5th grade drops second game of the year

By Justin Lee and Cynthia Leung 

In what was a very lackluster performance, the 5th grade boys lost for the second time in three games, 16-13 Saturday afternoon.

From the start, you could tell this was not the same team that had won five games and is bound for a playoff appearance.

Their offense was in shambles and their defense lazy as many of the players did not seem emphatic about playing. It was as if they didn't want to play until the 4th quarter. They let the little things get to them and weren’t paying attention on the court or in the huddles.

They actually led 4-2 after the 1st quarter, but from that point on, the game went downhill, scoring just one point the entire 2nd quarter and trailed 6-5 at halftime.

Then came a disastrous 3rd quarter, which put them behind five points to start the fourth. With some urgency, they stepped up their game in the fourth quarter. The 5th graders began their full-court press and played very aggressive defense.

You could see that they began to want to win and played with passion, something that was missing the first three quarters.

The 5th graders forced the other team to turn over the ball, leading to points for the 5thgraders, including two nice jump shots by Brendan, who had the game high of 7 points. They only allowed the other team 2 points in the fourth quarter. But, they started playing real basketball too late and ultimately lost by three.

One thing they didn't show Saturday was teamwork or good team chemistry. There was a lot of finger-pointing and a lack of collective effort. A lot of it was just 1-on-1 play. Many of the strengths and good points of this team did not show in this game.

Sloppy ball movement, irrational decision making, passive defense and running into traffic ultimately doomed this team.

 This team has the potential to make a deep run in this season, but with games like this, we can see there is still a lot of work to be done