4th Grade

The YBA 4th grade team had an interesting weekend resulting in a 3-0 record and walking off the floor Sunday as Champions of their tournament. It started Saturday by playing Eldorado Hills in a very uneventful game. We have played them before and knew we were a much better team, but we don't ever take a team for granted. Our boys didn't and we won 49-8. It was a very balanced attack as all boys were equal contributors and everyone scored between 4 to 10 points. The emphasis was I don't care if we are down by 20 or up by 20, we play defense the same. We pulled back the offense and did not allow any fast breaks, but I was proud of the intensity and effort put forth.


Game 2 was against Spirit Got Game and we were really looking forward to this one. I have only seen their 5th grade and older teams play, but know they are a very good program and our boys were fired up to play them. We were disappointed to find the team they put on the floor was mostly 2nd and 3rd graders. Much like the first game we won 52-12 and our boys played outstanding defense and again all boys scored between 4 to 10 points apiece. Quite honestly we would rather had 2 tough games and maybe lost than to win games by 40 points. We wanted the challenge, but had not found it...yet...

Sunday afternoon the games were running behind and our boys were restless to play. We faced the Predators for the championship and saw that they beat Xtreme Hoops by 39 on Saturday. It can be difficult to win two games by 40, then play a really solid, intense and aggressive team the next day. We have never faced or seen this Predator team before and they were exactly what we thought they would be. It was intense from the tip-off and we were down 8-4 after the 1st quarter. Some of the boys were getting down, but we stayed focused and worked hard matching their intensity. At half the game was 10-9 them. This was a defensive battle, but it really was not sloppy, it was just two very good defensive teams going hard at each other. We were not as aggressive on the offensive side and some of the guys were not shooting when they had good looks, but we learned a lot about ourselves in this game. At the end of the 3rd quarter it was tied 17-17 and it was clear this was going to come down to the wire. The 4th quarter was again back and forth until we took a 5 point lead down the stretch. Carson March was clutch down the stretch as he ended up making 3 free throws in the 4th and made 6 of 8 for the day. The Predators would not go down easily as they pulled within 2 by making a 3 pointer in the last 30 seconds. We had a few fouls to give and mad it difficult for them to get any rhythm for a last shot. With 4 seconds left they inbounded the ball and launched a running 3 pointed that clanked off the back iron at the buzzer and we won 28-26!

This was a great win for our boys before Reno. Our 2 big men, Dawson Fugate and Ryan Smith played really big for us denying the high post feed and shutting down the inside with great defense and rebounding when we needed it. Carson led all scorers with 13 points, but the anchor of our team is defense and Ryan Haug and Justin Kraft led our team with outstanding man-to-man help and recover defense. Every one of our boys played their hearts out and were a big part of this victory.