December 21-23

Winter arrived on Friday afternoon but the weatherman never got the memo, it was a rainy day with temperatures topping out in the mid-50s. After supper we convened at McCaskey for the 22-mile bus ride northwest to Elizabethtown for another league crossover game. We have played E-Town sporadically over the years, as far as I can recall this was my first time in their gym since 2011 (that was the "Just Because They're McCaskey" playoff game I talked about in my post from 1-26-18). The night started with a convincing JPM victory in the JV game which improves their record to 5-1, the varsity game was much more competitive. I never go into an opposing gym expecting a easy game because it simply doesn't work that way, especially within the league we always get everybody's best shot Just Because We're McCaskey. We were ahead by five at the half but E-Town hung tough and battled to the end, when the final buzzer sounded JPM emerged victorious 70-67. We were up by four in the closing seconds, an E-Town three-point goal brought them to within one. On the inbound play Makai Ortiz was purposely fouled, he sank both free throws with 0.8 on the clock to ice the win (very much like the season opener at Muhlenberg when Makai came through in a similar spot). Ajani Simmons and Isaiah Thomas tied for game-high with 16 each, Brian Mckenzie had 13 and Makai finished with ten. Also in the book were Jahsaan Greaves with seven. Mohammed Nimmons-Francis with six and Bryam Menendez with two. The club improves to 3-1 within league play and 4-2 overall which surpasses the '17-18 win total just six games in. The boys are off until the 28th and 29th when JPM hosts the annual holiday tournament (which I am out of completely because the Royals play at home both nights). The rest of the weekend was uneventful except for Saturday lunch with Jenny. Take care, thanks for reading.