Agh...not what I wanted

ISO: 1000  f/4.0  shutter speed: 1/250

ISO: 1250  f/4.0  shutter speed: 1/250

ISO: 1250  f/4.0  shutter speed: 1/250

          So we have shot a lot of basketball this year. Like a butt ton. And we have lots and lots of good pictures, so we aren't exactly in great need of freshman girls basketball pictures. I mean, varsity is what the people are most concerned about anyways. I wasn't really looking forward to shooting the game  because I didn't see the point in it since we had no need. So, I decided to try something different at the game. I took a flash and stuck it on a light stand at the opposite end of the court from where I was shooting. I put the zoom at 35mm and the power around 1/4 I believe. For the first half of the game, the pocket wizards decided to be stupid and wouldn't ever go off. I had to run back and forth and back and forth a million times, and after getting my work out in they decided to start working. Thank goodness. However, none of my pictures turned out. The light stand needs to be up higher which you can really tell in the first picture. It highlights their feet too much and not their whole body. The first one grasps the concept the most but she was too far away from the light or the power needs to be turned. The middle one could be cool since she is shooting a layup and she's up in the air and all, but there is too much ambient light so you don't get the cool effect and the light stand is in the picture, which I don't really know how to avoid that for a shot like this. Do you have any ideas how I could pull that off? And then the last picture I wish soooo badly either I was scooted over to the right or the girl was to the left a little more. AGH. If only if only. I enjoyed trying something different and it was inspiring to continue to try different stuff (great timing now that basketball is over, just my luck) but it still showed me that sports can always be exciting and different and you just have to look for new things to try.