Back at St. Ignatius for the second day of the JV Basketball tournament, the Eagles played against St. John Notre Dame in the first game at 1:30 p.m. St. John lead by the score of 10 to 8 at the end of the first quarter.
Beginning in the second quarter, the Eagles started to pound the ball down into their centers and pulled away. Both their first and second string centers ended up with more than 10 points. The final score was St. Elizabeth Ann Seton 44, St. John Notre Dame 22.
Jack played 16 of the 24 minutes. He had 4 points on 2 for 5 with 2 assists and one rebound. Jack had about four steals, but more than enough turnovers to offset the steals. Twice, he jumped the passing lane and started up the left side of the court only to dribble it off his foot once and step on the out of bounds line the second time.
In the second game of the day at 8 p.m., the Eagles played Our Lady of Assumption (OLA). This was a very close and extremely hard fought game. The Eagles ended up prevailing by a score of 20 to 16.
With the score at 18 to 16 in the last minute, the Eagles ran a play where Jack ended up with the ball on the left baseline. Typically, Jack spots up from there. This time, he up faked the player guarding him and drove along the baseline. Jack cut behind Jake to screen off OLA's biggest and best player and made a layup to seal the victory.
Jack played more than 11 of the 12 minutes in the first half and you could see that he was smoked. Trying to rest him, Jack played about 7 of the 12 minutes in the second half. He finished with 8 points on 4 for 8 shooting. He missed his first two free throws of the tournament. Jack also had one steal, but no assists.
Jack said that Joe, the point guard, also had 8 points. As a result, the two starting guards accounted for 16 of the 20 points that the team scored. This was much different from the first game of the day where the centers and forwards scored about 30 of the 40 points.
Jack had a monster game on the boards with 12 rebounds. The number of rebounds was largely due to the fact that OLA's best player was also their biggest player. He would bring the ball up the court and start the offense from the top of the key. The Eagles' strong forward would come out to guard him. In the first half, Jack's man was down in the block. With OLA's biggest player and our strong forward away from the basket, Jack used his quickness to clean up on the boards.
The Eagles will play against the host team, St. Ignatius, for the tournament championship on Sunday at 5 p.m. St. Ignatius has won their tournament the last nine years in a row.