January 23-27

Jenny and I had lunch together on Wednesday and Saturday, the only other event of note for the weekend was Friday night basketball in Millersville. JPM beat Penn Manor at home on the 8th, that win was followed by four losses in the next five games. On this night the skid reached 5-of-6 with a disheartening 57-55 loss. JPM was up as much as eighteen in the second quarter but Manor hung around just long enough to go ahead in the final minute, they scoring the clinching basket with four seconds left. When this season started my personal (and publicly unstated) goal was to see the club play to at least a .500 record. I figured that the club had eight returnees from the 3-19 team that was nowhere near as poor as that record would indicate, with the experience they gained by enduring that season they could not help but be much improved. This season has for the most part been much better although we've lost some very winnable games. Warwick beat us by five at home in December, the game against Williamsport was a wasted opportunity and there was also the most recent home game against Township where just one little break here or there could have made the difference. On this night in Millersville the officiating was not a major factor, it wasn't great but it was nowhere as egregious as it had been at home against MT (team fouls were eleven apiece, we were 5-9 at the line while PM was 8-8). The league record drops to 6-4 and the overall mark stands at 8-9, the boys are still in the hunt for both league and district playoff spots but there is still a lot of work to do. The next three games are at home (Ephrata on the 29th, Cedar Crest on February 1 and Exeter visits for a non-leaguer on the 2nd) with the last two on the road (February 5 at Hempfield and two nights later at Central Dauphin East for the makeup from January 19). Take care, thanks for reading.