Congratulations to Notre Dame, winners of St. Bernard's sixth and seventh grade boys intermediate basketball championship. The boys' 38-31 win completed a dream season, with a 13-0 record with Chris Bourgade hitting his final four foul shots to beat LSU. Coaches Mike Pellegrino and Gary Ferraro are proud of the boys' achievements this year and commend all the boys for their team play in which everyone contributed with scoring and fine play.

Justin Merk, the team's power center, scored first, when he went to the foul line and hit his first attempt. From there, the team never looked back and quickly jumped to a 15-5 lead in the first quarter. The team's leading scorer was Mike Pellegrino, who scored five of his nine points in the first quarter to compile a commanding lead. Contributing to the team's early lead were All-Star forward Dan Ferraro, legendary Bulldog Patrick Reilly, and the great Jordan Schantz, who all hit key jump shots to keep Notre Dame ahead in the first half, by the score of 21-9.

During the third quarter Matt Passatempo, the league's leading scorer with 136 points, went to business with his superb ball handling and timely scoring by adding eight points. All-Star center Vinny Semonella had the toughest job of all battling LSU's key player Kevin Licul for every rebound and keeping LSU from climbing back into the game, increasing the lead to 27-19. But LSU was not through. They fought back with key baskets from Kevin and Andrew Licul, Mike Wells, John Milonackis and key foul shooting by Dylan Hahn to close the gap while Matt Passatempo found John "the Man" Kobilca with a basket under the hoop.

Other contributers for LSU included Josh Barry, Dan Magorrian, Kyle Frenger and Chris Owens. Then with under a minute left, LSU, coached by Dave Owens, cut the lead to 34-31 when Chris Bourgade was fouled two times. He then hit four consecutive foul shots to preserve the win and lead Notre Dame to the championship. Chris said it was "an honor and a great feeling to help the team win such an important game."