Every year in Spring Training, there are a couple of Major League Baseball teams that play their AAA or AA affiliate in a game or two because of scheduling conflicts. Usually, the big league club just decimates the team in the farm system. Every year, Michigan or Wisconsin or another big college football school schedules a game against the small, liberal arts college fifteen minutes down the road. The big school pays the small college some money, gets some work in, and beats the liberal arts college without breaking a sweat. Why do I bring these examples up? Because, unfortunately, that's what happened today in the Bruins-Panthers game. To put it quite frankly, it wasn't even a fair fight.
There are a number of flabbergasting statistics I could bring up to tell you how the game went, but instead, I'll use one to summarize the entire contest. The Lennox Panthers had nine shot attempts all game. Three were air balls. One hit the backboard. One was blocked. In fact, the Panthers didn't shoot their first shot until the first half was almost over. Every single Bruin scored, meaning that every single Bruin outscored the Panthers single-handedly. Ciahna McNairy had 22 points and 13 rebounds. Mion Kamiya had 14 points, nine rebounds, and six assists. Maddie Sugimoto had 13 points and three assists.
One gripe I will make, however, is that the Bruins still continued to push the pedal to the metal throughout the game. Even after it was clear they were going to easily win, they didn't stop playing with 100% intensity. Typically, it's a good thing to stay focused for all four quarters. But it did feel that some of the Bruins players and coaches were being almost disrespectful at a certain point. I remember one play where a Bruins player stripped the ball from an overwhelmed, hapless Panthers player and took it the length of the floor for a bucket. Immediately, the entire bench got up and started cheering very loudly. The score was 55-0. (I remember in my YMCA league, they would have rules where players couldn't guard other players past a certain point or score. For example, if a team was up by 30, they couldn't run a full-court press. Maybe that should be expanded). Nonetheless, it was a good team-bonding win for the Bruins. But let's see them do it again against a team that's a little bit more competitive.
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