Game 41: Annawan @ United (Girl's Basketball)

Game 41
Annawan @ United (Girl's Basketball)
(12/8/10)

The case of the wayward cell phone strikes again. Tonight's broadcast had all of the uncomfortable elements. First, a teeny tiny area to broadcast from in the weight room that overlooks the gym at United High School. Second, it had to be 80+ degrees, by far the hottest gym of the season, and the equipment once again gave us hiccups.

The Space Between Us
With all of the weight equipment being moved from the old Alexis High School to United, it is pretty cramped quarters where we broadcast basketball games. We had a small desk, and I improvised by moving a weight bench to set half of the equipment on next to me. I've been able to master the use of small spaces in my broadcast career, and I've had to work with far less space!

Gonna Make You Sweat
Not too often I sweat when setting up my basketball broadcast equipment. That's usually commonplace during the first few weeks of football season, on those sultry late summer evenings in a press box with no air moving. The heat was working at United tonight, and many of those in attendance could be seen using the sports programs as fans.

99 Problems
In a recent blog, I excitedly discovered the issue of our dropping cell phones when broadcasting games. Alas, I did not. After experiencing the issue twice this year, I can rule out that the problem is not coming from the studios at the radio station. Tonight, the call would cut out whenever I would start to play my pregame interview on the digital recorder. Fortunately, Kevin Tyrell came up during halftime of the fresh/soph game and we discussed the problem with him. Kevin manages U.S. Cellular, our cell phone carrier. We will be running some tests with him in the next couple weeks, to try and pinpoint the problem.

It was nice to see plenty of familiar faces from Annawan at the game. Diane Savage, the fresh/soph coach was my junior high English teacher, and her daughter, Addie is a member of the varsity team. My first boss, Lynn Williams, from the Annawan Hometown Market was in attendance, watching his daughter, Wendy. The Koning twins, Kelsey and Katie, are members of the Bravettes, and I went to school with their older brother, Chad. My cousin, Kirstin Randall is a member of the team. After the game, I heard my name called out, and it was Loren Jackson. His daughter, Jordan, lit up the scorebooks with 22 points.

This was my first game seeing Annawan, and my second game seeing the Red Storm. I was very impressed with United's play over the summer, as they were much improved. They were 13-13 last season. United is coming off a huge 59-53 overtime win at Stark County on Monday. In talking with coach Dennis Mann before the game, he said that he felt his team was ahead of the curve in this third week of the season, from where he thought they would be.

United jumped out to a 16-14 lead after the first quarter, with both Taylor Toops and Ashlynn Winkler scoring 7 points apiece. In the 2nd quarter, Annawan jumped out to a 32-24 lead, before the Red Storm finished the half on a 11-1 run. Augusta Chandler hit a shot off the glass with under a second to play in the half to give United a 35-33 lead at the break.

The Bravettes defense was stingy in the 2nd half, forcing a bevy of Red Storm turnovers. Annawan outscored United 19-8 in the 3rd quarter, and 15-5 in the 4th quarter to claim the 67-48 win. The Bravettes improve to (8-1, 3-0) while the Red Storm fall to (6-2, 2-1).

Jordan Jackson scored a game-high 22 points for Annawan, and Riley Jackson finished with 11 points. Brooke Armstrong scored a team-high 12 points, and Gina Long added 11 points for United.

Bloodlines: Annawan (6'0" Fr.) Celina VanHyfte comes from impressive bloodlines. Her dad, Ted VanHyfte, played college football for the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. He was a Linebacker on the 1992 team that beat Oregon in the Independence Bowl. Celina's mom, Val (Wancket) VanHyfte scored 2,644 points for the Atkinson Tigers (1983-87) and is listed 17th on the all-time IHSA scoring list. She played collegiately at Bradley University, and is 11th on the all-time Bradley scoring list (1,048).

Free Throws: Annawan went to the line 19 times (13-19), compared to just 5 trips to the free throw line for United (3-5).

From Bravette to Red Storm: United fresh/soph basketball coach Katie Grant was the Annawan varsity volleyball coach last season.

Postgame Meal: After dropping equipment off at the radio station, I dove into the Breadeaux Pizza box, leftovers from a meeting at the station today. Three leftover slices of pizza and a bottle of Coca-Cola. Instead of tracking miles, maybe I should start tracking pounds gained each week....YIKES!

Game 41 Miles: 78