February 24-25

Tuesday afternoon at McCaskey for the bus ride northwest to central Dauphin County and the end of the line for the 2020 basketball season. The boys lost 57-55, the result ends the season with a final mark of 16-10. It was a well-played game that wasn't decided until the final seconds but the big story for JPM was the second-quarter exit of Elijah Terry. He left the game with a lower-body injury and was unable to play from that point forward. It goes without saying that any team missing their leading scorer will be adversely affected, had Elijah not been injured the game result may well have been very different. The end of any season is disappointing but these guys sucked it up and fought to the death, there are teams who would crumble under similar adversity but our squad was not among that number. Needless to say the loss hurts right now but in time the guys will realize how much they have to take pride in. The sixteen wins were by an average of 17.5 points, the ten losses by 8.5. Elijah led the team with 475 points (18.3 average), he graduates with 1279 total points. Makai Ortiz-Gray averaged 14.7 points per game and Isaiah Thomas finished with an even 10.0 PPG. The club averaged 67.2 points per game and surrendered 59.7, they were 10-2 at home and 6-8 on the road. We lose six seniors (including the three named above) but there were eleven underclassmen who appeared in a varsity game including five members of the JV squad that finished 17-5. In two years as head coach Freddy Ramos' record is 27-21 and there is no doubt that program has become healthier under his watch. We'll see what happens when the new season comes around in November. Take care, thanks for reading.