January 17

It started raining overnight into Tuesday, it was coming steadily when I went to the mall for lunch. It cleared up later in the afternoon, in the evening I was at McCaskey as the Red Tornado played at home for the first time in eleven days. Hempfield was the opponent for the first time since the league championship game in 2011. Hempfield has been down somewhat this season (they lost a lot of seniors from last year's team) but you never take anything for granted because they are perennially one of the top programs in the league. On this night JPM took the early lead and led by nine at the half, after the break they outscored Hempfield by sixteen and won handily 63-38. Coach Powell got all twelve players into the game, three hit double figures as Diante Cherry scored 16, Calvert Gantz added 14 and Luis Fuentes had 10. Diante's effort put his three-year total at 810 as he continues his march towards 1000 career points. This game marks the midpoint of the league schedule, the boys hit the turn at 6-2 (9-4 overall). The second half starts with the back end of crossover games with Section II, Cocalico visits JPM on Thursday night. We all remember what happened one year ago in their gym, even though every year is a new year that game still sticks in the memory. Take care, thanks for reading.