City of Basketball Love

Stephen Pianovich (@SPianovich)
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Here’s the report from the JTBL on Thursday, June 2; for the full league standings, schedule and leading scorers, click here:

Game Scores

Cherokee 49, Father Judge 41
Bishop McDevitt 55, Cristo Rey 42
Council Rock 57, CB West 42
Pennsbury 71, MCS 64 (OT)

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McDevitt comes back for first JTBL win

As Bishop McDevitt and Cristo Rey squared off on Thursday night, both searching for their first JTBL win, the Lancers were out of control in the first half.

McDevitt fell behind by as many as 12 points, and it looked as though the team was heading to fall to 0-5 in the Northeast Philadelphia summer league. But in the second half, the Lancers slowed things down, regained control and came back for a 55-42 win.

“Our kids finally realized that they don’t have to play so fast,” said Jay Pierce, who is coaching the Lancers in the JTBL. “We told them at halftime to slow down and that we want them to push it, but only in transition when we have numbers. They listened, and you saw the result.”

McDevitt got to 1-4 in the league thanks to a second half in which they outscored Cristo Rey, 32-13.

Quinton Beasley led the team with 16 points and Jack Bridges added 13 -- nine of which came in the second half. A young McDevitt team is coming off a tough 2015-16 season in which the Lancers went 3-19 and were winless in their 13 Philadelphia Catholic League games.

But they are a young team that is growing together, Pierce pointed out. On Thursday, four of their seven players were rising sophomores and the team is hoping to take a step forward next year.

“It’s a progression,” Pierce said. “We’re trying to build and be a family and represent McDevitt in the best way possible. We want to get ready for the Catholic League and the only way to do that is to play together.”

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Judge senior showing scoring Power

Last season, Mike Power was a pass-first point guard.

At Father Judge, he was surrounded by scorers like Justin Fleming, Quincy Reed and Marc Rodriguez. Rodriguez is still playing beside Power in the JTBL, but the Crusaders need another go-to scoring option. So Power, a rising senior guard, has been attacking the rim a lot more in the summer league.

Power had a team-best 15 points in Judge’s 49-41 loss to Cherokee on Thursday night. And he is averaging more than 10.0 ppg so far in the JTBL.

“We had so many shooters last year, so my responsibility was to be a point guard and set things up when I was on the floor,” said Power, who averaged 4.2 points per game last season. “But we lost a lot of guys and I know I’ll need to step up next year and be more of a scoring threat.”
 

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Quick Notes

-Pennsbury’s Addison Howard continued his strong JTBL play in his team’s overtime win over MCS on Thursday. He scored 22 points in the victory and nailed some free throws in overtime to help Pennsbury clinch the win. The point guard was a perfect 8-for-8 from the line and scored 13 points in the first half.

-Cherokee’s Anthony DiCaro keeps showing off his impressive 3-point range. The lanky Cherokee guard knocked down four triples in a 15-point showing as his team topped Judge. He hit three of those long balls in the second half, a few of which came well beyond the 3-point arc.