January 4-5

Had my usual Monday lunch visit at the mall, spent the rest of the day fielding birthday greetings on the Internet. I singularly stopped caring about the significance of January 4 a long time ago but I guess it's nice that others recognize it. On Tuesday Jenny was in town on business, we got together for lunch at the plaza. In the evening we were at McCaskey for the first basketball game of the calendar year, the Red Tornado hosted Manheim Township. The JV squad played its first game since December 23 and stayed unbeaten in league play with a 70-60 win, in the varsity game JPM prevailed in a game much closer than the final score would indicate. We led by three at the quarter, went to the room at halftime dead even and trailed by three entering the final quarter. At that point the light switch came on, we outscored MT by fourteen and won it 75-64. Township was in foul trouble to begin with and down the stretch they had to foul to get possession of the ball, our guys responded by shooting virtually perfect from the foul line. Randolph Speller led with 29 (including 8-for-8 at the line in the fourth), Kobe Gantz had 17 (he was 6-for-6 from the line down the stretch) and Ricky Cruz added 14. The win keeps the club undefeated in the league at 7-0, we reach the midpoint of the overall schedule at 9-2. The boys hit the league season's halfway mark on Friday the 8th with a key game in Landisville against Hempfield, I will be absent for hockey in Reading. The Toledo Walleye visit for a pair of games on Friday and Saturday, the South Carolina Stingrays come in on Sunday. Take care, thanks for reading.