W’s and L’s for JV Basketball

Balls bouncing, shoes squeaking, people yelling, these are the sounds of a basketball game. A few weeks ago, in the later part of November, JV blue and gold heard these sounds often as they felt the sting of defeat and the pride of victory.

During their loss to Highland Park, the Rangers couldn’t get very many shots to fall in the basket. “The game…started off pretty intense,” said Chris Gramlich ’18, “but later we just couldn’t hit any shots.” After trailing by a small margin at the half, Jesuit tried to gain the lead but came up short. “In the fourth quarter, [Highland Park] just pulled away,” Chris admitted.

However, JV gold did triumph over Little Elm, 45-36. The score remained fairly even throughout the game, but Joey Preboy ’18 thought that Jesuit could have won by more, their lackadaisical D allowing Little Elm to hang with Jesuit until the very end. “We didn’t cover the three-point line very well,” noted Preboy. “It was a pretty close game, and they were very fast.”

The blue team crushed WT White at home in Walsh Gym 54-14. “It wasn’t as challenging as our players expected,” commented Peter Papanicolaou ’18. “No one had a bad game.” However, the team did have some shortcomings and Papanicolaou said that they continued a couple of bad habits. “A lot of times we were out of place…on defense,” he said. Yet, he was thankful for the experience that the game provided, making them realize how they need to focus on their defense in the upcoming games.

At Lewisville High School, the blue team, unfortunately, lost to Hebron, Grand Prairie, and Flower Mound. First, shorthanded against Hebron, they lost 56-30. Having only two substitutes on the bench most likely contributed to the loss. However, Jesuit dominated most of the second game versus Grand Prairie. Chris Horton ’18, who put up 21 points, said, “Matthew Walsh, a sophomore guard, played well making inside shots and three pointers.” Center Aidan Buckley ’18 was big in the paint as well. The two freshmen on the team, impressed Horton, too. “Mason and Connor both scored really well,” he acknowledged. Yet, Grand Prairie fought back to win by 7. The third and final game against Flower Mound was extremely close throughout the whole game. Many players on the blue team played exceptionally well. Down by seven late in the fourth quarter, the pressure was on. “We ran a play to get Mason a wide open shot at the top of the key and he made it,” Horton recounted. After another layup by Matthew Walsh ’18, the blue team was only down by two in the final moments of the game. They had to foul, and luckily the Flower Mound player missed the free throw.  Papanicolaou then grabbed the rebound and tried to throw it down the court, but it was tipped and time ran out. 

All in all, after the end of November, both JV teams have reasons to celebrate and some work to do. They will each work on improving their game as the season progresses.