7th grade wins on Justin's buzzer beater

Like Leslie told the 7th graders after the game Friday night, every game is going to be just like this.

After losing by a point in their opener last Sunday, Friday night's thriller came down to the final seconds and it was an unlikely hero that put his name into St. Mary's history.

In the game's final seconds, Justin picked up an offense rebound in point blank range and scored on a putback as time expired to give the 7th graders a 49-47 win.

It was the first St. Mary's buzzer beater to win the game in the modern era.

The 7th grade (1-1) had the ball with 29 seconds left and planned to milk as much of the clock as possible to get the final shot.

With the game tied 47-47, Jason Lei drove to the basket and drew a little contact and almost got his shot to go into the basket. But on the rebound, the other team jumped on the scrum and called a timeout, even though the player looked like he rolled on the ground and traveled.

Following the timeout, the other team's inbounder took almost a full step onto the court, stepping over the boundary, which turned the ball over back to St. Mary's.

Allen inbounded the ball to Jonathan who took a long jump shot that didn't even hit the rim. But Justin was in the right place at the right time and made the biggest shot of his career. He said after the game it was his "top one" moment.

Late game heroics overshadowed a monster game and career night for Jason who scored a personal best 31 points.

For a player his size, he has great control with the ball, and he's so strong by the basket, not many teams can contain him. He accounted for several fast break lay-ups down the stretch to keep the game close.

Neither team was able to stretch their lead to more than just a few buckets. The 7th graders trailed 23-22 at halftime, and the game continued to go see-saw the rest of the way.

Jonathan scored 15 points, which is a little modest for one of the best shooters at the school. In his first two regular season games, Jonathan hasn't really been able to get into a rhythm shooting from the outside.

Teams are really starting to gameplan around Little Johnny, so he'll need to make adjustments in order to regain his touch.

Like the 8th grade, the 7th grade needed this win.

The last thing on their Christmas wish list was an (0-2) start.