Eighth Graders Lead Saints into Overtime Thriller on Parents’ Night

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Our outstanding eighth grade basketball players finished out their regular season careers last Friday night against the undefeated Cougars from Cross of Christ. It has long been a tradition at Salem to dedicate the last home game of the season to the parents of the eighth grade class. Parents’ Night always brings lots of emotions, as the eighth grade athletes present their biggest advocates with a flower. Each eighth grader introduced their parents and gave them a heartfelt, personal thank you that was truly awesome! The basketball parents mean so much to the entire athletic program at Salem.
    Playing against the top team in our conference, our Saints played perhaps the most inspired game of basketball I have seen in all four of my coaching years at Salem. Led by eighth graders Griffin (18 points) and John (12 points), our Salem Saints went toe-to-toe all night long with a Cross of Christ team that had very good size and skill from multiple players. Getting the opportunity to play in their beloved gym one last time, all of our eighth graders made key contributions to force the game into overtime. Eighth grader Sophia started the game at wing and gave us very solid minutes with her textbook defensive stance and positioning within our excellent zone defense. Our other eighth grade starter, Reese, started and played the entire game at post, battling relentlessly all night long in the interior against a very skilled post from the Cougars. Reese did an excellent job of playing with his body to avoid fouls while also forcing their big post into foul trouble by sacrificing his body to take a key charge on the defensive end! Perhaps the most memorable moment of the night came from our fearless fourth grader (yes, FOURTH grader!) Gideon (6 points) who started and played the entire game against kids three to four years older than him! Gideon made three clutch baskets in three key moments of the game! He has truly incredible touch around the basket for a kid his age!
    With thirty seconds left in overtime, our Saints had the ball down by two points. Cross of Christ played tenacious man-to-man defense and did an excellent job of denying all our attempted passes in the last possession. Unfortunately for our Saints, the undefeated Cougars were able to escape with their perfect record intact as we were not able to get off a high quality shot in the waning seconds of overtime (final score: 36-38).
    Even though we came up short on the scoreboard, I could not have been more proud of the way our Saints battled on Friday. With their extraordinary performance, our special eighth graders made quite a memory in their final home game! The Saints made both their parents and coaches proud in the way they maximized their God-given abilities to represent their school and Lord!
    Our Salem A Team will not have a game next Friday as we prepare for the upcoming TCLGSAL tournament starting on Friday, February 8th.

By: Coach Travis Koester

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