December 30

Tuesday night basketball at McCaskey for the consolation and championship games of the holiday tournament, the early game featured the Red Tornado against Moyer Academy. Moyer was defeated soundly by York on Monday, on this night it was JPM's turn. We scored thirty-three points in the first quarter alone en route to a 101-40 decision, had this been a prizefight it would have stopped in the first round. We led at the half by thirty-seven, the mercy rule kicked in early in the third quarter. Five players hit double figures: La'Detrius Sibley had the big night with 24 points, Tyler Owens had 15, Randolph Speller 14, Kobe Gantz 13 and Ricky Cruz (one of two players on both JV and varsity) added 12. One can't take too much from a game like this but it's still a win, JPM's record improves to 6-3 overall. The championship game came down to the last possession, Capitol Christian beat York 74-73. The tournament's All-Star selections were announced afterward, Kobe Gantz was the lone JPM representative. The PIAA does not count games against out-of-state competition in its rankings for district playoff seeding, if the district tournament started tomorrow we would officially be considered 5-2 instead of 6-3. Had we played York either night that game would have counted in the district rankings but as far as Pennsylvania is concerned the entire tournament never existed since all four games featured out-of-state teams (just one of those weird, wacky things about high school sports). JPM is back on the floor in the new year on Friday the 2nd, league play continues with a trip to Penn Manor. Take care, thanks for reading.