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By Fernando Gonzalez and Ismael Ruiz

The Granite Hills Grizzlies’ already bad season just keeps getting worse as they faced the Monache Marauders on Wednesday night.

The Grizzlies came in fast and ready to play, but Monache was prepared and showed why they were Polly Wilhelmsen Champions.

The Grizzlies let the Marauders get to an early lead and simply let them do whatever they pleased. It was starting to look like another long night for the Grizzlies.

Monache’s Miguel Perez kept driving the ball in for lay up after lay up, increasing the score and also wearing out the Grizzly Defense.

It wasn’t until the second quarter when the Grizzlies woke up and realized that they were in deep trouble and started to play some real Grizzly basketball to get themselves back into the game.

Sophomore Josh Lewis brought his “A” game and picked up the scoring, turning defense into points, with 12 points on the night. Racing up and down the court the Grizzlies were able to score layups and also bring the Monache offense to a halt. They brought it within 10 points before halftime for a score of 17-27.

The crowd that was once dormant in the first half came alive as the Grizzlies came onto the court to start off the second half.

There was still plenty of time left and it was still anybody’s game, which meant that things were going to heat up and the intensity of the players was going to be a lot higher.

Almost immediately the pushing and shoving began and bodies were falling all over the court, making fouls seem inevitable for both teams. Both teams wanted the win, for pride and for bragging rights.

Lewis got tangled with a Monache player, drawing a foul, but the Monache player spent the next few minutes writhing on the ground in pain. He walked off the court with the help of his coaches.

However, things just did not go as planned for the Grizzlies as they fell short and got swept by the Marauders in the 2010-11 Boys basketball season. The game’s final score was Granite Hills 36, Monache Marauders 49. Granite’s leading scorers were Lewis, senior Tello Guzman with eight points, senior Erik Bartlett with six points, and Dante Cunningham with five points.

The seniors on the Grizzly team were devastated after seeing that they had just played Monache for the last time and were not able to come out victorious. They still all played a great game and left it all out on the court and went out swinging.

“It definitely isn’t the best way to go out. We were there at the beginning of the game but in the second half we had too many turnovers and other mistakes to catch up,” Bartlett said.

This Grizzly team is still very young and has a very bright future for the years to come. However, for now, the Grizzlies must play for respect and show other teams what they are made of and what they can achieve.

Come support the Grizzlies as the 2010-11 basketball season is coming close to an end. They face Mission Oaks on Tuesday Feb. 8 in the Granite Hills Gym.