January 14-15

The late Saturday/early Sunday snowfall was all but a memory on Monday, there were traces of it in areas that don't get a lot of sun but other than that it was gone. The usual mall visit was the extent of the day's activity, on Tuesday afternoon we were back at McCaskey for another out-of-county bus ride. The destination was Lebanon County and a date at Cedar Crest, within the league this and Lebanon are our two longest trips (and since Lebanon is in Section II we meet them just once and that was at our place in December). When you talk about inhospitable road venues CC is definitely one of them: there is nothing inherently unpleasant about the gym or the people in charge, it's merely a very difficult atmosphere to play in and the visiting team simply never feels comfortable especially after a twenty-five mile ride on two-lane road most of the way. In January of 2018 JPM won at Cedar Crest in a major upset (one of only three wins the club enjoyed), on this night CC prevailed 64-52. The officiating played a major role in the outcome, it was not THE reason JPM lost but it certainly was not what you would call equitable. There are times when you cannot help but wonder why the exact same play is called one way or the other depending upon which end of the floor it happened at and who did it. When one side shoots twenty-seven foul shots and the other side shoots only eleven something simply doesn't add up. For JPM Brian McKenzie battled through it for 17 points and Makai Ortiz added 13, the club's overall record drops to .500 at 7-7. The breakdown of this is interesting in itself: the team is 5-2 within the league and 2-5 in its non-league schedule, the road record is 5-2 but at home the boys are 2-5. As the late Phillies broadcaster Richie Ashburn might have said: "hard to believe, Harry". The club is back on the floor on Friday the 18th at home against Hempfield and I'm out of it because the Royals have a three-game week at home starting on Wednesday night. Take care, thanks for reading.