Well the All Iowa Attack Jensen team, with a couple additions, traveled to Kansas City on July 26 for one day of exhibition games. They played 3 games, winning them all, including a game against the Cornhusker Shooting Stars - Bison team (the team that went on to win the Battle on the Plains tournament).
After this, the team traveled to North Augusta, South Carolina, to play in the invitation-only Nike Nationals Tournament. The best in the country play at this tournament, which offers an upper division and a Juniors division. The girls did not make it in to their division, and so were playing against primarily 2012 and rising seniors. We did add 3 seniors to our team from AIA Mauro for this tournament, and they all made significant contributions during the tournament. They were in a tough pool and would be playing against older, often much larger, and very physical and athletic teams.
AIA met Boo Williams first on Thursday morning, and pulled out a nice win 55-49. The second team they met up against - and a team favored to be in the championship - the Tennessee Flight, proved to be a challenge for the girls. They continued to fight, played very hard, but came up short, losing 54-59. Shaya played hard against Tennessee recruit Bashaara Graves, and ended up tied for the most points against the team (with Madison Weekly - both had 11).
On Friday, the girls struggled against the Greg Strickling Basketball team - who were playing with the desperation of a team that had to win. Despite their struggles, AIA was able to pull out the win in overtime - 55-54.
Saturday morning session saw the girls matched up against the Philadelphia Belles, another strong team. This was the best game for the team in the tournament - as they all played amazingly together, and were fundamentally sound on both the offensive and defensive end. With this win 59-47, they ended up 2nd in their pool, which put them into the Nationals Gold Great 8 bracket. While an accomplishment, they knew they would be facing some very tough competition.
Their first game of bracket play put them up against a Fairfax team with some very strong guards and 2 nearly-interchangeable posts that were around 6'4" and likely over 250 lbs. AIA made some great runs, and were within 1 point at about 7 minutes left in the game, but Fairfax came on strong and made a 16 point run. The girls struggled to get their shots to fall in those final minutes, and came up short 45-61. Fairfax went on to win their final four game against team Essence, and moved on where they eventually lost in the championship game to DFW out of Texas.
While disappointed they did not make it to the final four, the team felt great about advancing as they did. They played like a team, and outperformed some of the stronger teams in the tournament. It was a great tournament, and an outstanding opportunity for the girls, which they hope to have a chance to repeat next year.
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