The Road to Europeans Part 1

Last year, the Hohenfels Tigers won one game out of fourteen.  We were the "doormat" to all the other teams in DoDD's Europe, as one of the articles in Stars and Stripes put it.  But all that changed this season.

(Photo creds:  Dragana Mckoy.  Left to right: Jared Johnson, Alton Day, Traijan Powell, Justin Standifer, Tony Saintmelus, David Vidovic, Mark Carr, Clayton Pinheiro, Isaac Lopez)

We started out the season with a double header.  We were playing BFA on the road.  After a six hour bus-ride, we arrived at the Christian boarding school, and sat through the JV girls, JV boys, and Women's Varsity games.  Then there was one last quarter we gathered in a room and met the guys from BFA.  Then the Men's Varsity game kicked off.

The atmosphere in BFA on a Friday night was chilling, alot of the students from the boarding school had turned out for it.  It was a place that after every layup, the crowd would roar.  It was a tight game all the way through, Black Forest Academy was a disciplined team, and they were determined to win in front of their home crowd.  As equally determined, the Tigers were putting up a defensive battle.  We would hold on to win by two, with a low scoring game of 34-32.  David Vidovic and Tony Saintmeilus grabbed alot of steals that game, and I put fourteen points up in the paint. The Tigers had pulled out their first victory of the year!

After a short night sleep in the gym, we were woken up and were served a delicious meal by the Falcons (BFA).  Once again, we waited through the first three games and prepared ourselves for another tough battle.  From the get go, it was a faster paced game compared to the night before, even though everyone wasn't exactly well rested.  Mark Carr led us our team with 16 points and helped us stay even with the Falcons.

In the final seconds of the game, we were up by one, but they had the ball in-bounded from the sideline at half court.  Just as loud as it was on Friday night, the crowd was screaming their heads off.  They set up their offense and ran it, in the scramble that ensued, one of their players popped of a screen and shot to the wing.  Forced to pop out to the wing, I went to challenge the jump shot, and my man was taken by Traijan Powell, one of our freshman pointguards.  Although they got the ball into their big man against Trai, he didn't have time to get off a clean shot and he missed!  The Tigers won their second game, 48-49!

No longer the "doormat", the Tigers would face the Schweinfurt Razorbacks on the road the following weekend.  Stay tuned for the next recap.  ;)