of their points. Although we unfortunately lost the game, we again learnt so much from the experience." The quarter scores were: 11-19, 17-32, 22-51, 33-68.
In front of a large and vocal home crowd, and with a number of Urbana supporters dressed as Steve Irwin, for the second game in a row the Varsity team got off to a great start. Unfortunately Liam Thomas injured his already bruised elbow and in the 10 minutes he was off Urbana went on a scoring spree and had a big lead at half time, which we couldn't claw back. For our remaining two games we really need all players to fire at the same time and show their true potential as a team. James Begley commented - "We played well in the first quarter but Urbana's intensity and speed really dominated us for the remainder of the game. For our last two games on tour we need to get into a rhythm and play our game." The scores: 12-15, 16-34, 21-48, 28-59.
We are very thankful to the students, staff and parents at Urbana High School for hosting us and making our visit to the school such an enjoyable one. We headed off late in the evening to Wootton High School for our final home stay on tour. With Bullis in the end unable to provide home stays, after five consecutive nights in hotels the boys were really looking forward to getting back to experiencing American family life.
You can find a full set of today’s photos and videos at the following link:
