January 5-6

The new week began as usual with morning lunch at the mall, Jenny was in town on business and we met up over her lunch break. In the evening we were at McCaskey, the girls team hosted Harrisburg in a non-league game. The boys used to play Harrisburg but that series ended in 2012, every time we played them on their floor there was controversy in one form or another. This was the second time this season I had a chance to see the girls play which is rare considering how often their games coincide with the boys' schedule. It was not a good night for JPM, the JV lost by ten and the varsity by thirty. Harrisburg is supposed to be very good and they looked it, our girls have done well this year but on this night they were outmatched. There was talk of snow overnight into Tuesday, it arrived in the early morning hours. By all accounts the early commute was a mess, when I went out later it wasn't much better but I managed to muddle through. School was in and the evening's athletic schedule went on as planned, at 5:00 we met up for the short bus ride to Manheim Township. The JV won by twenty-five but the varsity game was a battle to the end before JPM prevailed 62-58. We were up by nine at halftime, MT rallied to within three going into the last quarter but the Red Tornado was able to hold on. Coach Powell used nine players and seven got into the scoring column: Kobe Gantz had 20, La'Detrius Sibley 11, Elijah Brown 9, Randolph Speller 8, Tyler Owens and Kyaire Bynum 6 each and Brandon Allen 2. The victory brings the regular season halfway home at 8-3, the league mark moves to 6-1. The league season finishes its first half on Friday as the boys play at home versus Hempfield. The snow brought bitter cold temperatures with it, the overnight forecast was for single digits with wind chills well below zero. Take care, thanks for reading.