January 24-25

The Friday night weather moved on by Saturday morning but the damage was done, thanks to a coating of snow the city streets were sloppy and slushy. The first order of business was to clean the snow from the car, then I took a shower and called Jenny. All things considered it was good that we had done lunch on Friday, a trip south on this day may have been questionable. Got word that the game was still on, at 2:00 we departed for the trip north on 222 to Reading High School. Each January a special showcase event is played at RHS, this is our fourth year as a participant. Every time we visit Reading HS I run into people I know, not surprising since I've been involved in pro sports around Reading one way or another since 1978. We were scheduled to play at 4:00 (the third of the day's five games), when we arrived we were told that things were running about an hour behind because the referees for the day's first game had arrived late. Our opponent was Great Valley HS, a program we have no history with (they are from Malvern, about twenty miles or so west of Philadelphia). The game was up-and-down and back-and-forth all the way, JPM won it 74-69. Great Valley did not have a lot of height but they were sound fundamentally, very well-coached and just about everybody who played could shoot the ball. The most outstanding thing about this game was that Great Valley's starting five played virtually the ENTIRE GAME, the only time they substituted was when one of their guys fouled out with seventeen seconds remaining. Coach Powell only used three men off the bench but seven of the eight who played got into the scoring column. Kobe Gantz had the big day with 27 points, Randolph Speller had 14 and Brandon Allen (inserted into the starting lineup) added 13. The teams combined for twenty-two three-point-goals (eleven for each side), that is a huge number for a thirty-two minute game. Our non-league schedule is now complete at 3-3, the overall record stands at 14-5. The focus now is on the league schedule, the home stretch begins on Tuesday the 27th against Penn Manor. Sunday was a stay-in-and-do-nothing day, in the evening it started to rain. The forecast for the upcoming week is very unstable, what we'll actually get is anybody's guess. Take care, thanks for reading.