DISTRICT HEIGHTS, Md. – Hannah Huffman did not come 3,000 miles east to sit on the bench and watch as her East Bay Xplosion teammates lose games in the platinum bracket at the U.S. Junior Nationals this weekend.
As fate would have it, a sprained ankle in her team’s second game on Friday evening against Team Virginia rendered her helpless for the final three games of the weekend. The result? A 2-3 finish in Pool E and a frustrating plane ride home to California.
“Honestly, I’ve never sat out a game before and it was one of the most painful things to sit and watch your team and see all the things you could be doing to help but can’t,” said the Carondelet High School senior. “Sitting out is never fun, but you don’t really comprehend it until it happens to you.”
Even without Huffman beginning Friday night, her teammates still almost stole a top two finish and a playoff berth. A win over the Pittsburgh Rockers on Saturday morning got them to 2-1, but a 57-56 heartbreaker to the Omaha Sparks on Saturday evening crippled chances of advancement. A 54-40 loss to pool winner Georgia Metros 16s on Sunday morning sealed their fate.
In short, it’s not unfair to call the Xplosion’s trip east to D.C. a lost weekend.
“We expected to do better, we would have liked to be playing on Monday and have had a few more games today,” Huffman said. “Adversity happens. It’s frustrating to not be able to overcome it, but it’s AAU. If you have one bad tournament, there’s always another one around the corner to hopefully turn things around. We played with a lot of heart against the Metros and I’m proud of my teammates for that.”
Huffman came into USJN having already verballed to Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw a day after the Fighting Irish knocked off the University of Connecticut in the Final Four. Her future is set, but those of her Xplosion teammates are not. Of the three other seniors on the roster, none has decided on a school, nor have her two junior teammates.
Sitting out with the ankle issue may have been frustrating for her in terms of her own game, but the unselfish Huffman was hoping to help out her teammates with their own college plans.
“Of course I want colleges to look at all my teammates, but I wanted to be the one out there helping them, setting them up for shots,” Huffman said. “Indivdually, I thought I had something to prove to my coaches at Notre Dame that were here. I wanted to show them why they recruited me.”
