| ATHLETE OF THE WEEK (click here for past winners) This week PQ Sports is honoring as athlete of the week RPB's 5th grade boys Champion Magic team. The Magic season started off slowly. They lost their first six games, but the first five losses were by a total of 14 points so they were keeping the games close. Their defense kept them in games, but they were having a hard time scoring. The Magic got their first win of the season in their seventh game, when both teams had only six players available for the game. They got their second win in their last game of the regular season and finished tied for last place in their division with a 2-8 record. Every team makes the tournament and they were the #10 seed out of eleven teams. Their first game of the tournament was against the #7 seeded Suns, and the boys came out and played a great game to win 38-29. Having beaten the Suns in an upset, they won the right to play the next day against the #2 seeded Celtics, one of four teams tied for first place with a 7-3 record. The boys came out playing stifling defense and with some early baskets had a double digit lead by halftime. The Magic ended up winning the game 30-21 in an upset. The following weekend the Magic encountered the #3 seeded Heat. The Magic started off slowly, getting behind by as many as five points early in the game, but fought back to trail by only one point at the half. The Magic turned up the heat defensively in the second half allowing only a single basket to the Heat in each of the last two quarters to win the game 25-17 in another upset. In the championship game the Magic played the #1 seeded Sonics. The Sonics had beaten each of the other three teams tied for first place and had finished the season by winning their last four regular season games, so they were on a six game winning streak counting the tournament games. The previous game between these two teams had been a one point Magic loss on a last second basket. Showing a little bit of the nerves early in the championship game, the Magic again started off slow, while the Sonics shot the ball well and took a 13-10 halftime lead. Once again the Magic defense took control in the second half, allowing no points by the Sonics in the second half and winning the game 20-13. After the way the Magic had played in the three previous games, this result could not be considered an upset. As coach Scott Lohnes says, "This Magic team is truly special. They started the season as a group of individual players, but turned into a team that played their best basketball when all eight players were present." Congrats to the Magic and to all the other RPB championship teams! If you would like to nominate a young athlete for athlete of the week, please send Chris Wood an email at chris@pqsports.com |
| 2007 RPB 5th Grade Magic Number Player 1 AJ King 2 Harrison Qi 3 Blake Noelte 4 Tyler Faurot 5 Daniel Cole 6 Grant Castillo 7 Connor Larrick 8 Sam Lohnes |
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