The end of an era

The 8th grade boys have played their last basketball game as students of St. Mary's.

There will be no fourth straight championship appearance for the 8th grade boys, as they fell in their playoff game tonight 45-31.

The theme of the game was the missed opportunities throughout. They simply had too many missed lay-ups, free-throws and turnovers to overcome.

It also didn't help that Derek picked up his fourth foul mid-way through the second quarter. The fourth foul was the most horrendous when it didn't appear that Derek even touched the other play, who took a basketball facial when the ball hit his face. The referee appeared to guess what happened, and he guessed Derek into his fourth foul. When Derek came out of the game, the wind was sucked out of the team and the score reflected that.

Trailing 19-11 at halftime, the 8th grade cut the lead to seven points midway through the third, but that's as close as it got. Gary grabbed several difficult rebounds, Brandon and Elliot were hustling all over the place, but nobody other than Derek was able to score, and that's what hurt them the most tonight.

From the free-throw line, they shot an anemic 5-for-21, and only made one free-throw the entire first half.

There were plenty of good looks on the night but the ball just did not cooperate and go in the basket. It all added to a frustrating way to end their careers at St. Mary's, but as a whole, this team did as much as it could. Every year they were faced with stiffer competition and year after year, they answered the bell.

And as they look back at their time at St. Mary's, they still will have three championship appearances under their belt, and that's nothing to be ashamed of.

Derek had a game-high 20 points in his final St. Mary's game.