7th grade romps, Jacqueline scores her first points for 3rd grade

**Highlights updated below**

The 7th grade girls wasted no time with Waldorf tonight and beat them silly 31-6.

They led 10-0 after the first quarter and didn't look back. Marissa had another huge game and scored 18 points.

Amanda set a new career-high with 7 points, 6 of them coming in the first quarter alone.

Their defense was solid as usual and they gave Waldorf absolutely no space on offense to operate. Catharine had another 4 or 5 blocks, including a thunderous swat in the fourth quarter, so ferocious the referee was so amazed he accidentally blew his whistle.

They are now (6-1) on the season.

Jacqueline hits her first shot
Jacqueline scored for the first time in her young career, but that wasn't enough as the 3rd grade girls fell 10-4.

They played against the same team they played their first ever game against. The first time, the score was lopsided, but this game was close throughout. Defensively they are a lot more alert and they did a good job of getting back on defense.

What lacks right now is some ball awareness which will only come with experience. Sometimes they will surround a girl but nobody swipes at the ball. Offensively, they are getting up more shots, which will eventually translate to more points.

Miracle scored the other two points. They finish their season next Saturday morning.

We made TV

Great Sharks game tonight, hope you got a chance to see it.

I left my TV on and Cal-Hi Sports, a TV show that focuses on high school sports in San Francisco came on after the Sharks postgame show and the first highlight was Lowell vs Galileo from last Thursday.

We had practice on Thursday and the game took place across the field from us with Galileo beating Lowell 4-2.

There was a ball smashed to the outfield, and Brandon, being the already Galileo homer he is, put his hands up cheering for Galileo.

So I hit pause on my DVR, and captured the screen shot. You will see that Brandon has both of his hands up while I am the guy in all black standing to the side. I believe Derek is to the right of this shot.

Gavin is standing by home plate as well.

Click on the picture to get a closer look.

Baseball postponed

Today's baseball game was postponed to due unplayable field conditions. The game will be rescheduled.

Auditioning for St. Mary's catcher

This was interesting last night if you did not catch it. This professional major league catcher looks more like one of our catchers when he starts learning the position.

Weekend reflection and exclusive video

Another busy weekend here at St. Mary's -- let's take a look at some of the notable things from this weekend.

-The 8th grade girls lost their first game of the season Saturday against the now, first place team in their division. Looking back at that game, there were so many things that didn't go right for the girls, so if they are to play that team again down the road, they should be ready.

They were down 8 points with about three and a half minutes left and managed to make a strong comeback. They easily could've tied the game or even taken a lead, but the ball didn't bounce their way.

Right now they sit at (5-1) and are almost a lock for the post-season for the second straight year.

-The 7th grade girls dominated again and beat NDV for the second time this year. Their division has only six teams, so all but two make the playoffs. They are currently in second place, also with a (5-1) record. They play undefeated Epiphany in the final game of the season. That game will tell them who they play in the playoffs.

-Career-highs were set by two sisters, Cynthia and Serina. Cynthia scored 10 points Friday night in their gut-wrenching 15-14 loss, while Serina scored 10 points in their win against NDV.

-The Sharks clinched their first round series against the Avalanche and will move on to the Western Conference Semifinals. Their opponent has yet to be determined. Currently, it can be either Nashville, Phoenix or Detroit.

-In the NBA playoffs, (WHO CARES???) the Lakers and Thunder are tied at 2-2, while every other series is not even close. Wake me up when the basketball playoffs get interesting.

But before you go, this story never aired because on the day of the groundbreaking at the new school site, the Bay Bridge decided it would collapse. But I dug this out of the CBS-5 archives, take a look.

Saturday Recap: 7th grade routs NDV, 8th grade dealt first loss

*Highlights updated below!

In a rematch of the most exciting St. Mary's girls game this season, the 7th grade girls took on NDV. NDV was missing one of their key players and it showed.

The 7th grade girls took advantage of this and completely owned NDV from start to finish. They won by a final score of 38-12.

Serina had a career-high 10 points with 8 of them coming in the first half. It was just a great game all around by each and every one of the five girls, as they all got on the scoreboard.

Their defense was stellar and they were all aggressive in the half-court set and the fast break, taking the ball strong to the basket.

The girls are now (5-1) on the season with two games to go and have officially clinched a playoff spot.

8th grade comeback falls short, lose first game
The undefeated dream is over.

The 8th grade girls dug themselves a 16-8 hole and their furious comeback late in the fourth came up a point short.

Trailing by two points with less than a minute left, Sally was fouled and she split her free-throws which pulled them behind a point.

Down one with 1.8 seconds left in the game, Tianna took an inbounds pass at the low block, but her turnaround shot was blocked by the other team and the 8th graders fell for the first time in the regular season.

Their defense held strong throughout but they had a handful of breakdowns and that ultimately cost them the game.

Offensively, they fumbled countless balls and had a difficult time getting inside against a big team.

The girls are right there with this team and may be on a collision course to play St. Peter's in the playoffs. If they can fine tune some of their mistakes today, it should make for an incredible battle come post-season.

Other games: The 4th/5th graders lost 18-5 in Half-Moon Bay. They were down only 4-3 at halftime, but they ran out of gas in the second half...The 3rd graders lost early this morning as well.



Footage courtesy of Derek and James

4th/5th grade girls come so close, 8th grade girls win big again

The 4th/5th grade girls were 18 seconds away from their first ever victory. But a turnover with less than 30 seconds to go led to a breakaway by the other team. She made the bucket and that was the difference in the game as the girls lost a heartbreaker 15-14.

This, by far was their best game of the year and featured their largest offensive output in their two year history. The 14 points they scored is the most ever. Cynthia had a career-high 10 points in the loss.

This was a game they were not used to as it went back and forth. Both teams traded leads and buckets all night long, but unfortunately the girls were unable to pull it out. Hopefully this will give the girls some confidence and they can continue to improve. They just need to fine tune a few things and take care of the ball. Nice effort by the seven young ladies tonight.

Quick start propels 8th grade
The 8th grade girls raced out to a 11-2 first quarter lead and led 20-4 at the half -- they never looked back.

Tianna had a career-high 16 points while Melinda tied her season high of 8 points.

Their defense was stifling and they put the game away early. The other team didn't even look like they wanted to play and the girls took advantage.

It was another impressive victory for the graduating class.

Celebrity Sighting: Mrs. Chan was at the 8th grade game.

(Note: Highlights will be up tomorrow night featuring tonight's games and tomorrow's night's games.)

And we are tied...

Baseball team goes to Malibu

Over Spring Break, the baseball team visited Malibu for the batting cages along with myself, Mr. B and James. Here is how we did...

Absolutely unreal

If any of you watched the Sharks game last night, first of all, I applaud you. Second of all, I feel terrible for you.

Last night's game was something that you will probably never ever see again. The Sharks absolutely dominated the Avalanche. It was like man vs boy, JV vs Varsity, 8th grade vs 4th grade, the comparisons can continue.

The Sharks shot the puck 51 times while Colorado shot it only 16 times. Yet the Sharks find themselves losers 1-0 in OT and trailing 2-1 in the series.

Hockey is probably the only game where you can control the game from start to finish and still lose.

If you haven't seen how the game ended, watch the video below as well as the postgame reaction. I am still not over it, and if the Sharks can't pull this series out, I don't think I'll be over it for a while.

Poor Dan Boyle, one of the hardest workers in the NHL and classiest individuals is the scapegoat. If you gave Boyle another 100 times to do what he did and try to make this goal, he probably couldn't even do it.

Game 4 is tomorrow night at 7 p.m. Channels 41 on most systems, and Ch. 698 on Direct TV.

Baseball team shutout in latest outing

When a team can't generate anything at the plate, they need good pitching and good defense. Today, the baseball team got neither.

Again, errors and walks lead to a six-run third inning, which put the game out of reach. The final score was 10-0 as the baseball team was shut out for the first time this season.

The runs scored in the third were all unearned. Errors to start the inning drove Tommy's pitch count up as he soon began to wear down after a decent first two innings. It continued to snow ball as they committed four errors in the inning and a 3-0 deficit lead to 9-0 hole.

After the game officially ended, the other team offered to continue to scrimmage. The lone bright spot then came when Brandon hit an opposite field triple that scored Gary for the team's first run of the game.

Derek made two nice plays at third, but both times, the ball was dropped by the first basemen.

Brandon Wins Survivor

Photo courtesy: Emily

Brandon capped off his birthday week and outwitted, outlasted and outplayed 23 other survivors and became the second sole Survivor in St. Mary's picnic history.

Brandon won by a 4-2 vote in the final round against Elliot and Raymond. It was an exciting and grueling three plus hour competition. Congratulations to Brandon.

7th grade girls win in championship rematch

The 7th grade girls improved to (4-1) on the season with a 22-12 victory over OLP, the school they played for the championship last year.

Marissa had another huge night, scoring 18 points, with 10 of those points coming from the free-throw line. She shot 10-for-14 on the night from the line and is arguably the best free-throw shooter St. Mary's has had in the last several years.

Catharine continued to provide a huge defensive presence, unofficially collecting 8 blocks. She was a beast swatting shot after shot and had about three of them midway through the first quarter.

It was a little sluggish to begin but the girls chipped away as the game progressed. They held their opponent scoreless in the first half. Their defense was really solid, but their offense lacked their regular flow.

Even though they won by 10 points, they still need to fine tune their game for the playoffs. There were some turnovers and bad passes that prevented this game from being more lopsided than it already was.

Beverlyn had 2 points and Serina and Catharine both had one free-throw made on the night.

Happy Birthday

3rd grade inching closer

The 3rd grade girls started their second half of the season with their best game to date, where they took a 3-2 lead into halftime and that lead stood until the fourth quarter.

Unfortunately, the girls tired down in the fourth and could not create enough plays to score and ultimately fell 6-3.

Six points is the least this team has given up and they are making progress game by game.

Miracle scored all 3 points for the 3rd graders with a free-throw in the first and a steal and lay-up in the second.

It was a great effort by the girls tonight and hopefully this could translate into some confidence for the games down the stretch.

"With today's experience I hope they could learn what they did and bring their strength and skills to the next game," said coach Jamie Zhao.

To beard or not to beard...Playoffs start tonight

A resounding 89% of you want to see the playoff beard. I shaved about an hour or two ago and whether I shave again has yet to be determined. I'll see how I feel in a day or two...no promises.

I don't like the beard because it makes me look like a dirty creeper after a while, and it clogs up my nasal passages. But then again, it's hockey tradition, as teams will not shave until the playoffs are over.

What to do...what to do?

Sharks drop the puck tonight against the Colorado Avalanche, 7:30 p.m. on CSN-CA, Channel 41 on most cable systems. Ch. 698 on Direct TV.

And here, a brief look at what happened this Sunday at NDV...

7th and 8th grade video battle

Been a while since we had a new video, so here is the 7th and 8th grade girls knockout as well as their relay races against each other. Patricia was part of the 7th grade team.

Don't forget to vote for my beard.

The 4th/5th grade midseason report

It has been a trying year for the 4th and 5th grade girls, as they started off the season on such a high note, losing just barely in overtime in their first game of the year. Since then, they have lost three straight games and can't find ways to score.

"Bad passing and (bad) movement leads to turnovers," said coach Alex Kawashima. "Lack of aggression and size results in very few offensive rebounds."

The lack of size is something that the girls do not have control over. Other than Isabella, none of the players are really able to get rebounds. Although rebounding is not all about being taller than the other person, it does factor into it. The girls aren't strong enough to box out and perhaps are a little shy about getting in front of a girl that is bigger than them. So more often than not, they are on the outside looking in when the rebounds come.

Defense translates to offense, and their defense right now is average at best. They keep the other team to an acceptable amount of points, but they don't create turnovers. They don't steal the ball and don't run quick enough off of the rebound.

Off of rebounds, they don't fast break and don't have that mindset to go to the basket. They slow it down into a half court set where it's almost impossible for them to score. If you look at the highlights from their first game, a lot of the points were off some rebounds and good outlet passes on fast breaks. But their fast breaks since then have been almost non-existent. They can't get off early shots or get any clean looks and instead the ball is turned over, or a bad shot is forced.

Their defense needs to create more pressure and startle the other team. Right now, they are not very intimidating and other teams can sense that. They can do whatever they want on offense without hesitation.

Offensively, the girls are afraid to shoot. A lot of them have opportunities to, but pass them up, or pass them to Cynthia. Their ball movement is lacking on offense and a lot of it boggles down to the lack of experience.

One other huge factor is that half the team are 4th graders, playing in a 5th grade division. They're simply not strong enough to battle with the likes of 5th graders. Wrestling for balls, speed, quickness, they are overmatched. But they can do the little things like make lay-ups when they need to, suck it up and get a little rough, make free-throws, to compensate for the parts of the game where they don't have much control over.

Keep in mind this team consists of four 4th graders, and that puts them at an immediate disadvantage. In a perfect world, everyone can play against people their own age. Too bad that isn't the case.

One of the bright spots this year has been the improvement of Isabella, who has been a pretty good rebounder and contributing more on the offensive end.

In the bigger picture, they will be fine. It's a matter of when. As long as they keep playing, they will soon break through.

They'll need "lots of practice on the fundamentals of dribbling and passing, and to learn to be more aggressive in pursuit of the basketball," says Alex.

"I just want them to improve their play, which will result in wins, greater confidence and more enjoyment of the game, so that they will be even more motivated to improve. They have a good foundation of skills and a lot of potential to improve them, we just need to see if they have the heart and will inside them to fight back when they are knocked down. Right now we are getting beaten in toughness and heart, not in skill."

Happy Birthdays -- so many in just one day

3rd grade mid-season report

Go back to the first time you played a new sport. For most of you, you were in the upper grades, whether it was basketball, baseball, volleyball or soccer. How nervous were you? Now imagine doing that in 3rd grade. Well that's exactly what our six brave 3rd graders are doing this year in basketball.

At 3rd grade, the attention span is definitely shorter than it is when you get older. As their coaches put it, getting them to listen early on was a big problem. But once they started playing games and realizing how important it was to work hard in practice, they started getting their act together.

"Before when I told them to shoot the basket into the hoop, most of them couldn't even get the basketball to touch the net," said coach Jamie Zhao. "But now, they could all shoot."

Their first two games of the year came real quick, a back-to-back for their welcome to basketball. They had some rough spells in those games but have adapt and are now a bit more acquainted to the game situations. They've started to work a lot more together and pick up plays along the way.

"As third graders, they get the plays pretty fast. And we taught them our high school plays," Jamie said.

"Even the parents can see it," added Alice.

It is a difficult task for Alice and Jamie, who are both in high school, trying to coach a team and go to school at the same time. Both of them played for Washington's JV girls team.

Like all teams at St. Mary's, this team is no different. They will have struggles right out of the gate, but if they are patient and keep working at it, good things will come. Hopefully sooner than later.

"I expect them to help each other more in games," Jamie said. "Run the play more, and I want them to talk during games. They talk during practice a lot but not in games."

"I learned a lot of stuff from teaching these kids," Alice said. "Hopefully they continue basketball and learn more stuff as they grow."

"They learn very quickly," Jamie said. "They've improved tremendously since the beginning of the season. Seeing them each grow more and more in basketball makes me feel very happy."

Monday Monday

What an eventful Monday in the world of sports. Quick recap if you were buried in a hole.

--Crazy finish to the NCAA tournament that saw Duke beat Butler 61-59. Butler missed a half-court buzzer beater that would've given them the NCAA championship. Kudos to both teams for a great season and a pretty good tournament, probably one of the best in recent memory.

--Mixed results for the Bay Area baseball teams. The Giants got in the win column for the first time this year behind reigning CY Young Award winner Tim Lincecum. 5-2 was the final there. On the other side of the bay, the A's lost 5-3. Terrible defense for a team that needs to play good defense. Very St. Mary's like today as they had 4 errors, including an error in the ninth inning that led to the two runs that untied the game. Both teams are back at it tomorrow night.

--Warriors coach Don Nelson one win away from standing alone in the NBA record books, as his next win as a head coach will give him the most wins for a coach in NBA history. History can be made tomorrow night when the Warriors play the Washington Wizards.

Coming up this week on the blog, we will breakdown the first half of the girls basketball seasons, team by team, starting with the 3rd grade girls tomorrow night. Be sure to check back for that. Otherwise, have a good rest of Monday night and a happy Tuesday. Check out the rain from the Oakland Coliseum in yesterday's post if you haven't already.

My Day...

Today I went out to Oakland to await one of the newest members of the Oakland A's, Kevin Kouzmanoff. And I sat in the A's dugout, waiting and waiting and waiting...

So many birthdays in April...

Shoot-a-thon Winners

Again a special thank you to the following who took the time to participate and donate to our sports fund via the shoot-a-thon.

Adrianna, Jonathan, Ryan, Victoria, Brandon T., Brandon K., Brendan, Justin, Isabella, Michael N., Miles, Justin, Marissa, Gavin C., Elliot, Edwena, Emily, Kelvin, Sally, Gary and Derek.

1st Place - Marissa
2nd Place- Brendan
3rd Place - Brandon K.

Winning Class: 5th grade

Thanks again and we couldn't do it without your support.

WEEKEND IN SPORTS
Lot of stuff going on nationally and in the Bay Area this weekend. The biggest story of course it the Final Four of the NCAA basketball tournament for the men and women, with the men's games starting tomorrow afternoon at around 3 p.m. You can watch the games on CBS-5. The winners meet in the championship Monday night. The women's semi-finals featuring Stanford will be played Sunday and coverage can be found on ESPN.

The Sharks wind down their regular season and won tonight in Minnesota 3-2 and play Colorado (again) Sunday in a possible first round preview. Puck drops at 5 p.m. on CSN-CA.

Opening Day is Monday in baseball when the Giants travel to Houston to open their 162 game campaign, while the A's host the Seattle Mariners. The Giants and A's play each other this weekend in the annual pre-season Bay Bridge series.

And finally, the Warriors sans Monta Ellis play out more meaningless games, one tonight against the Knicks and then they travel to Canada Sunday afternoon to play the Raptors.

Happy April Fools Day and Happy Birthday