Red Team overlooks opponent, loses, White Team recovers from slow start

Note: Due to tiredness, highlights for Saturday will be in Epic Video #11.

It was not a strong way to end the season for both 8th grade teams. Both of them had some pretty lousy starts.

The White Team recovered to win and the Red Team did not.

The Red Team blew an 8 point lead in the final quarter and lost their final game of the year 44-40, in a game that lacked intensity from the start.

They trailed 11-5 after the first quarter and from then on never had the jump in their step. Their team spirit and energy has completely gone AWOL (missing). Today, two out of the seven players looked like they actually cared about winning a basketball game and their play and result of the game reflected that.

Justin almost single handedly carried the team to a victory scoring 21 points. He made tough inside shots, 3-pointers and was lights out from the free throw line.

Mark, although, only scoring 2 points, hustled and got to many loose balls and was the only player quick on defense.

Everyone else was either basking in their 7th grade championship or mentally just not there.

Their defense and press were non-existent as the other team, without breaking a sweat, just maneuvered around their statue-like defense. They got to the rim at will and launched wide open jump shots from beginning until the end.

Right now, mentally the Red Team is not there, and they haven't recovered from their horrendous showing last Friday night.

For a team that had championship bound written all over them two weeks ago, they'll be lucky their playoff game is even close if they continue to put up the same effort they put forth this afternoon.

Miles, for the third time this season, fouled out. And for the second straight week, he picked up his fifth foul on a offensive foul.

Justin did hit a 3-pointer that gave them a lead with less than two minutes left, but they stopped scoring after that.

Their defense obliged by collapsing, yielding easy shots down the stretch.

The bad news is that the Red Team is extremely vulnerable right now, and they are mired in a slump. The good news is that the playoffs is a whole new season, and a solid performance in their playoff game will make this all an after thought.

But if this slippery slope continues, their last three regular season games will be looked at as the beginning of the end, and another lost opportunity.

White Team gets by despite sloppy play
After the game, head coach John Wang was not happy about his team's play.

Wang said his team's play was not up to par and the all around execution was poor. Luckily, their competition was just as bad, if not worse.

In the end, it was a 28-13 victory, the White Team's seventh win of the regular season.

At (7-1), they will be the number two seed in their division.

Mark tied his career high scoring 24 points but Wang said Mark played very selfish in spurts of the game and that led to the team's lackluster play.

When Mark can distribute and get his teammates involved, the team clicks. When Mark scores all the points, the offensive flow is disrupted and his teammates can't get into a rhythm.

Not all of this can be pinned on Mark as some of his teammates did not shoot the ball very well. According to Wang, Gavin Lin was "0-for-14" and couldn't buy a bucket.

Calson reverted back to his old form and scored only 2 points and a Gavin Chan jumper late in the game accounted for the other two points in the game Mark didn't score.

Hopefully this will also serve as a wake up call to the White Team that winning isn't easy and it takes hard work to get to where you want to be.

Like the Red Team, they'll have a few practices to figure it out before the next big game comes.