February 17-20

The big highlight of the new week was Tuesday night basketball at McCaskey, the Red Tornado returned to district tournament play for the first time since 2016. JPM earned the #8 seed in the twelve-team field and with it came the right to host an opening-round game, #9 seed Chambersburg traveled eighty miles east for the 7:00 tip-off. Chambersburg was 16-6 coming in and any 8-9 matchup is basically a coin flip, it was a matter of who could establish tempo and maintain it. We fell behind 6-0 early but rallied to lead by one at the quarter, by halftime JPM was up by eleven. Chambersburg fought back to within four entering the final period, down the stretch foul-shooting helped the Red Tornado hold on for a tough 70-64 win. Makai Ortiz-Gray had the big night with 27 points (including 10-12 at the foul line), Samir Gordon added 15 and Elijah Terry had 12. Carter Gingerich scored nine points, Isaiah Thomas had five and Da-Vion Scarborough rounded out the book with a field goal. It is the program's first postseason win of any kind since the 2016 season (when the current seniors were in the eighth grade) and puts the team into the quarterfinal round. The top four seeds received byes to this round, JPM faces #1 seed Wilson (24-1) in their building on Friday the 21st. Wilson has been a regular preseason scrimmage partner in recent years, we met them in their gym in December but obviously a district playoff game is an entirely different environment. There is no question that JPM is the underdog but stranger things have happened (in 1996 when the field was bigger we were the #1 seed, we played #16 in the first round and lost). The winner advances to the semifinal round on Tuesday the 25th, the loser goes into the playback round on the same date. I am unfortunately absent on Friday but I'm only about six miles away (the Royals are at home downtown at the Arena), I'm good for the 25th and whatever happens from there. Take care, thanks for reading.