The Jesuit Varsity Basketball team went into December 2025 with a record of 4-3. They went into the new year with a record of 7-9. Now, this record of 3-6 in December doesn’t mean that the team didn’t have its fair share of success. In fact, the team had an impressive win over the rival Highland Park Scots, as well as a successful social media post featuring a pregame handshake.
Early December Triumphs
The Rangers opened the month of December in amazing fashion with an impressive 64-62 win at home against the rival Highland Park Scots. Jesuit shooting arrived for the first time in a big way. Andrew Eakes ’28 made three of his six three-point attempts, and Cooper Jensen ’26 striped three of his eight. Justin Fern ’26 made two of three, and starting point guard William Alexander ’26 made one of three. Pierce Popelka ’26 made eight of his 11 field goal attempts and scored a team high 17 points. The Rangers came alive on defense, with seven team blocks and seven team steals. Justin Fern led the team with four blocks, and Cooper Jensen led with two steals. Fern had a team-high of six rebounds and his clutch fourth-quarter play led to the Rangers securing their first victory of December.
Columbus Bob Stras Memorial Classic
Three days later, Jesuit would host the annual Knights of Columbus Bob Stras Memorial Classic, where they played Lake Worth in the first round. The Rangers beat Lake Worth by 43, moving on to play Sachse in the annual Teddy Bear Toss game. The Rangers scored the first point of the game, and the teddy bear toss celebration emerged, but Jesuit failed to secure a victory in the first round, falling to Sachse 45-50 despite a late comeback attempt led by Pierce Popelka. Then, against St. Mark’s in the third-place game, the Rangers fell 63-51 to end the tourney 1-2 and finished in fourth place. The Rangers dropped to 2-2 in the month of December and overall, 6-5.
On December 9, the Rangers fell to Walnut Grove 54-64 in Prosper, before traveling to Missouri to compete against teams in St. Louis. The Rangers opened up St. Louis play with a rough loss against DeSmet Jesuit, losing 49-74, before bouncing back against St. Louis University High School with a 61-43 win. The Rangers then moved on back to Dallas to begin District play in UIL District 7-6A. The Rangers, to open District basketball, lost to Lake Highlands 41-64 in their last game before the Holidays.
Pregame Handshake Video
Over the small break from playing, however, the Rangers made some headlines, this time in the form of a short video of Senior Justin Fern’s pregame handshake. The handshake, in which Fern made a gesture towards the Jesuit home crowd, who fell in response, made headlines and surmounted over 1,000,000 views. The viral post of the handshake is linked here.
“IT was crazy, something I was definitely not expecting to become viral. the handshake has been a tradition at jesuit for many years now and when mine went viral i was very surprised.” -justin fern ’26
Following the Holidays, the Rangers had a game on the day before New Year’s Eve. The team put up a solid effort but ultimately fell short in overtime against Frisco Wakeland 72-77. The loss took their record in December to 3-6 and their overall record to 7-9 on the season (0-1 in District).
Onto January
The Rangers begin a stretch of 13 straight District games in January and hope to recover from an early loss to Lake Highlands to come up strong in the District standings. Overall, the team needs to recover from a slow stretch of games to hopefully salvage the season. Whether Jesuit does that remains to be seen, as they set off into January.
Stay tuned to The Roundup for more Jesuit sports coverage!