8th Grade Black-January 15-16

The team got through the always-interesting first tournament of the season with a reasonable 2-1 record. Overall, the coaches were pleased with the results. The team played very good defense in 10 of the 12 quarters. We held Natomas to 0 points in the 3rd quarter, the Wildcats to 2 points in the 3rd, and the Yellow Jackets to 4 in the 1st. No team scored more than 14 points by halftime. That shows impressive hustle and hard work! In almost all cases, the players worked hard while they were on the court. Please congratulate your sons on that.

The execution and results on offense were good in spots, but not as good as on defense. That isn't surprising this early in the season. Many of the mistakes came from a young man trying to do too much. Those mistakes are much easier for the coaches to accept than those that result from lack of effort. As the players become more comfortable with the offenses and with each other, we believe they will make better reads on their cuts, passes, and shots.

YBA 26, Yellow Jackets 7th 49
The Dawgs started strong in this game and forced several hurried shots and a few airballs. Unfortunately, we were also thrown off by the Jackets' aggressive defense and missed several chances to extend our early lead. Despite many turnovers, YBA trailed by only 4 at halftime, 14-10. Early in the 2nd half, more Dawg turnovers and missed shots led to some easy baskets for the opposition. Once the team fell behind, there was a noticeable drop-off in our energy and intensity. This was really the only disappointing part of the weekend. It allowed the Jackets to get into a groove on offense and extend their lead. The coaches hope the team learned something about patience and staying together. Connor Milnes led the way with 8 points. Jackson Sterling and Grady Collins had 4 each. The two newcomers also contributed, with Bret Lynch handing out 2 assists and Bryce Crouch garnering 4 rebounds and 2 steals to lead the team in those categories.

YBA 38, Natomas Spartans 9th 20
After a long break to consider our mistakes, the team came out hungry to battle against the older Natomas team. The Dawgs played great perimeter defense, helped in the lane, and pursued rebounds which limited the Spartans to only 11 points after 3 quarters. Our execution and shot selection also improved, which resulted in 34 points by the end of the 3rd quarter. Jackson had 10 points, followed by Bret with 7 and Mitchell Holt with 5. Mitch also blocked 3 shots to help close down the lane. Nicholas Clough and Grady notched 2 assists apiece.

YBA 40, Franklin Wildcats 9th 15
The Dawgs played another strong game in the 3rd place matchup on Sunday. Our defensive pressure was too much for the Franklin freshmen, and the team ran out to a 19-4 lead after one quarter. Jackson was a force on the ball with 8 steals, several of which resulted in easy buckets. Nicholas, still getting into the swing of things after missing 2 months with a knee injury, played a strong game to total 7 points and 5 boards. Jared Flowers also had 7. Connor and Mitch each hustled for 4 offensive rebounds. Colin Hawkins and Connor had some strong moves inside but couldn't quite finish. We're sure they will score more often than not off such moves as the season progresses. Bryce impressed throughout with his energy and intensity, especially since he also played in all 3 games for the blue team! Colin was very consistent throughout the weekend.

Best Offensive Player: Jackson Sterling

Best Defensive Player: The entire team
Best Hustle: Bryce Crouch
Best Attitude: Grady Collins

8th Grade Blue-January 15-16

The 8th Grade DAWGS started the season off against the Rocktown Ballers. It was very competitive game with the lead exchanging hands many times. Rocktown had a big size advantage on the boards but we battled with them the whole game. We fell behind in the fourth quarter and staged a late comeback but ran out of time. We lost 50-46. Max O’Rourke carried the offense against the Ballers and Bryce Crouch cleaned up the boards for us all game. The 2nd game against the Reno Ballers was very competitive also. The game went back and forth with the DAWGS taking a lead at the end of the fourth quarter, but the Baller were able to tie the score to send the game into overtime. Overtime went back and forth but the Ballers came out on top with a 46-44 win. Vance Gregg did a great job on the defensive side of the court, Amran Bisla had good game in the paint, and Tanner Dodson provided an offensive punch for the DAWGS. Sunday morning it took awhile for the DAWGS to warm up which put us in a hole to start the game. We battled back and forth but we could not get the “mojo” going and lost to the Redbirds 46-37. Vinny Frizzi and Josh Finkelstein provided a strong offensive punch for us through out the game to keep the score close. Overall it was a good first weekend and the coaches are looking to build on it for the next tournament.

7th Grade Blue-January 15-16

The 7th grade kicked off the second straight weekend of tournament play with games against the Reno Ballers, J-Ballers, and EDH. The guys were short handed with only six players, but still managed to make it to the championship game. Both Mike Dowen and Cole Kelley suffered injuries, but played their hearts out. Despite a bloody lip Cole Kelley managed to enter back into the game and finish strong. Overall, it was a great weekend despite being short handed and losing to EDH in the championship game.

6th Grade Blue

This weekend was the season opener for the YBA blue 6th graders. They had a close call in every game. Game 1 we faced the Reno ballers and they had a dominant big, but we played to 100 percent on both defense and offense to win by 3. Since we played back to back we were a bit tired for second game. We were down by 11 in the start of the fourth climbed back to tie but lost by a bucket to the rocktown ballers in OT. The boys played their guts out. We took our frustrations out on folsom fury to win by 25 and also to win the tournament. We were proud of the boy's effort.


Game 1: Offensive player: Brendyn Ikeda, Defensive player: Taylor Itner, Best Hustle: Kazik Lewendowski, Best Attitude: Taylor Ittner.

Game 2: Offensive Player: Blake Stelzer, Def. Player: Tommy Edwards, Best Hustle: Kazik Lewandowski, Best Attitude: Taylor Ittner

Game 3: Offensive Player: Jalen Stringer, Def-Taylor Ittner, Best Hustle Everett Libolt, Best Attitude Taylor Ittner.



Coach Lars and Coach Glen

4th Grade-January 15-16

It was an exciting weekend of basketball for the 4th grade DAWGS team playing in the 5th grade boy’s white division. They did a great job controlling the ball under pressure and running the offense as a team. They won their first game against Del Oro (35 to 24) and met steeper competition in the next two games losing to the Reno Ballers (35 to 30) and CJBA (31 to 21). The kids did a great job maintaining their composure under pressure against the much larger players. Especially #55 on CJBA who looked like a young man next to our kids! Special recognition for this week’s tournaments was Chase for best offense, Nathan for best attitude, Julian for best defense and Zach for best hustle. Go DAWGS!