February 9-10

It was rainy and dreary on Monday morning, I was at the mall for lunch. The weather forecast was calling for freezing rain later in the day, at 5:15 I went over to McCaskey for the bus ride to our league playoff game. Falling temperatures had made the sidewalks and streets very slick, when I arrived at JPM I found out that the game had been postponed. Coach Powell had received a text message just moments before, it was literally a last-minute decision. Ours was the only game not played on Monday (even though it was the one involving the shortest distance to travel), the other three went on despite the weather and reports of hazardous driving. As the night wore on conditions deteriorated even more so our postponement may have been the right choice save for the short notice. By 11:00 there was a coating of white on the ground, on Tuesday morning it was just about melted away and bright afternoon sunlight finished the job. At 5:30 we made the short trip east from town to Lancaster Mennonite HS, as the champion of their division they earned the right to host the game. JPM came out strong and built an eleven-point lead after one quarter, at halftime it was up to fourteen. We were ahead by twelve going into the final period, at that point the game did a complete 180. With two of our starters having fouled out and other on the bench due to injury LM stormed back to take a one-point lead with two minutes left. Down the stretch it was Tyler Owens (with a big offensive-board field goal) and reserve guard Skylar Davis (five key points) to pull the club through and they succeeded as the Red Tornado prevailed 73-70. Some may scoff at a Section I team barely defeating a Section IV opponent but LM is no pushover, they were 18-4 for a reason. Kobe Gantz led JPM with 26, Randolph Speller had 17 and Owens finished with 13. The boys play in the semifinals on Wednesday against Conestoga Valley, the game is at Penn Manor HS at 7:00. We defeated CV during the regular season but they were a stern test and there's no reason to think the rematch will be any different. Take care, thanks for reading.