January 19-21

Wednesday afternoon after supper at McCaskey for a second bus trip in as many days, the destination this time was Ephrata for another divisional crossover. Ephrata in recent years has not been a strong program but they are much improved and as we know any game in the opponent's gym is never a "gimme". The game began with an overtime JV game, JPM prevailed but it's safe to say the video of it will not be going to Springfield anytime soon. The varsity game was every bit the battle it figured to be, at halftime we actually trailed by two points but were able to right the ship and pull out a 58-47 win. Jonathan Byrd had 18 and Hasan Williams had 11 as the only two players to hit double figures. Thursday was quiet save for my every-five-weeks haircut appointment, on Friday night the boys were back on the floor at home. Elizabethtown visited for the last of the five divisional crossover games, we were supposed to play in E-town in 2021 but Circumstances cancelled it. The late Steve Powell (longtime JPM coach) used to talk about how we get every opponent's best effort, as he often said "against us the crippled can walk and the blind can see". E-town has two outstanding players, on this night it seemed like anything they wanted to do they could do and there were absolutely no answers. There are games when you look at the book afterwards and wonder how one team consistently goes to the foul line and the other doesn't, how one team's (for lack of a better term) "stars" get the star treatment and the other side doesn't. It all added up to a frustrating 49-47 loss that drops the record to 4-5 within the league and 6-8 overall. The club has a quick turnaround for a game on Saturday afternoon, they meet Hazleton in a showcase event at Reading High. That game starts at 3:00 but I will be absent, I'll be downtown at the Arena for a game starting at 4:00. Take care, thanks for reading.