The Junior Varsity Blue started off their season strong with a buzzer beater win over Flower Mound. The score was back and forth the whole game, with neither team taking a double-digit win. The Rangers had a strong 1st quarter and scored 18 points with everybody on the team getting on the board, but then went scoreless in the 2nd quarter. In the second half, Sophomore Andrew Olinger scored 16 of our 25 points. Late in the fourth quarter, the Rangers were down 6 with under a minute to play. The Rangers “played some hard-nosed full court defense and forced a few turnovers. Andrew had a big four point play, where he hit and 3 and was fouled” said Coach Gruninger. Olinger completed the 4 point play to cut the lead to 2.
After another turnover from some really good team defense, Sophomore Bobby Turner made a strong move in the paint, missed the layup, but Jacob Leitnick ’17 made a huge put-back layup at the buzzer to send Jesuit to overtime. With the momentum going into overtime, the Rangers took the lead early and were able to seal it at the end with a great play where Sophomore Andrew Gelsamen hit a break-away layup on a great pass from Bobby. Turner said he “loves the chemistry between us. We are really showing how well we can play together”.
Coach Gruninger said “It was a great team win for us and hopefully gave us confidence that we are never out of a game and can rally together as a team to come back and beat a good team. The season is still early and we are still building our confidence and team chemistry, but this was a great step in the right direction”.
On December 3rd, the JV Blue team faced Hebron at Jesuit. Like the Flower Mound game, the final score was another close one as the Blue team beat Hebron 50-48. Coach Gruninger said that he “likes the closeness of these games. They show us the level of intensity needed to play”. A crucial player in these games has been Olinger. Coach said “Olinger comes up big at the end, he’s always the guy hitting the big three’s or making big plays that really push us to win these games”.Andrew said, “I love to play in these kind of games. I love the intensity and the fire”. Again, on December 6th, the JV Blue team clawed it’s way to another close 62-59 victory over Highland Park. Once again, the Rangers were down and fought back late in the game and came out with a win. The 9-3 Rangers are “gelling. We have good team chemistry and we are playing really well” said Coach Gruninger.
The Rangers will face Lovejoy at Lovejoy on Decmeber 19th at 3:30 pm.
