Slamming his fist down on the padded seat of the bench, Jack Allen’18 gazed at the scoreboard with disgust as JV Blue lost their 3rd of 4 games to McMillen 35-45. As Blue suffered, however, Gold continued their perfect district play with wins against Skyline, Irving, and Irving Nimitz.
Blue
McMillen- January 22
Blue played with only 5 players, missing both Matthew Walsh ’18 and Nick Motter ’18, and it showed by making sloppy turnovers, missing free throws and committing mindless defensive lapses. With half of the 4th quarter remaining, center Aiden Buckley ’18 fouled out, and the Rangers played the remaining portion of the game with 4 players. Amazingly, the ragged band of players cut the double-digit lead and tied the game with a minute remaining; however, the mismatch on defense proved too difficult to overcome, and they lost 57-65.
Highland Park- January 27
Jesuit featured transfer student Luis-Felipe Rodriguez ’18 from Peru in his one and only game in Dallas, who played little but made a clutch 3 to make it a single possession game late in the 4th. Blue followed its traditional pattern of slow starts and strong 2nd and 4th quarters to make the games interesting. The Rangers picked apart HP’s 1-3-1 zone, which had given them ample difficulty in their previous encounter with the Scots and contributed to their ample attempts at the free throw line, an asset which served its value down the stretch. The Rangers were, unfortunately, unable to convert these free throws when they were needed and consequently lost the game that was closer than the scoreboard indicated, 43-49.
Rockwall- January 20
JV Blue, according to Peter Papanicolaou ’18 “stuck to [their] fundamentals” throughout the game and although the blue and gold were in the lead for most of the game, both teams didn’t play with much intensity and consequently got a little lazy. Playing through the early mistakes deemed helpful as Jesuit took a commanding lead heading into the half. However, as Rockwall mounted a fervent 3rd quarter run the Rangers felt “there was never a doubt we wouldn’t win,” by ending the quarter up by double digits.  JV Blue secured a rare win in a string of losses 53-35.
Gold
Skyline- January 22
JV Gold, on the other hand, were riding a wave into the always competitive matchup against Skyline. Chris Gramlich ’18 noted that the game was “low scoring” in the first half, tied at 22. However, the Rangers led by Jeff Grimes ’17, who scored 17 points, commandeered control of the game, and Grimes’ offense in the “very close” 4th quarter played spectacularly with “some clutch 3’s” to pull Gold out of some sticky situations. The Rangers ended up beating the athletic Skyline team 50-46 in a standout win among a plethora of blowouts.
Irving- January 26
Coming off of the excellent win against Skyline, JV Gold came out dead, playing with “no energy,” according to Keegan Nwosu ’18 yet still holding the lead based solely on their collective talent. The Rangers looked “complacent,” and committed turnovers by the bunches throughout the first half, a team that was not “playing to [their] potential.” Yet, as they did so many times that season, Jesuit collected themselves and utterly decimated a weaker Irving team with ease, 64-36.
Irving Nimitz- January 29
Facing yet another subordinate opponent, the Rangers came out flat in the first half, not so much of the Nimitz defense stopping Jesuit as much as themselves. Nicky Prendergast ’18 noted another reason the first half totals were so low scoring was Gold’s potent fast break, prompting the opposing Irving coach to play a stagnant style of offense, whose main weapon was “holding the ball” to conserve energy after being torn apart in the open court. Alas, this style of offense proved futile as Jesuit continued to score easy layups and do anything they wanted on offense, defeating Irving Nimitz by “more than 30.”
JV Blue has struggled all season with low numbers, but their game against McMillen resonated a common theme: no matter the score and especially no matter the fatigue, the tightly knit team that is Blue will continue to play hard every second of every game. Gold too, with more players and talent superior to their opponents, win more than Blue but always carry the same tenacity and grit on the court with them, thus, ratifying the JV Basketball program under coaches Austin Nevitt and Tim Murphy as alive and thriving.
