FP 7th Grade Boys Basketball Loses Another Close Game vs Washington 31-34 The Forest Park 7th Grade Boys Basketball team was back in action on Monday for a makeup game vs Washington. With the boys on a 1 game win streak from beating Northeast Dubois in the Tournament, the boys were looking to make it a 2 game win streak. The game started pretty slow for both teams with the Rangers staying in the game. The score was 4-4 midway through the first quarter, but then the Rangers had a hard time scoring. FP found themselves down 4-8 after one quarter, but felt good with where they were at in the game. The second quarter came and the Rangers were able to score a lot easier, scoring 11 total points in the quarter. FP scored 11 points but also gave up 13 points, so the Rangers were down 15-21 at the half. Coach Hochgesang said we were a few bad mistakes and possessions away from being in the lead in this game. Coach spirited his team to have a good third quarter, but again it was tough for the Rangers to score in the start of the second half. FP 7th Grade team was only able to hit one three pointer from Christmas and 2/2 from the FT line by Lueken. The Rangers were down 20-28 going into the final quarter, and Coach Hochgesang was still positive that his team could come back and win this game. The Rangers had their best offensive and defensive quarter in the final quarter, but it just wasn't enough to get over the hump. FP cut the lead to 4 points with three minutes left in the game and Washington's Coach called a timeout. Coach Hochgesang said in this timeout, "we cannot get a 4 point shot right now. We have three minutes left and we need to take good shots." After this timeout, the Rangers found themselves with multiple bad possessions on the offensive end. With less than a minute left in the fourth quarter the Rangers found themselves having to play the foul game down 3 without the ball. With 7 seconds left and a Washington player on the line to shoot 2 free throws, the Rangers were hoping for 2 missed shots. The Rangers got their wish and Coach Hochgesang was able to call a timeout to draw up the last play to get a chance to tie the game. FP was able to get the shot they wanted, but it hit off the back of the rim and the Rangers fell just short again in a close battle. The Rangers had only 7 turnovers on the game and shot 4-5 from the free throw line. Coach Hochgesang was very proud of those two stats, but also said that there were a few possessions that bad decisions were made that cost them the game. This 7th Grade team has been in a lot of close games that they have had to battle back from being down, but each time they have came up short. Coach Hochgesang is hoping that the team can get better throughout this month of January with finishing games with good possessions. The Rangers are back in action at Tecumseh on Thursday evening. Scoring vs Washington : Michael Christmas : 9 points (one 3-pointer, 2/2 FTs) Blake Morrison : 6 points (0/1 FTs) Luke Ebert : 6 (two 3-pointers) Cash Lueken : 5 points (one 3-pointer, 2/2 FTs) Cason Lubbehusen : 3 points (one 3-pointer) Zander Reyling-Schwartz : 2 points