5th grade takes over first place

The 5th grade girls stand alone in first place after a 23-16 win Saturday morning, in a battle of undefeated teams.

After scoring the first two points of the game, the other team answered back with 6 straight and took a 6-2 lead after the 1st quarter. One girl on the opposition hit three shots in the first all from the same spot, which put the 5th graders in a hole early on in the game.

But the girls responded in the second, tightening up their defense and took a lead into halftime.

Kaela was a one woman wrecking crew again, and set a new career high with 20 points. After an off game last week, Kaela came back and was able to finish on the majority of her lay-ups.

It remained tight through but the 5th graders stretched out their lead late in the 4th quarter.

Clinging to a 16-13 lead, the girls worked hard on the glass and Becky picked up a rebound in front of the basket and banked in her only shot of the game to give the girls a 5 point lead.

Kaela later iced the game in the final minute with an impressive full court drive where she weaved her way through the defense, and then she capped off her record setting day with a step back jumper from the wing that left the other team shaking their heads.

It's likely these two teams will meet again in the post-season, so they are going to need some more offense from the entire team. Besides Kaela, Becky's basket was the only field goal scored by someone else on the team. Michaela had a free throw in the first half.

With her speed and quickness, it's tough for many teams to stop Kaela, but she'll need to involve her teammates more in the offense down the stretch. There were times she had to force up shots and that's never a good sign.

When Kaela was double-teamed, other girls on the team had trouble securing the ball and getting it down-court. So the 5th graders definitely need others to step up if the game plan for the other team is to blanket Kaela.

Defensively, Lily did a solid job and is getting better by the game, as she blocked two shots and grabbed several rebounds throughout the course of the game.

At (5-0), the girls have clinched a playoff spot and will now play for the number one seed.

This is a team that has only two holdovers, Michaela and Ivy, from the team last season. It's still a brand new team and yet they find themselves in first place five games into the season.