7th grade comes up short in final round shootout

The good news for the 7th grade boys basketball team, every one of their seven players scored on Saturday.

The bad news, only one of them made a shot in the 4th quarter when it mattered the most.

Nursing a 31-28 lead after three quarters of play, the boys hit just one field goal in the final seven minutes of the game and lost 36-33 in the 3rd place game of the CYO preseason tournament.

This game was back and forth from the beginning as both teams were shooting out of their minds, especially in the 1st quarter.

Willard had a career high 8 points and hit two 3 pointers in the 1st quarter, but did not score after that as the two teams went into the 2nd quarter tied 12-12.

After being held scoreless Wednesday night, Raymond bounced back with a team high 9 points.

The other team did not have much going on inside, but they were launching from the perimeter and hitting. At times they were left wide open around the arc and were pretty consistent in hitting their shots.

Every time the 7th grade would hit a big shot, the other team would come right back and do the same, which made for a very entertaining contest.

But what was entertaining for the crowd was equally as frustrating for the team.

Down 34-33 with less than two minutes to go, the 7th grade had numerous opportunities to go in front, but instead took low percentage shots and turned the ball over.

"We decided to shoot the worst shots, throwing up (prayers) when we still had plenty of time on the clock," said coach Elliot Wong.

"We had plenty of opportunities to win a game that should have been won, but we just couldn't capitalize when it mattered the most."

From the free throw line, Raymond was more than solid, as he went 5-6. The same can't be said for the rest of the players on the team who went a combined 2-6.

Ryan, Garrick and The Twins are all great hustle type players when it comes to getting to balls by the basket. But they all have the same problem in that they can't score like forwards and centers should down in the post.

All of their shots are fundamentally flawed and when they are around the basket, the shots taken look borderline offensive as they sometimes fail to even hit rim, and in some cases throw it over the backboard.

The good thing is they are getting the opportunities. But sooner or later they have to finish.

One of the nicest plays of the game was when Jason Ng ran the 2-on-1 fast break to perfection when he fed Joseph on a pretty pass which resulted in an easy lay-in.