Offense stalls as 7th grade loses in playoffs

The 7th grade girls were defeated in the playoffs Thursday Night 16-11, in a game which was winnable to say the least.

For a team that should've been excited and pumped up for their first ever playoff appearance, they looked more like a team that was playing in the CYO tournament for the first time all season.

There was a lack of jump in everybody's step, and hardly any energy from any of the five girls in the 1st quarter.

Bad looking shots, turnovers, lazy passes, and yet the girls were still only down 3-0 after one.

Tiffany scored 4 points in the span of a minute in the 2nd quarter, which got the girls going a little bit offensively, and Cynthia made her only field goal of the game with a runner late in the half which at the time cut the lead to 7-6.

With less than 10 seconds to go, the other team drove down the court off of a made basket, and banked in a 3-pointer at the buzzer, an absolute dagger, which made it 10-6 at halftime.

Any momentum the girls gained with the Cynthia bucket was erased by the lucky three.

Amy made a nice putback rebound and Cynthia hit a free throw to begin the 3rd Quarter and just like that the girls were within one.

However, the girls would score only one more time the rest of the second half, on an Amy bank shot midway through the fourth.

Even though they were not at their sharpest, they could've easily won this game. They missed a ton of lay-ups down low, and were an awful 1-for-8 from the free throw line.

With two minutes left in the game, Cynthia had a chance to cut the lead to three points, but her free throws were off.

Cynthia was held to only 3 points.

Having only five girls looked like it finally caught up to the 7th grade as they looked a step slow the entire game. They weren't winning the battles to the loose ball and played defense with their arms.

The other team, although not world-beaters by any stretch, were aggressive, trying to rip the ball away from the girls. The 7th graders however hardly did any of that in a game that lacked any type of rhythm.

It was a slow and painful way to lose a playoff game, as it looked like neither team wanted to really take control of this game.

Turnovers were another problem, and the team chemistry they exhibited in their past three wins were not there tonight.

Many of the passes were just floated toward the vicinity of a girl in red, and there was hardly any communication on the court between the five girls.

Mistakes like the ones that were in the game are a result of not having consistent practices, since the five girls showed up to practice as a whole only a handful of times.

Despite the tough loss, the girls did have a good season. At (2-3), they needed to win at least two of the final three games for a playoff spot and did one better, sweeping all three and getting the number three seed in the playoffs.

We saw Cynthia really get her game on track after a slow start, and really take her game to another level. After not playing last year, she was a bit rusty. But as the season went on, she became more efficient all around.

Julia, in her first season of playing basketball, really made strides as well as the season went on and even had a career high 10 points in a game.

Melina and Amy both developed into decent rebounders down low for a team that lacked size since their center left the team in the middle of the year.

Tiffany had a bad 1st quarter in the playoff game, but bounced back strong, and started the comeback with 4 points in the second.

With another year's of experience, the girls will look to up their game to another level and make their final year a memorable one come next Spring.