RGV Vipers Vs. Birmingham Squadron 1st Half Game Notes
1st Half game notes that I took while watching the 1st half of the RGV Vipers Birmingham Squadron matchup from February 12th
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Note #2: The plays or sequences from my notes thatare put in the gifs below are bolded.
Rio Grande Valley Vipers
#1: Daishen Nix: Rejected a screen, drove with his right and kicked it to the open shooter (11:47 1ST QTR), great drive and dish to Anthony Lamb (6:52 1ST QTR), absolutely unreal drive-and-dish kick out to the open shooter, who decided to drive (:39 1ST QTR), hit catch-and-shoot 3 (10:11 2ND QTR), switched onto Zach Hankins on the perimeter, stopped his attempted drive, and then closed out on Joe Young (8:04 1ST QTR), drive through two defenders in an early offense set and drawed a foul (6:40 2ND QTR), used Bey screen to hit a pull-up 3 (5:00 2ND QTR).
 #17: Marcus Foster: Missed corner 3 off Nix pass (11:47 1ST QTR), Showed high level movement in snaking through a screen and kicking out to open shooter (11:30 1ST QTR), good use of a screen to get around his defender, does a fake pitch to freeze drop defender, and finishes with his left (6:20 1ST QTR), Went through around a screen and threw a side body feed to Daishen Nix (10:11 2ND QTR), Stuck with a driver from perimeter to paint and forced him to pass to driver (7:42 2ND QTR), applied good ball pressure on John Petty and defended him well but was outmatched by the bigger guard (6:27 2ND QTR), hit corner C&S 3 (6:12, 4:35 2ND QTR), pushed up the ball up the floor in transition and scored with time running out (:02 2ND QTR).
#21: Trevelin Queen: EXCELLENT PASS to trailing big that was placed in the perfect spot. Would’ve been an easy turnover if put a millimeter or two south (10:46 1ST QTR), takes the risk to get into the passing lanes to try to intercept a pass but misses widely (9:16 1ST QTR), Nice quick dish to Kabengele (6:52 1ST QTR), Came out and stole an inbounds pass, saved the ball before going out of bounds, pushed it in transition, snaked around a screen, drove to catch the drop defender’s attention, and pushed it out to the roll man (Anthony Lamb) (5:49 1ST QTR), stuck with cutter and forced a steal when Joe Young was trying to dish it off. From a baseline inbounds, he drove with his right hand and finished through traffic (11:14 2ND QTR), was very short on a pull-up transition 3 from the perimeter (7:58 2ND QTR), used dribble moves to catch attention of 3 defenders before throwing out to Marcus Foster (6:12 2ND QTR), oved around a Bey screen and hit a pull-up 3 with three seconds left on shot clock (5:28 2ND QTR).
#34: Anthony Lamb: Used spin move to create separation from man and hit a mid-range fadeaway (11:20 1ST QTR), After receiving the ball and taking a few strides forward, uses cross to shake his man before putting up a three and nails it while being fouled (9:50 1ST QTR), pushed ball up the floor and dished it to Foster, who was on the corner (4:35 2ND QTR), followed Darius Adams from perimeter to paint and used his height to close up any opportunities and force a steal (1:46 2ND QTR), missed catch-and-shoot 3 from above the break at start of possession (1:32 2ND QTR).
#25: Mfiondu Kabengele: Nailed a catch-and-shoot 3 from above the break (9:30 1ST QTR), stopped an attempted drive from Darius Adams and forced him to throw a high pass back to the perimeter (9:22 2ND QTR).
#30: Tyler Bey: Stumbled and fell after receiving a bullet pass from Trevelin Queen (5:42 2ND QTR), setting several good screens to give shooters open looks (5:28 2ND QTR, 5:00 2ND QTR), in one possession he defended Zylan Cheatham (#45), Ra’Shad James (#9), and showed on John Petty (#23) (4:03 2ND QTR), had a GREAT defensive sequence where he defended the driving Darius Adams before switching onto Zylan Cheatham when a pass was made and making a CLEAN block on his layup attempt (3:06 2ND QTR), passed up an open catch-and-shoot attempt from the wing to drive into the paint that already had three Squadron teammates and turned the ball over.Â
#11: Khalil Whitney: Got his feet set, faced his body towards the rim, and made a catch-and-shoot 3 in transition from the corner (1:59 1ST QTR).
#14: Gerald Green: Tracked the shot from it left the shooter’s hands, glided towards the paint, and made the putback (5:04 1ST QTR), quickly got to his spot on the wing, set his feet, retrieved the pass, and nailed the catch-and-shoot 3 (2:30 1ST QTR), pushed down the floor in transition and threw down thunderous dunk (:39 2nd QTR).
Birmingham Squadron
#9: Ra'Shad James: Took a step-back J with 20 seconds left on the game clock. Was short (10:00 1ST QTR), missed wide-open catch-and-shoot 3 (6:34 1ST QTR), attacked a closeout, drove along the baseline, and kicked it out to Justin Wright-Foreman (10:54 2ND QTR), good high feed to a diving Zach Hankins that lands directly in his hands (9:13 2ND QTR), was short on a reverse layup after receiving a feed from Joe Young (7:43 2ND QTR), uses his hip to create separation from Tyler Bey to hit a running mid-range J (6:52 2ND QTR), threw down a THUNDEROUS slam off a Darius Adams dish (2:52 2ND QTR), contested a Gerald Green 3 off a DHO (2:35 2ND QTR), good contest on a Gerald Green pull-up 3 (1:11 2ND QTR).
#27: Joe Young: Uses a very delayed dribble, which made his man think he was going left to go right, driving into the paint, and kicking it out to #23 (9:41 1ST QTR), drives right, gets past his man, and uses the backboard to finish (8:55 1ST QTR), great entry pass inside to Zach Hankins (7:06 1ST QTR), Nice use of screen to probe near paint and kick it out to open shooter on the wing, pushed down the floor in transition, and hit a turnaround mid-range J with :20 left on shot clock (5:40 1ST QTR), used a delayed crossover to get to his man, drives with his left, and finishes through traffic (3:25 1ST QTR), blew by Anthony Lamb but missed righty layup (4:42 2ND QTR).
#23: John Petty: Nailed a wide open catch-and-shoot 3 (9:41 1ST QTR, 11:41 2ND QTR), had a phenomenal defensive possession where he affected shots both in the paint and on the perimeter only to finish by blocking a shot from #17 (7:58 1ST QTR), made a quick find and feed inside to Zach Hankins after receiving pass from Adams (7:17 2ND QTR), after receiving a DHO from Zylan, drove left, backed down Marcus Foster, and threw up a fadeaway on the left block (6:26 2ND QTR).
#45: Zylan Cheatham: Threw outlet pass to running Joe Young (11:45 1ST QTR), nice closeout on a 3 from #34 (7:32 1ST QTR), great closeout on Anthony Lamb to force a drive (:30 1ST QTR), hit corner C&S 3 off a bounce pass (5:52 2ND QTR), in an early offense setting, he took Bey off the dribble and made a right-handed floater (5:10 2ND QTR), tried to throw a short roll pass to cutting Anigbogu but pass was too high (:35 2ND QTR), missed wide-open C&S 3 from corner (:07 2ND QTR).
#35: Zach Hankins: Showed good hands on receiving a weird entry pass from Joey Young, missed the first shot but fought against two defenders to get the rebound and go to the FT line (5:58 1ST QTR), worked with Joe Young to force a switch, backed down on Gerald Green and made the post-up hook (4:37 1ST QTR), boxed out a defender, snagged the offensive rebound and finished through contact (10:28 2ND QTR), worked as a drop defender and used verticality to stop a drive (9:30 2ND QTR), used soft hands to collect feed from Adams while rolling, kept the ball high, and finished with a righty layup (9:10 2ND QTR), used soft hands to receive pass from Adams, dunked on the head of Trevelin Queen (7:18 2ND QTR).
#6: Darius Adams: Did a good job of attacking a closeout off a pass from Zylan Cheatham to drive and push the ball out to John Petty (11:48 2ND QTR), went over a screen, stuck on Nix’s hip and punched the ball out when he was driving (11:32 2ND QTR), stayed on the hip of Trevelin Queen on his drive, blocked a pass meant for Kabengele, and pushed the ball up the floor in transition (9:42 2ND QTR), forced a Bey steal and immediately threw it out to Ra’Shad James (2:53 2ND QTR), drove to the rim and tried to dish it out to Anigbogu but the pass was way too hard (:44 2ND QTR).
#3: Riley Lachance: Missed catch-and-shoot 3 the wing BUT collected his own rebound and made a floater (1:20 2ND QTR).
#0: Ike Anigbogu: Did a good job of using his body to stop Trevelin Queen’s path to the rim and give him a tough shot around the rim (4:09 1ST QTR), tremendous job as a drop defender both using his hand to deny a pass to the roller while also moving his feet and utilizing his athleticism to make a clean block at the rim (2:14 1ST QTR). Stuck with Tyler Bey from perimeter to paint before making a clean block on his layup attempt (3:51 2ND QTR), as a high drop defender (stationed on 3-point line, he sticks with the roll man and uses all of his height and wingspan to block an attempted entry pass (:15 2ND QTR).
#22: Justin Wright-Foreman: Missed an open catch-and-shoot 3 (10:54 2ND QTR)