After five days off, we practiced again and prepared for a game against one of the tougher opponents that we will face during the season. Our play in the game was much improved from our first game, and the game was a fairly well-played, competitive freshmen game. Our opponent was well-coached and prepared, and a couple dumb breakdowns (talking on screens, boxing out on free throws, making free throws) came back to hurt us. We lost 48-44. We actually had the best official that I’ve ever had at the freshmen level, though his partner was doing his first game and didn’t know the rules. For the entire game, we were one or two plays away, but every time we made a big shot, they answered or we committed a foul to put them on the line and they took advantage. For the second game of the year with fewer than 10 practices, I was pretty happy with the way that we played and competed. […]