Uptempo Hoops vs. The Thunder scrimmage

Uptempo Hoops hosts The Thunder in a scrimmage

What an exciting game to watch.  Every player on the court did well and we were proud to host The Thunder in a scrimmage.  Scrimmages are set up to help improve players without the pressure of a tournament.  Players still play hard and it's a good time to fine tune some skills.  The Thunder arrived, many players obviously built bigger and taller.  Players on The Thunder were older and have more AAU experience than our young team.  The scrimmage was held on a cool Friday evening during one of Uptempo Hoops practices in Alvarado Middle School gym.

The Thunder and Uptempo Hoops match up

The game begun and the action was quick.  You can see the nervousness and a little apprehension in our players.  It was very fast paced.  The score leaders changed many times, even the ball became dizzy with changing hands.  There were too many amazing shots to name.  Our boys were learning quickly and what seemed like apprehension melted into confidence.  This was the type of AAU game our 7th grade boys were hoping to face.  This is probably the first true challenge our boys have faced this season. 

4th Grade Team watches scrimmage

Most of the ooh's and ah's came from the young 4th grade team which watched in admiration.  The young players were watching and learning.  The older players did not disappoint.  The 4th grade team may have been cheering their own, but were learning from both teams.  The simple things they were taught, which sometimes they forget, they were able to see in action and see why they are taught those things.  The Thunder did very well at "vocalizing" and "calling out".  There was very good on court communication.  Being more experienced as a team, older, and AAU veterans, they brought a lot of value to both our 7th grade team and our 4th grade team.  Later that evening, my son, a player on the 4th grade team couldn't stop talking and re-enacting the moves of his older UH brothers.  By now, he's learned all the 7th graders' names and after last night, has learned their key moves.  In the car, all I heard was "mommy did you see so and so?"  and "so and so did this move....". 

The first basket was by UHs' N. Conner. From there, it was hard to keep track of who scored what.  It went so fast with great

moments like 2 steals by A. Carter and high flying rebounding by L. Murphy.  B. Gisler quickly learned how to aggressively block out and score from within the paint.  Other players who are usually unchallenged down the court, were strongly defended and they adapted well.  There was great ball handling by M. McKinney and R. Parilla, soaring outside shots by T. Ambulkar, and strong assists by K. Ayson.  Second chance points came from rebounding by D. Lee and J. Ignacio had fantastic drives to the key before dishing out the ball.  Even our latest addition, E. Chan had admirable moves and was productive in his first game with UH. 

It was a very exciting game from start to finish. The players did not disappoint.  UH was proud to host a team who plays this well.  As there are more games and more scrimmages, our young 7th grade team will get better and better.  Match ups between this Thunder team and UH 7th grade will continue to be just as exciting as the first.  Though there were many lead changes and the score always stayed close, often within 1 point, the final score was 38-41 with The Thunder winning this match up.  Thank you to The Thunder for the opportunity and as always, a great game played by our 7th grade boys team.  This team is full of true talent and they are exciting to watch.  It was a pleasure to be courtside for this game and to be able to capture how well the UH players did.