February 10-11

The Sunday night snow was long gone by morning, getting the car cleared and out on the road was no problem at all. Had lunch at the mall, on the way back into town I saw Jenny briefly as I usually do when she's in town. A similar errand run got things started on Tuesday, in late afternoon we met at McCaskey as league playoffs got underway. JPM was traveling to Manheim (about ten miles northwest of town on route 72) for a quarterfinal game against Manheim Central. Over the years MC has been an exceptionally infrequent opponent, in my twenty-six years back at JPM this is only the fourth time we've played them as far as I can recall. This was the first time I've been in their gym, it is one of the old-school variety (rickety wooden bleachers with the scorers table built in and the first row serving as the team benches). Most of the gyms in our division (and even in Section II) are much more modern, I found sitting on those bleachers rather uncomfortable. MC won their division on the strength of a 20-2 record so obviously they're doing something right, on this night it was in evidence as they won the game 67-62. We led briefly in the early going but trailed by five at the half, in the third quarter MC blew it wide open to take an eighteen-point lead. In the final period Kobe Gantz led a comeback for the ages, he scored 24 points (of his game-high 36) as JPM tied it in the final two minutes but that was as far as it would go as we just could not get over that proverbial hump (a recurring theme in recent games). The loss marks the first we have exited in the first round of leagues since 2004, that team finished 10-14 yet managed to earn a postseason berth. The attention now turns to the district tournament, as the #9 seed JPM meets #8 York in the first round. York is a perennial entry in our holiday tournament, the clubs met in a tremendous overtime game at McCaskey in December. The district matchup is in York on Wednesday the 19th, it's a one-and-done deal and I'll miss it because the Royals are at home that night as well. Take care, thanks for reading.