8th grade comes up short and takes second place

The 8th grade girls battled hard in the championship game Thursday night at St. Emydius, but ultimately fell 27-17 in their final game in a St. Mary's uniform.

In the end, the effort was there, the execution was not.

Trailing only 8-5 after one, the girls were outscored 8-0 and were down 16-5 at halftime. They never recovered.

Offensively, they got off some good shots, but none of them were falling. They were whistled for three five second inbounds violations in the first half alone.

Defensively, they forced the other team to stay on the outside, but they could not rebound. This team, that has so much size and fight in them down low, gave up so many second, third, fourth, fifth and even sixth opportunities for the other team.

None more symbolic than a possession in the 2nd quarter when they failed to grab a rebound, and the other team basically had shooting practice, launching before they finally hit a shot to make it 10-5.

Julia was the fastest girl on the court, coming up with steal after steal, but she was unable to turn those turnovers into points.

In general, the girls had trouble taking care of the ball.

Cynthia was held scoreless in the first half before coming alive in the second half. She had 11 points for a team high but it wasn't enough to overcome their mistakes.

To win this game, the girls needed to take their game to that next level, but unfortunately couldn't. Not practicing as a team consistently or practicing in general, focusing on fundamentals and basics of the game definitely hurt them in the biggest game of their careers.

Melina hit a 3 pointer in the 3rd quarter and ended the night with 5 points while Julia added a free throw.

For the sixth time in seven years, a St. Mary's 8th grade team has taken second place. It's great to make it this far but always bittersweet when coming up short.

But you could never tell from the girls' faces following the game as they posed for pictures, as they were grateful to have come this far.

Would it have been nice to have gone out as first place champions? Sure.

But in life, everything's relative.

The girls felt like they did their best, and that's all that matters.