Escazu 63 Sanatura 94

It was an oddly scheduled game game. Thursday night instead of a Friday or Saturday night. NBA Finals on TV and we have two starters playing with the national team in Puerto Rico. We've had so many postponed games lately, that we decided we wanted to get back on the court and avoid a backlog in the schedule later on. Escazu has a young team with a couple of veterans thrown in; our last game had been a lot closer than what the records or the score would suggest.



The first quarter was very tight as our turnovers, poor free throw shooting and lethargic defense made it a much closer game than it should have been. We looked a step slow the entire first quarter. Escazu got a gritty performance from several players fighting for rebounds and getting to the basket.

One scary incident happened in the second quarter. Dominican Starlyn Mendez collapsed to the ground untouched on a fast break; looked like he fainted. The trainers from both teams immediately went to his side; he was down for a good while before getting taken off the court. The speculation was that he hadn't eaten all day and that his blood sugar went low. He looked responsive after the game.

We finally found our game at the end of the second quarter. It all begins with defensive intensity. As we turned up the pressure, we got out in the open court. We also showed much better execution on offense; Escazu played a 2-3 zone the entire game and we finally started getting the shots we wanted.

Game Notes

• Carlos Melendez celebrated his birthday with a victory last night. With Chava in Puerto Rico, Carlos was able to see extended action in guiding the team to a win. 
• John Chappell made his debut last night. He gave us a good interior presence.