Boys 7th and 8th BB comments and suggestions welcome

[CMfromIL]

Alright, I regrouped and tried some different settings. Set f-stop to about 2/2.8. The lighting in this gym is terrible. Somewhere between 1 and 2 candles.
ISO had to be at 5000, which caused some noise that I knocked down with Lightroom. But that has seemed to affect clarity. Noisey-good focus. Not so noisey- less focus. Oh well.
Neither team won, although they both ended within 1 point of the opposing team.
And now the pictures:
1. Tip Off (8th Grade)

2. Scramble

3. Driving In

4. Time Running out

5. Last Shot

6. Crowd reaction (#5 Missed)

 

[The_Traveler]

You would get much better separation from the background with a longer focus lens, but you need to deal with the situation as it.
Don't depend on LR for noise reduction, try a download of Noiseware which is almost miraculous.

Then you can deal with the denoised image by vigorously separating the foreground from the background and lowering contrast and darken the background.
Sharpen only the foreground, that will add snap.

In situation like #1, where the guy in the background, between the arms, hurts the image, take him out.
In lieu of longer lens and shorter DOF, simplify your image, crop out or darken what isn't important so you can direct the viewers' eyes.

Lew