Saturday Recap: 4th grade loses for the first time

The much anticipated showdown between the number one and number two teams in the fourth grade division turned out to be one sided.

Jonathan and the 4th grade were held to only 10 points, their lowest output of the season, and lost for the first time in the regular season 30-10.

They were pretty much outmatched by the bigger, faster and stronger opponent. To win these games, you need to play a perfect game and that wasn't what the 4th graders did.

The 4th grade trailed 7-0 early on and could never get into the groove of the game.

From the looks of things, this could be a potential championship preview if both teams win their playoff games.

But for the 4th graders to beat this team is going to take a lot of hard work in a short period of time.

Red Team escapes with a win
It had disaster written all over it, as the Red Team was down 33-32 with 1:30 left in the game.

They hadn't hit an outside shot the entire game, and luckily, one of them finally fell through.

Justin buried a clutch 3-pointer to give the 8th graders a 35-33 lead, and Jeremy hit two clutch free-throws down the stretch to seal a 37-33 win against Cathedral in a championship rematch from last season.

Cathedral shuffled its roster a bit with players moving up and down the divisions so the make-up of this team was different than the team they played a year ago. Nonetheless, it was a back and forth game with lead changes all game long.

The Red Team trailed by two and played a strong third quarter to give themselves a two point cushion at the end of three. But their rebounding, even with Miles in the game, has been very suspect of late.

The posts that are normally there are a lot of times out of place and the other teams have been slipping in to get the offensive rebounds. That's one area that they will need to address.

Jeremy had a strong game with 8 points, and had numerous nice drives to the basket.

Miles played a more controlled game today and had his typical offensive output, scoring a game high 21 points. He didn't commit a foul in the first half but was called for four fouls in the second half.

Miles is an intimidating presence in the middle and can be a great defender but he has trouble playing defense without fouling. There are times where he tries to play defense, and challenges the shot, and gets called for the foul. So instead of risking the foul call, sometimes Miles will just stand still, which is not a good way to play defense either. He needs to find some common ground.

Right now, the Red Team is (5-2) with one game to go, and may have already clinched a playoff berth, depending the outcome of a game this weekend.

Regardless of their post-season fate, they are going to need to get back the momentum they had a week ago, and shake off the rust they showed this past weekend.

Justin had 6 points in the win.


Big second half keys White Team win
Calson had one of his best games of the year, scoring 10 points, as the White Team picked up win number six on the season by a final score of 33-17.

Mark had a game high 19 points, and made some pretty solid passes in the second half, one in particularly to Robert, who scored 2 points in the game. He had a great pass late in the game to Gavin Lin, who missed the wide open lay-up.

At (6-1) they have locked up second place in their division and will play the third seeded team.

They have beaten all the teams in their division except for the undefeated first place team. If everything stays the course, it'll be a showdown between number one and two for the championship in February.

However, they still have one more game to go in the regular season, against the team they played today. The White Team has beat them twice already.

Last time these two teams met, it took overtime to finish the job. This time, they controlled the second half and put the game away in the third.

They led 16-9 at halftime and made sure there would be no letdown or comeback by the other team.

Gavin Lin did score two points in the first half on a nice putback lay-up.

Post play disappoints in 7th grade loss
The 7th grade dug themselves an early 12-0 hole, never recovered and lost for the second time this season 25-11.

They are not a half court team, but because of their lack of rebounding inside, they became a half court team. If they can get steals, rebounds and get out on the run, they will be a hard team to beat. When they play station to station, they are definitely beatable and they were today.

It was a rough day for the post players as they were unable to get any type of rebound all game long. Guys half their size were taking shots over them as if nobody was guarding them.

It was a lot of ball watching, and soft play, with no physical contact underneath. The other team had their way with the 7th graders.

Pablo was held to only 4 points, and Anthony Shem made a free throw in the third quarter.

They had a brief run in the second quarter when Anthony Horn scored 4 points off the bench to cut the lead to 13-6. But they never got closer.

The big men on this team need to toughen up and play like big men, or else it could be a very sour off-season for a team that has made drastic strides since opening day.