A Tale of Two Halves

January 17th, 2022

Mindset

Trust

Mindset

Confidence

Attitude

The Lady Vikes are off to an impressive start. As of today they stand at 8-1, with 8 straight wins. None was as impressive as Saturday’s win over Group 4 school, Bridgewater Raritan. Though the victory was impressive in a number of ways, what caught our attention was a subtle shift in mentality. We hope they noticed it because it signaled a turning point for this group of players.

Beginning last spring, through the summer and fall and into the season the team has been working on how to compete as an undersized team, looking to play to their strengths, matching physicality when necessary and playing with a purpose. In AAU, summer league and fall league games we battled to neutralize taller teams and became a decent man to man defensive team. There were some games when we matched a bigger team’s physicality, although we occasionally struggled with this. All in all the players made progress. We continued to struggle however, in one area. If we fell behind by double digits we would fall into panic mode – racing up and down the court as fast as possible, trying to reduce a double-digit lead in 3 or 4 possessions. In short, we played harder but not smarter – with less structure rather than more structure. We seldom reduced the deficit and often found ourselves in a bigger hole.

Against Bridgewater Raritan the first half was hard to watch. Although less skilled, Bridgewater used their size advantage to create a double-digit lead. Our response was to play harder and faster. We raced up and down the court often taking hurried shots with a lack of court balance. At the half we were lucky to be down only 8 points. Fortunately, Bridgewater did not convert on some easy scoring opportunities or the deficit would have been greater.

To start the second half Voorhees came out in a man-to-man defense and changed the tempo of the game. Fueled by the defensive intensity the Lady Vikes outscored Bridgewater 19 -2 in the third quarter. The defense set the tone but we executed the offense with more focus and purpose. We found the open man and improved our shot selection. It was a complete turnaround from our first half performance. The subtle shift in mentality was playing not only hard but with focus and purpose. Where it looked and felt like panic in the first half it looked and felt like determination in the second half. The girls took it one possession at a time and turned the game around.

It's important to internalize the lesson. There will be a time when the shots don’t drop and we fall behind. If that happens, we have to stay together, play together and take it one focused possession at a time. Research supports their approach. Though a popular concept, GRIT alone doesn’t always bring success. Studies of performance show that the effort has to be focused – you have to play with a purpose.

Unlike some AAU teams where every game seems to be a showcase for individual talent, high school basketball is typically more team oriented. Every successful team needs the player(s) who do the little things – making the right pass, playing defense, diving for loose balls and competing on every play. There was no shortage of heroes in Saturday’s game. Several of them did not score a lot of points. They did their job, as Bill Belichick would say. The difference in that game was second half defense – both an individual and team effort. You don’t see a lot of headlines recognizing defense but it was defense that led to the headline “Voorhees over Bridgewater Raritan”.

Bob Peterman