City of Basketball Love

Andrew Robinson (@ADrobinson3)
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WARMINSTER — Kyle Jones heard the voice and listened.

The Father Judge senior was admittedly thinking "score" as he took the inbound pass and started up the floor with the Crusaders trailing by two and just eight seconds on the game clock. Even with Central York’s bench and fans still buzzing over an audacious go-ahead dunk by Ethan Dodson, a voice broke through the din and reached Jones and it was enough to get him to abandon his plan and give up the ball.

The source of that voice, Kevair Kennedy, delivered as he connected on a buzzer-beating three to lift the Crusaders to a 60-59 win over Central York in the Diane Mosco Foundation Shootout on Saturday.

“I don’t know, it was just crazy,” Kennedy said of the frenetic ending. “When (Dodson) got the bucket, I think we all lost confidence a little bit but I got the shot, I just shot it and it went in.

“I wasn’t surprised, it was a happy ending.”

The Judge faithful streamed out of the stands behind the team bench, mobbing Kennedy on the opposite end of the floor, where he had somehow wound up after drilling the game-winner from the top of the arc.

“I just heard him call my name,” Jones said. “I looked and he was wide open. I had to pass him the ball, I wanted to give him a good pass. I’m always trying to make plays for my teammates.”

Going into the fourth quarter, things looked a little bleak for the Crusaders. An entertaining, back-and-forth first half between the young but talented Panthers out of District 3 and the Crusaders saw Judge take a 30-29 lead to halftime.

A score 30 seconds into the third put Father Judge up four, then it just about all fell apart. The Crusaders wouldn’t score again for nearly seven minutes while Central York slowly took control of the game even with standout forward Ben Rill bolted to the bench in foul trouble.

“We go through a lot of situations in practice, we’ve been there before and it starts with playing hard,” Kennedy said. “We had to get ourselves back in the game and start making shots.”

Judge’s outside shooting went cold in the third until a three by Jones clotted the bleeding after a 14-0 Central York run put the Panthers on top, 43-32. Still, the Crusaders were down 11 points going into the final quarter and had some work to do if they wanted to salvage the evening.

Kennedy, who had seven points and four steals in the game, said despite the struggles on offense in the third, nobody on the floor gave up.

Jones finished with a game-high 21 points and in the final quarter, set a tone by looking to take the ball to the rack and finish in closer with the outside shooting drying up. To that end, he started the frame with a driving finish and the aggression helped draw some space back out on the perimeter, where Ernest Shelton knocked down back-to-back threes - the second off a Jones assist - to make it a 49-46 game with 5:42 to play.

“It’s a mentality thing a little bit but when we need to score, we just need to score,” Jones said. “When we’re down a certain amount of points and I can get a bucket, then I’m going to go get a bucket. But if I see a teammate in a better position, I’m going to give it to them.”

Rill re-entered after the latter three, then fouled out on the next possession, finishing with nine points after a fast start that was slowed by his foul issues. Dodson more than helped fill the gap, putting in a team-best 17 points while sophomore Ben Natal came alive in the third on his way to 14 points.

Greg Guidinger, a junior and another part of CY’s talented underclassman core, posted a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds.

Natal scored with three minutes left, putting the Panthers ahead 55-48 and again putting Judge on the ropes. Jones responded with a tough shot on the baseline, then after CY split two free throws, he found Shelton again for another triple.

Laquan Byrd, who added plenty of toughness for Judge with nine rebounds, took one of those boards the length of the floor for a powerful slam that pulled the Crusaders within 56-55 with less than a minute to go.

“We just need to keep working on our communication but also continue shooting, make or miss, if you’re confident, you’re going to make it sooner or later,” Kennedy said.

“We rebounded the ball extremely well in the fourth quarter,” Jones, who had three of his five rebounds in the frame, said. “We didn’t give up a lot of offensive rebounds but we did give up a lot of dribble-drives. Once we took that away, they started getting frustrated and started missing shots.”

Natal split a pair at the line with 33 seconds left, then Jones drew contact by again attacking the basket and knocked down both his free throws with 21.5 on the clock to tie the game and set the stage for an insane ending.

It only took one breakdown on defense, with Kennedy getting caught on a screen and nobody switching, that gave Dodson a path to blitz down the lane, rise up and slam home an out-of-nowhere dunk for a 59-57 lead. The senior guard made plays all game, tallying five steals and six rebounds but it felt like a game-changing show of athleticism.

“They weren’t supposed to score,” Kennedy said bluntly. “It was bad communication and it ended up with a dunk. We know for the next time we need to switch everything.”

Except, the Crusaders didn’t seem rattled despite the reaction in the gym.They just inbounded the ball to Jones, who took off up the floor.

“Our transition was extremely important,” Jones said. “We got the ball and we pushed. We weren’t waiting, we were trying to get points. I mean, we were down 11 with eight minutes left, we had to push then when we got down three, that’s when we could slow the game down.”

Kennedy didn’t sulk about the defensive error, instead getting to his spot and making sure he got his teammate’s attention.

“My mindset was to score, but I gotta make the open play,” Jones said. “That was the right basketball play.”

His trust was rewarded.

“It was crazy, but I like that feeling, man. That’s a good feeling,” Kennedy said. “That’s actually my third (game-winner), I had two in AAU season.

“We’re happy to get the win. Now we have to keep competing and keep fighting. A lot of people doubted us but we’re trying to shock a lot of people this year.”

By Quarter

FATHER JUDGE  21 | 9 | 6 | 24 || 60

CENTRAL YORK  17 | 12 | 18 | 12 || 59

Scoring

FJ: Kyle Jones 21, Ernest Shelton 12, Laquan Byrd 8, Kevair Kennedy 7, Derrick Morton-Rivera 5, Chris Brennan 5

CY: Ethan Dodson 17, Greg Guidinger 14, Ben Natal 14, Ben Rill 9, Matthew Parker 3, Saxton Suchanic 2