Fourth time the charm for the 6th graders

The 6th grade boys have won the most basketball games within the last three years of any St. Mary's basketball team, so winning games for them is the norm.

In fact, they've only lost three times in the last two years, all to their opponent Saturday, OLV. So forgive them for being a little giddy after finally beating them 36-32 to take over first place in their division.

After losing their last three games to OLV by a combined 5 points, Jonathan and Jason Lei scored when it mattered most as the 6th grade finally beat their arch-rival.

The 6th grade was trailing 28-26 with less than two minutes left when Jonathan hit one of his three 3-pointers to give St. Mary's a 29-28 lead. He split his free throws the next time down the court and gave the 6th grade a two point cushion.

#24, as we call him in our circles, tied the game on a beautiful move to the basket, and Jonathan answered right back with his own drive to the bucket as the 6th grade regained their lead.

Then #24 repeated the same script and scored another two tough points and the game was knotted at 32-32 with about a minute to go.

Off a quick inbounds, Jonathan found Jason Lei on the wing who then took it to the basket for an easy lay-up to make it 34-32.

After a rare miss by #24, Jason Lei, who could've iced the game by just passing the ball around, took it strong to the hole again and gave the 6th grade a four point lead with about 17 seconds to go, which pretty much sealed the game.

This will most likely not be the last time these two teams meet, as both are having fine seasons, and almost destined to clash again in the post-season.

If anything, they may be joined at the hip, because both teams are so similar they are likely to move into the same division for the next two years if the two squads can keep up their play.

Jonathan had a game high 21 points and Jason Lei chipped in with 11 points. The two combined to score 10 points in the last two minutes of the game which proved to be the difference.

By no means was this the best the 6th grade has looked this year in a game, but they did play well for better portions of the game. They gave up quite a few second chance points off of rebounds, and had trouble occasionally getting back on defense.

Foul trouble hurt both teams as two players on OLV fouled out with less than two minutes to go and they were left with only 4 players to finish the game.

Jason Lei picked up his fourth foul midway through the 4th quarter and was almost relegated to being a statue for the rest of the game.

Both of the teams made their runs, with St. Mary's jumping out to an early lead of 18-9 early in the 2nd quarter.

But OLV stormed right back and went on a 10-0 run to end the first half, and the 6th grade trailed 19-18 at halftime.

One of the unsung heroes of this game was Jason H. who scored 2 points, but more importantly came down with a big rebound which caused a jump ball late in the game. Jason does a lot of little things right that do not get enough attention, as he is often in the right spot at the right time, and he does a good job taking care of the ball.

A good example was late in the game when he could've rushed an inbounds pass to Michael, which would've been disastrous as the other team was waiting to pick off the pass.

Instead, he was patient, waited an extra second and threw a hard pass to Jonathan, who then took it in for a huge bucket. He also assisted on Jonathan's 3 pointer late in the fourth.

If part four was any indication of how intense this rivalry has become, part five should be even better.