When you lose a game by 3 points, it’s easy to look at things that happened at the end of the game to decide the defining moments of the loss. No matter if someone missed a shot or turned the ball over late in the game, it’s easy to point to one play and say a certain player lost the game on his own. There are, however, many more factors that go into a loss besides 1 play in the last minute of the game. One of those factors is a teams ability to close quarters. Closing quarters efficiently can greatly effect the outcome. Let me give you an example. We lost by 3 a few weeks ago and had a shot to tie at the end of the game. Despite everything else that happened throughout the game, we failed end of quarter situations twice in the first half.
First quarter
We took a contested drive with 10 seconds to go, then allowed our opponent to hit a three before time expired. 5 point swing.
Second quarter
We turn the ball over with under a minute to go, then allowed our opponent to knock another three down after an offensive rebound. Again, 5 point swing.
So because of how we closed 2 quarters, there was a possible 10-point difference not in our favor. Even if we didn’t score, by ensuring that we took the last shot, we could have took away 6 points. And in a 3 point game, that means all the difference.
