December 28-30

Saturday lunch with Jenny and her mother, in the afternoon we were back at McCaskey for night #2 of the "Holiday Showcase". No middle school game on this day, just the usual JV/varsity doubleheader. Liberty HS (from Bethlehem PA, about seventy-five miles northeast of Lancaster) was the opponent for a battle of weather phenomenons: the "Red Tornado" versus the "Hurricanes". The JV game was a sixth consecutive victory for JPM, in the varsity game the Good Guys prevailed 83-66. On this night the club came out strong, scored the first points of the game and never lost the lead. Freddy used seven players, six of them scored and five hit double figures: Elijah Terry and Makai Ortiz-Gray tied for high with 21 each, Samir Gordon had 16, Isaiah Thomas had 13 and Carter Gingerich had ten with Irving Gonzalez rounding out the box score with two points. The club's mark sits at 4-4 (the same record after eight games as '18-19), divisional play within the league starts on January 3. Sunday was a miserably rainy day, perfect for staying indoors which was exactly what I did. The rain was still around on Monday morning when I was at the mall,  in the afternoon it cleared off as the JV team convened at McCaskey for a short bus ride just outside the city limits to Lancaster Catholic HS. This was a JV-only date that came about largely through personal connections since Freddy was the JV coach at LCHS before coming to McCaskey (I have my own personal history there as well although my association had nothing to do with basketball). From an enrollment and power ratings standpoint the schools' varsity teams would not meet in a non-league game but at the JV level there are no such concerns, the more games you can play against good competition the better it is. LCHS has traditionally had a competitive program and the game was an excellent test, at halftime the score was tied but in the second half JPM turned it up a notch and pulled away for a 61-45 win. The squad finishes the 2019 portion of its schedule at 7-1 overall (4-0  in the league), they are back on the floor along with the varsity on January 3. Take care, thanks for reading.