The KC Truth Red Make it to the Semi-Final Game in their Division

The KC Truth Red won all three of their pool games in the Viking Invitational, which earned them a trip to the semifinal game against the Mo-Kan Elite 6th grade team.  The semi-final turned out to be a hard-fought battle, from which Mo-Kan emerged the winner.  And while the Truth did not make it to the championship, they clearly made their mark on the division by reaching the semifinal game.

The KC Truth Black Earn Second Place in their Division

The KC Truth Black won all of their pool games in the Viking Invitational, in very convincing fashion.  The Truth then faced the Blue Valley Hawks 8th grade team in the semi-final, and once again posted a solid victory.  However, in moving on to the championship game, the Truth would face their toughest competition of the tournament when they played the Mo-Kan Elite 13Under.   Both of these 7th grade teams had dominated the 8th grade recreational division, and it was inevitable that they would face each other in the championship.

The Mo-Kan Elite came out offensively strong compared to the Truth in the first half, posting twice as many points the Truth did.  By half-time, Mo-Kan was leading 21-10.  The Truth had posted no fewer than 40 points in any game prior to this one (and racking up 70 in one), yet their offense was stalling on missed shots, and passed-up shots.  And while the formidable Truth defense caused a handy number of Mo-Kan turnovers, the Truth were not converting those turnovers to points.

In the second half, though, the Truth started to go to their offensive strengths, while concerning themselves less with their formal offense.  Behind some undefendable drives to the basket by guard Anthony “Fuzzy” Bonner and an increasingly aggressive press, the Truth scored twice as many points in the second half as they did in the first half.  And leave it to the Truth to make it interesting until the end.  With barely a minute and a half to go, the Truth finally employed their full-court press, causing successive turnovers and ending the second half with an offensive flurry by the Truth on an 8-2 scoring run. However, while the Truth outscored Mo-Kan 19-17 in the second half, they paid the price for their offensive inconsistency.  The Mo-Kan played a more consistent game from the beginning, and won the championship, 38-29.