December 28

A chilly and windy Monday morning got the new week started, in the evening we were at McCaskey for the opening night of our annual holiday tournament. The first game featured York High (two-time defending District 3 champions) and Lower Merion (perennial District 1 contender from suburban Philadelphia perhaps best known as the alma mater of pro basketball star Kobe Bryant). Lower Merion emerged victorious 58-55, in the nightcap JPM met West York and much like the opener it was a battle all the way. We were up by nine at the quarter and seven at halftime, entering the fourth quarter the lead was at ten. We knew little about West York coming in except that they had just about everybody back from a team that was 18-8 in '14-15, they showed their grit by coming back to tie it in the closing minutes. The Red Tornado was able to pull out the victory 78-73, Kobe Gantz had the big night with 32 points (including 13-of-19 at the line). Randolph Speller had 16, Ricky Cruz 15, Greg Nunez 9, Izaiah Baratta 4 and Skyler Davis 2 to round out the scoring. The win is the club's eighth against one loss and sets up the championship game against Lower Merion which should certainly be a stern test. The consolation game is interesting in itself, it features two teams from neighboring school districts who play in the same league but since they are not division-mates they rarely meet. When I came out after the game there was a light rain falling, with temperatures in the lower 40s I was more than happy to get into the house and warm up. Take care, thanks for reading.