HSPN 3A Finals

CHEN Bravehearts 41 New Life Storm 36

The Storm season drew to a close with a 41-36 loss to the Bravehearts of the Christian Home Educators Network of Maryland in the finals of the 3A bracket at the HSPN East Coast Tournament. This game was a defensive struggle, with both teams playing with a lot of intensity and forcing turnovers. The NCAA arena seemed to throw off the 3-point shooting the Storm relies on, as they went only 1-19 from the arc on the game. The Bravehearts pulled out front early, going ahead by as much as 17-8 in the second quarter. The Storm refused to wilt and battled back to within 21-18 at the half. The second half remained close and the Storm increased the defensive pressure and created turnovers. Fast break baskets by Georgia and Hannah Grace tied the game at 26. A rebound basket by Georgia and 2 inside buckets by Shelby kept the Storm neck-and-neck with the Bravehearts in the 4th quarter. Great defense and tremendous effort kept the Storm in the game to the end and gave opportunities to win, but we were never able to get that one big play to grab the lead. Hannah Grace and Georgia led the scoring for the Storm with 9 and 8 points, respectively. Anna pulled down 11 rebounds and Rebecca dished out 5 assists.

The tournament was a great week of basketball and a lot of fun. All 10 girls had moments to shine here. Rebecca and Hannah Grace were voted to the first-team All-Tournament team and Anna was voted to the second team All-Tournament team.

Hannah Wins!

Congratulations to Hannah for winning the 15U 3-point contest at the HSPN Tournament. Georgia finished in 2nd place to complete a Storm sweep.

HSPN Girls 3-pt Contest

Rebecca, Hannah, and Georgia advance to the finals! Congrats to Rebecca for making the finals of the 19U girls 3-pt contest, and to Hannah and Georgia for making the finals of the 15U girls 3-pt contest.

HSPN Division 3A Semi-Finals

New Life Storm 62 Binghamton Blaze 36

The NLC Storm played their way into the 3A championship game with a blowout victory over the Binghamton (NY) Blaze 62-36. Unlike their first 3 games of the tournament, the Storm got off to a slow start, falling behind 8-3. Two 3's by Rebecca helped steady the Storm and a 3 by Georgia put them ahead 12-10 before the Blaze scored to tie the game at 12-12 at the end of the quarter. Hannah Grace began the second quarter with a steal and layup, then followed with another breakaway off of a defensive rebound outlet from Daryl to start a Storm rally. Jump shots by Shelby and Katie continued the rally and the Storm raced to a 32-20 halftime lead. In the second half the Storm continued to pour it on, scoring the first 8 points of the quarter to open up a 20-point lead. The Blaze then made a run to cut the lead back to 12, but the Storm stopped the run and pulled away over the last 10 minutes of the game. Rebecca scored 19 (including 4-6 from 3-pt range) and Hannah Grace had 15 to lead the Storm and Daryl pulled down 14 rebounds.

The Storm will face the Bravehearts of Baltimore, MD for the 3A title at 6:00 tomorrow. The game will be held in the 9000-seat Vines Center arena where the Liberty University Flames play.

HSPN Pool Play Game #3

New Life Storm 49 Greenville Hurricanes 41

The NLC Storm finished tournament pool play on a high note, beating the Hurricanes of Greenville, SC by a score of 49-41. The Storm again jumped out to a first period lead and looked ready to pull away, but turnovers and a failure to stop the Hurricanes dribble penetration allowed the Hurricanes to pull within 25-22 at the half. A switch to a zone defense in the 3rd quarter gave the Storm the momentum, as they put the clamps on and gave up only 3 points in the quarter and pulled out to an 11 point lead. Turnovers again were a problem, preventing the Storm from pulling away and allowing the Hurricanes to mount a 4th quarter comeback. They closed within 2 points and had the ball with one minute remaining, but Rebecca got a steal and fed Daryl on the break, where she was fouled. Daryl hit both FTs to make it a 2-possession game. The Storm kept the Hurricanes from scoring again and hit FTs in the last minute to ice the game. The Hurricanes played a very physical game, but the Storm showed the toughness to overcome that and secure the win. Hannah Grace led the Storm with 17 points, and Rebecca had 12. Daryl and Anna had 8 rebounds to lead the team, while Shelby pulled down 7.

With pool play complete, the teams have been reseeded into 4 divisions (1A through 4A). The Storm is the #2 seed in the 3A (second highest) division. Tonight they will play the Binghamton Blaze in the division semi-finals at 9:30.

HSPN Pool Play Game #2

New Life Storm 64 Front Royal Flames 33

The Storm bounced back from a tough morning loss to post a blowout win over the Flames of Front Royal, Virginia in the evening game on the first day of the tournament in Lynchburg. Rebecca got a FT off the opening tip play and the Storm led the rest of the game, with the lead growing from 8 points at the end of the 1st quarter to 13 at halftime, then 22 after three quarters. In contrast to the morning game, where the Storm settled for jump shots (attempting as many 3-pointers as 2-pt field goals), this time they worked the ball inside and got lots of points in the paint. Shelby and Anna responded with good scoring games. Success inside opened up the wings and Ryan, Rebecca, and Hannah Grace took advantage with 3's. The team also took care of the ball well, with only 11 turnovers. Rebecca led the scoring for the Storm with 18 points, Ryan and Shelby each had 12, and Anna finished with 10 to go with a team-leading 8 rebounds.

The Storm completes pool play at 2:30 tomorrow against the Upstate Hurricanes of Greenville, SC. Then the teams will be seeded into divisions for the division semifinals tomorrow night.

HSPN Tourney - Pool Play Game 1

CVHAA Patriots 51 New Life Storm 46

The NLC Storm dropped their first game in the HSPN tournament 51-46 to the Patriots of Central Virginia Homeschool Athletic Association. The first 3 quarters were back and forth, with neither team leading by more than 4 points and both teams holding the lead about an equal amount of time. At the end of the 3rd quarter, with the Storm trailing by 1, the Patriots hit a shot from just inside the halfcourt line to go up by 4. This was a momentum-turning shot for the Patriots. They scored again on the first play of the 4th quarter to go up by 6. The Patriots were effective penetrating to the basket and increased the aggressiveness of their defense, causing several turnovers and limiting the Storm to only outside shots. Rebecca and Georgia hit 3-pointers to keep the Storm in the game, but they could get no closer than 4 points the rest of the way. Rebecca led the Storm with 16 points, while Anna led in rebounds with 10.

The Storm resumes play against the Front Royal (VA) Flames at 6:30 tonight.

Liberty Tournament

The New Life Storm will be playing in the HSPN East Coast Homeschool Championships at Liberty University in Virginia from March 11-13. The web site for the tournament is in the links at right and has just been updated to include the pairings for pool play.

State Tournament - 3rd Place

New Life Storm 54 Cabarrus Stallions 31

After taking the 27-3 state champion Surry Runnin' Patriots to the wire in the semi-finals, the NLC Storm came back the next day and won the consolation game in convincing fashion, to claim 3rd place in the NCHE Athletic Conference. The Stallions jumped on top early, going up 7-0 just a little more than a minute into the game. After a timeout, the Storm gathered themselves and dominated the rest of the quarter. Anna scored 7 straight points to tie the game and start a 17-1 run over the rest of the first quarter. After this the Storm led the rest of the game. The 3rd quarter saw New Life outscore the Stallions 11-2 to open up the lead to 16 points. The Storm put the game away early in the 4th quarter, stretching the lead to 24 points. Most of the starters rested for the last 6 minutes, but good scoring off the bench kept the lead over 20 the rest of the way. Anna led the Storm with 18 points and 12 rebounds and Hannah Grace scored 14.

Congratulations to the girls and coaches for finishing 3rd in the state!

State Tournament Semi-Finals

Surry Runnin’ Patriots 66 New Life Storm 56

On Friday night, the Storm battled like they had never battled before. Surry’s press, though the Storm had prepared for it, did admittedly cause some problems. On defense, Surry’s athleticism propelled them into the lane for hard lay-ups and second chance points. The Storm fought hard to adapt to the press and cut off the lane on defense while attempting to win the battle of the boards on both ends. As hard as they fought, they found themselves with an 18 point deficit at the half. They refused to give up, and resolved to come back even harder in the second half. The answer on defense seemed to be a 2-1-2 zone, as Surry could not knock down shots. The lay-ups that came so easily in the first half were no more, and our defensive intensity resulted in Surry turnover after turnover. The third quarter was nothing less than amazing. The Storm outscored Surry 25 to 6. Rebecca was hounded and went to the floor many times. Hannah Grace sparked a fire with consecutive steals for easy lay-ups. Right before the end of the quarter, Georgia scored a floater to put the Storm in the lead. The Storm hung close all the way to the end, but the win was not to be. The Storm left with their heads high, knowing that they had given their all. They received praise from even our opponent’s fans. The final score was 66-56, with 21 points from Hannah Grace and 18 points from Rebecca. Daryl and Anna led in rebounding with 12 and 11 boards, respectively.