February 11-12

Wednesday morning lunch in Quarryville with Jenny, later in the day she called and said she wasn't feeling well. Apparently it hit her after I left, I told her to stay in and stay warm. At 5:15 I was back at JPM for a third consecutive day, we boarded the bus for the league semifinal game in Millersville. Conestoga Valley finished as the champion of Section II, we met them in January at home and won by thirteen. At the time they were below .500 but they impressed me as being better than their record, in retrospect that was an accurate assessment. They say basketball is a game of "runs" and that was on full display on this night. JPM trailed early 11-9, twenty points later it was 29-11. CV responded with fifteen straight to get back into it, at halftime we led by four. In the third quarter CV had the better of it and took a four-point advantage into the last eight minutes. From there it was just about all McCaskey, CV scored just four points (none from the field) to our sixteen as the Red Tornado won it 59-51. Kobe Gantz had 19, Randolph Speller added 16 and Tyler Owens 11. The victory is the club's nineteenth against six losses and puts us back in the league title game after a year's absence. The other semifinal featured Cedar Crest and Manheim Central, that game was at Lebanon Valley College in Annville. Either opponent would provide a revenge angle for JPM, Central because we lost to them in the '14 playoffs and CC for matters more recent. Shortly after our game ended we got the word that CC had won so the league championship game is Round Four and the seventh time overall in the past two seasons. The game is at Manheim Township HS on Friday the 13th (which may or may not be an omen depending on how you look at it). Nothing special going on Thursday, after two straight game nights I spent the evening at home. Perhaps it is the calm before the storm, we'll find out on Friday. Take care, thanks for reading.