Class of 2024 Newspaper | January 24, 2020

Lion Pride Newspaper

4th Edition Friday, December 20, 2020

Jokes, Riddles, & Comics Section Comics

Jokes and Riddles Question:​ What has to be broken before you can use it?

Answer:​ An egg

Q:​ I’m tall when I’m young, and I’m short when I’m old. What am I? A:​ A candle

Q:​ What month of the year has 28 days?

A:​ All of them

Q:​ What is full of holes but still holds water?

A:​ A sponge

Q: ​What can travel around the world while staying in a corner?

A:​ ​A Stamp

Q: ​You can drop me from the tallest building and I'll be fine, but if you drop me in the water I die. What am I? A:​ ​Paper

Q: ​Only one color, but not one size. Stuck at the bottom, yet I easily fly. Present in sun, but not in rain. Doing no harm, and feeling no pain. What Am I? A:​ ​A shadow

Q: ​Turn me on my side and I am everything. Cut me in half and I am nothing.

What am I? A: ​The number 8. On its side is infinity, cut the symbol in half, you get two zeros.

Q:​ I get whiter the dirtier I get. What am I? A:​ A chalkboard.

School Section Alumni Games The alumni games occurred a few weeks ago on Saturday, January 4 when the varsity basketball, soccer, and water polo teams competed against former St. Mark’s alumni. The alumni won the water polo match for their 5th straight water polo victory against the varsity, and the two soccer teams drew after the alumni team stormed back from a 3-0 deficit to even it up at 3-3. In the basketball game, the varsity squad dominated, winning 89-60 on the back of Tate Laczkowski, who scored over 20 points, but the teams agreed to play another half for all the marbles.

This game was much closer, but with seconds left, 7th-grade Humanities teacher, Tim Mank made a buzzer-beater, and the alumni won a thriller. The hero says, “It was just another shot.”

Photo Contest Thanks to everyone who submitted. Here are the placings for this photo contest.

Asa McCaleb Yosemite National Park Rainbow on the Rocks

Clark Cooper Homestake Peak Colorado A long ways to go

Reed Sussman Miami Ship Afloat

Review Section Movie Reviews

Knives Out: Nurse Marta Cabrera gets caught in the middle of her full-time patient and world-renown mystery book author Harlan Thrombey’s death, and everyone is a suspect. Detective Benoit Blanc comes on the scene, and everyone in Thrombey’s family has a secret that reveals what happened step by step. This movie is a great mystery-comedy that everyone should watch and keeps you on the edge of your seat. Let’s just say there’s a reason it’s rated 97% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: The new Star Wars movie, released about a month ago, has garnered a lot of attention, and most of it isn’t very good. Emperor Palpatine returns, which is making many Star Wars fans say that this makes Anakin’s death and sacrifice much less meaningful. In the movie, the Rebels must find where he is and stop him from forming a new Empire. It isn’t the last Star Wars movie, but it is the last movie in this trilogy. It’s not terrific, but it’s still a good movie, and I recommend you to watch it.

What’s New In Technology Overall, 2019 was a great year for tech here are our picks for the top 5 gaming keyboards, mice and headphones.

Keyboards- all have RGB 1. Ducky One 2 Mini- this is a 60% keyboard perfect for gamers that want to save space on your desk. It is available with Cherry MX switches, which are the most durable and well-built switches.

2. Razer Huntsman TE- this is a TKL (ten keyless) keyboard getting rid of the numpad. This keyboard is only available for red linear switches, which are perfect for streamers since they are very quiet. The stabilizers on the keyboard are probably the best on the list.

3. Logitech G Pro X- this is the re-release on the very popular Logitech G Pro keyboard. But this time they have added the hot-swappable feature where you can switch out the mechanical switches in the keyboard if you are not a fan of their GX switches (rebranded Kale switches).

4. SteelSeries Apex Pro- This keyboard is one of a type, with its onboard OLED display and the adjustable switch actuation. But it comes with a large price tag and there could be an improvement of this mass production keyboard.

5. Glorious GMMK Compact- This is yet another 60% keyboard. This one comes from the well-known company Glorious, well known for its Model O mouse. This keyboard is hot-swappable and has a very sturdy build quality.

Mice1. Razer Viper Ultimate 2. Glorious Model O/D 3. G-Wolve Hati/Skoll 4. Zowie Divia EC2B 5. Logitech G604 Lightspeed

Sports Section NFL Playoff Recap The NFL season ended a few weeks ago, but the playoffs gave us some fun games and intriguing upsets.

Wild Card Round:​ In the first round, the Titans defeated the Patriots in an unexpected upset on the back of Derrick Henry, with 182 yards on 34 carries and a touchdown. It was a tough end for possibly the Patriots’ final year with Brady.

The Bills were up 16-0 on the Texans with 6 minutes remaining in the third quarter, but the Texans came back, cutting the lead to 16-11 and having the ball with 10 minutes left. They went up 19-16, and after a few drives, the Bills got the ball back with a minute left. Josh Allen led them down the field and tied the game up, but after a 3-and-out in overtime, Houston shut down Buffalo and hit the game-winning field goal. Seattle easily got past Philadelphia, even though the score was 17-9, and the Saints lost yet another heartbreaking playoff game, as the Vikings moved on to the Divisional Round after overtime, winning 26-20.

Divisional Round:​ In the second round, the AFC once again had more drama, so we’ll start with the NFC. The 49ers proved they deserved the #1 seed, beating Minnesota 27-10 thanks to a suffocating defense. In a much better game, the Packers edged Seattle 28-23. They built a 21-3 at halftime and were up 28-10 midway through the third quarter. Seattle fought back, but couldn’t score on a drive starting from their 23-yard line with 5 minutes left. In the AFC, the Titans dismantled a dominant Ravens team who had won 14 straight before this game.

Tennessee jumped out to an early 14-0 lead, but the Ravens made it 14-6 at halftime. But Derrick Henry led the Titans to two third-quarter touchdowns and they finished the upset 28-12 over a shocked Baltimore. It looked like another upset would occur when Houston sprinted out to a 24-0 lead over Kansas City, but the Chiefs proceeded to score 28 points in 11 minutes to take the 28-24 halftime lead. They continued to lay it on the Texans and blew them out 51-31 after scoring 41 unanswered points.

Conference Championships:​ The conference championships were fairly uneventful. San Francisco kept up the outstanding work and crafted a 27-0 lead over Green Bay, and cruised to a 37-20 win and are going to the Super Bowl. They will be joined by the Chiefs, who prevented Tennessee from pulling off another upset. Kansas City didn’t flinch when they were down 17-7 after 15 minutes and scored 28 unanswered points to fly to a 35-24 victory. The Super Bowl looks like it will be a fun one, with the high-scoring Chiefs taking on the very balanced 49ers.

College Football Bowl Season Recap:​ The bowl season was a lot of fun, filled with duds in games we thought would be exciting, and unexpected thrillers. Probably the two best bowl games were the Rose Bowl and the Fiesta Bowl. Oregon and Wisconsin traded blows in an exciting Rose Bowl, with Oregon coming out on top, 28-27 in a game with 6 lead changes and one tie, and the largest lead in the game was 7, lasting for a total of 12 seconds. In the CFP semifinal Fiesta Bowl, Ohio State jumped out to an early lead, but Clemson battled back to take the 29-23 win. It featured fantastic offense and defense, and a little bit of controversy near the end. In the other semifinal, LSU dominated Oklahoma 63-28, en route to another route in the Championship game over Clemson, 42-25, with LSU winning 28-7 after midway through the second quarter. LSU had a very successful year, and will probably go down in history as a top 10 college football champion.

Next Year’s Prediction:​ The 2020 college football year looks like it will be very interesting, with a plethora of teams in the mix for the title. Here are my conference title game predictions and predicted top ten at the end of 2020: AAC: Cincinnati over Houston ACC: Clemson over North Carolina Big 10: Ohio State over Wisconsin Big 12: Oklahoma over Iowa State Pac-12: Oregon over USC SEC: Alabama over Florida

1. Clemson 2. Oregon 3. Oklahoma 4. Ohio State 5. Alabama 6. Florida 7. Georgia 8. Michigan 9. Cincinnati 10. Iowa State

Midway Through The NBA Season Every NBA team has played their 41st game recently, marking the halfway point of the NBA season. The NBA has been overshadowed by the NFL up to this point, but in a couple weeks(and after the Super Bowl) it will be a lot more interesting as the playoff picture starts to form in each conference. Zion Williamson has just come back from injury, and that will only add to the excitement. Mavs star Luka Doncic has had a breakout 2nd year, Lebron James is still Lebron James in his 17th season, and reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo has led his Bucks to the best record in the NBA right now. The Western Conference race for the last playoff spot is very hectic right now, with 6 of the 7 non-playoff teams 5 games or less out of the playoffs. The Lakers hold the top spot and it looks like it will remain that way, but the 2-7 seeds could go anywhere. The Eastern Conference looks a little more settled, but anything can happen with this much basketball left to play.

The Mavericks are only 3.5 games out of 2nd, but also 2.5 games out of 7th, so they need to play well down the stretch to get a good playoff seeding. Luka Doncic has been amazing this season by almost averaging a triple double, and fellow star Kristaps Porzingis just came back from injury to complete the duo.

However, very important center Dwight Powell recently tore his Achilles, leaving guys like Maxi Kleber and Boban Marjanovic with big roles. Tim Hardaway Jr. and Seth Curry have been very important shooters for the Mavs, and Dorian Finney-Smith always shows his all-around hustle. The Mavs have been relying on the pick and roll game, which usually leads to alley-oops and open 3-point shots.

Powell was a big part of that, so others need to step up or Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle will need to find a new way to keep one of the most efficient offenses in NBA history scoring.

Credits We could not have done this without our sponsor, Mr. Mank, and our writers and editors.

Ben Adams: ​benjamin.adams06@gmail.com Griffin Goodno: ​24goodnog@smtexas.org Henry Hoak: ​24hoakh@smtexas.org Asa McCaleb: ​24mccaleba@smtexas.org Nathan Meyer: ​24meyern@smtexas.org Peyton Militello: ​24militellop@smtexas.org Zach Olyan: ​24olyanz@smtexas.org Jaden Ouyang: ​jadenouyang@gmail.com Vivek Patel: ​24patelv@smtexas.org