December 17-18

Monday afternoon at McCaskey for the start of a busy basketball week. The boys opened league play on the 14th with a home-court win over Lebanon, on this night we made the short bus trip to Conestoga Valley. CV (like Lebanon) is a former division-mate but they are now a crossover opponent thanks to league realignment. The JPM JV squad got the night started with a 55-48 win, in the varsity contest the Red Tornado prevailed 73-55. The win snapped a three-game losing streak to CV and although thanks to graduation CV is a very different club it felt good nonetheless. We led by thirteen at the quarter and ten at halftime, the lead was eleven entering the final period and the boys were able to put it away with little trouble. Coach Ramos used the entire roster and ten of them got into the scoring column: Ajani Simmons had the big night with 21, Isaiah Thomas was the only other man in doubles with 14. Bryam Menendez and Mohammed Nimmons-Francis had nine each, Brian McKenzie added seven, Jahsaan Greaves scored five and Nayquan Martin, Anthony Castrero, Alfred Gonzalez-Santana and Makai Ortiz each scored two. The fact that we won this game in spite of Makai having a rare poor night tells you a lot about the character the team has developed. The victory keeps us clean in league play at 2-0 and improves the overall mark to 3-1 which equals our win total for all of '17-18 (and I will always maintain that team was much better than its record). The gauntlet continues on Wednesday the 19th against Warwick and on the 21st against Elizabethtown. Take care, thanks for reading.