7th grade comes up short in playoffs

The 7th grade season came to an abrupt end Friday night.

The 7th grade boys left everything they had out on the court, but fell short of making it back to the championship for the third straight year, as they lost 56-50 in the playoffs.

Holding a 50-49 lead with under 50 seconds to go, the other team banked in a wide open three pointer which put the 7th grade behind 52-50.

Then right off the inbounds, they threw the ball away right to the other team, who was then fouled and sent to the line.

After splitting the free throws, the 7th grade trailed by three, as Jason Lei worked his way to the free throw line. He missed both shots and it forced St. Mary's to foul.

Again, the other team made one out of two making it 54-50. Jonathan threw up a desperation three which hit off back iron and the other team sealed it with a lay-up in the final seconds.

After a few minutes into the second half, it didn't look like this game was going to be close, as the 7th grade was trailing 33-24 midway through the 3rd quarter.

But then Jonathan caught fire. And like his sister Marissa did back in 2011, he hit three straight 3 pointers to tie the game. The 7th grade fed off that momentum and closed out the third on a 19-4 run, which put them up 43-37 heading into the final quarter.

However they had to play the fourth without Michael, who questionably fouled out of the game in the final seconds of the third. The St. Mary's book had only four fouls for Michael, but the other team, which served as the home book, had five. Right or wrong, the 7th graders were without their point guard for the biggest seven minutes of the season.

For the first few minutes of the quarter, it looked promising. Justin had two incredible plays and hit two huge shots, and Jonathan hit a mid-range jumper with about 5 1/2 left to go making it 47-39. He finished with 24 points.

Then they stopped scoring, and the other team did.

Defensively, it was probably their poorest performance of the season. Their man to man defense didn't work at all as each player was decisively beaten off the dribble and to spots on the court.

Out of the 56 points they gave up, only 5 of those points came from outside the key. And it was some bad luck because the big shot of the game was banked in from near the three point land. The player who made the shot completely missed the rim in a similar attempt in quarter two.

But the story was the lack of defense. Off of made shots, the other team somehow took the ball and did a full court lay-up going untouched. It was mind boggling how many easy shots the other team had.

The 7th grade full court pressed the entire game in an effort to create turnovers, but running from line to line over and over at a furious pace took its toll.

In division three, the top teams also have a lot of size and strength down low. And besides Jason Lei, nobody on the team is a true forward who can consistently grab rebounds.

In the first half alone, the boys were absolutely dominated on the boards as the other team got so many second chance shots. Besides a handful of Jason Lei offensive rebounds, the 7th grade didn't get more than one shot per possession.

Free throws down the stretch will also be something they'll kick themselves for in the off-season. In the last two minutes of the game, they shot 1-for-7 from the stripe, with one miss coming on the front end of a one-in-one that would've at the time given the 7th grade a lead. They were 9-24 for the game on free throws.

Towards the end of the game, they just looked tired and didn't have much left in the gas tank. They laid it all out there, but once again came up a few buckets short.

It's another tough pill to swallow for a team that has come so close three straight years to winning it all. Unfortunately, they've come up short each time and it may only get tougher as they're slated to once again move up another division.

Good game, good effort. And here's hoping that the tough last few seasons are setting up for a storybook ending in their 8th grade year.

Game Notes: In his first year with the team, Spencer made some big steps and scored 4 big points in the game...Jason Lei scored 17 points...Michael was hampered with foul trouble and picked up three fouls in the 1st quarter and never got into a rhythm offensively...Among the celebrities at the game were Brandon Khuu, Edwena and Kaela.