If you needed some evidence as to why the 8th grade girls are in the division they are, their play this afternoon suggested that they are exactly where they belong.
Up against a team that they beat by 19 points to start the season, they crawled their way to a 17-9 win in a game where they weren't as bad as the opponent.
Perhaps it was the rust or the humid gym, but the girls looked several steps slow and at times uninterested during stretches of the game.
Maria had 3 fouls alone before the first half ended and Amanda fouled out of the game with a little over a minute left, leaving the team with only four players on the court to finish the game. They only dressed five this afternoon.
The girls got off to a quick start and led 4-0 right off the bat. The strong first minute of the game led most people to believe that this was going to be another one-sided affair, but the 8th graders stopped working after that.
At halftime, it was a very bland 9-2. Little by little, the girls would score points. There was no rush or flurry of offense or more than one possession of consistent play. They played a game that could only be described as a painful and slow death.
To their defense, it's tough to get up for games when the outcome is already pretty much set in stone. No team in this division can beat the 8th grade, so for them to get motivated is a tough chore.
But they need to put all that aside for the rest of the season because strange things can happen when you don't play your best, and an upset in the playoffs or championship would be one of epic proportions.
Their record, despite their lackluster performance this afternoon is (7-0). They have already clinched first place in their division and have only one more game in the regular season before the playoffs.
They'll need to get back to their ways of playing when the other team leaves the game thinking that the 8th graders should be in a higher division.
For today, their performance made the placement seem right.
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