DOUBLE WHAMMIE!

As if winning the conference title was not enough, the Golden Eagles decided to go for the double whammie--winning both the conference title and the tournament championship. This was a dream they had from the first day they stepped on the court in August. It is a testament to these young ladies that dreams do come true. This was the best part for me--watching them create their dreams.

The conference tournament started on Monday with a game against Salem University who had not won a game all season. This was tough for the five players from Salem who had the character to make it through the season. Imagine showing up after being beaten up all year for the final game against the number one seed. For our part, we had to focus on being our best for the play-offs. While we didn't want to run up the score against Salem, neither did we want to become soft and forget who we were. Even though we didn't press one possession and played all 12 of our players in double-digit minutes, limiting our starters to an average of 16 minutes, we still beat them by a score of 127-25. While I understand the challenge the players for Salem had, we also had the challenge of playing hard and keeping the game in perspective. For our part, we never once laughed or displayed any type of jest at the Salem players.

On Wednesday, we were paired against our rival, WV State. I knew this was going to be a difficult task because we had defeated them on Saturday by a score of 87-54 where we made 14 of 21 three point attempts for a shocking 66.7% from the three point line. Getting our players to think that the WV State game was going to be a challenge was my biggest concern. It is difficult to get players to be prepared for an opponent after defeating them so easily, yet I knew from 20 years of coaching experience that this was going to be a tough one.

The Yellow Jackets were ready to play us and they gave us all we could handle. We bumbled and fumbled the ball, passed it directly into their hands and watched as they sailed down the court for fast break lay-ups. We were not mentally there. As we called timeouts and tried to get the players to reel their minds back to the game, I felt almost hopeless because their minds were not in the Civic Center. I do not know how we won that game. In reality we should not have won that game, yet we found a way. With Ali Tobias on the free throw line and Jihan and Katy singing to her, she sank her 1-in-1 to help us to a 53-52 victory.

On Friday, we faced the University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown. I was worried that we would not be able to regain our confidence after the WV State game. We were lost and worried. I've seen teams tank after a game like that. Yet, this team never dies. They just find a new way to recover. We spent some time with them revisiting why we were a good team. We did a little team bonding exercise where the players reminded each other of our strengths. I could feel the shift in energy after we had completed the exercise. It was just enough to change our focus and get us back on track.

We were able to outlast UPJ by a score of 73-56 in the final few minutes of the contest despite injuries to Jihan and Katy. They were so tough playing through injuries, never giving in to excuses. This is what being a Golden Eagle is all about--mental toughness!

In the championship game against West Liberty, it was gut check time. The players from West Liberty played with such heart and determination. They came out and nailed seven three pointers on us before we even had time to register them. We were down 11 points and things were not looking pretty, but we didn't give up. We just keep playing hard. I collected a technical foul for clapping my hands once. No, I didn't say anything--just clapped my hands. Yet, thank goodness for the technical foul. It pumped us up. It got us out of our slump and pushed us toward focusing our energies on playing smarter and harder.

We only had the lead two times in the game. Early in the game with the score 4-2 and then at the 7:22 mark when we went up by 1 point. Then we were not ahead again until there was only 32 seconds remaining. We nailed six free throws in a row and stopped them scoring to end the game. WOW! This was a testament to believing in a dream so much that circumstances and events did not deter the dream.

I am convinced this team has won 25 games from the center of their heart. They have won because they believed in dreams and wouldn't let those dreams die. I have been impressed with their desire and their heart.

TO THE GOLDEN EAGLES I SAY: IHHOAGE!