NMPreps.com's special feature that follows the newly formed New Mexico Flash basketball club team and their trip to San Diego, California July 21st - 23rd.

Part I: Abney Retires from LCHS and forms the New Mexico Flash

After a long drive from New Mexico we are ready to play. The bad thing is we didn’t play until 3:45 and it was our only game today. The girls played really well in 56-34 win over SD Empire. Our 2-1-2 zone press gave Empire serious problems. We were able to get a lot of steals and deflections which caused a lot of frustration. Offensively, we struggled in the 1st quarter which I knew would happen since we’ve only had two practices together. Our press got us some easy buckets which helped calm our nerves.

The second quarter we were much better offensively and hit four 3-pointers that eventually gave us a 19 point lead at the half. The 2nd half we really executed our zone offense that pushed the lead to 25 points. With pressing the entire game we became extremely fatigued in the 4th quarter. This where I asked myself if I should carry more players on the team as opposed to just 7. I like playing with 7 because it’s an easy substitution pattern, plus, the girls are here to play in front of college coaches so they definitely get more playing time. I also think it’s important that the girls show they can dig a little deeper when they do become tired. The game ended a little sloppy but that’s to be expected when players are tired and your opponent becomes frustrated. The final was a 22 point win.

I’m really proud of the way the girls handled themselves for their 1st game of the summer. It can be extremely intimidating, especially for the five girls new to travel basketball to look down on the baseline and see college coaches sitting under each basket. I was impressed with the amount of coaches that were on our court. We had 12 coaches overall including 9 Division I schools. Prior to the tournament I emailed roughly 15 schools and gave them some information about our roster so it was great to see some of those schools on our court. One of the schools on our court was New Mexico State. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Coach Atkinson and her program. Her and her staff has made great efforts to watch our NM kids during the season as well as the summer.

Tomorrow, will be another long day since our first game isn’t until 3:45 and our second games is at 7:00 pm. I’m excited to see if we can grow a little more as a team since we have that first game under our belts.

Stay tuned for day 2…..

Part I: Abney Retires from LCHS and forms the New Mexico Flash

Recruiting: D-1 Offers Coming in For Viane Cumber and Cailee Crawford (2021 Class)

Atcitty: Way Too Early 5A Rundown (April 2019)