– By Daniel Woods
Spring Mills Boys Basketball Team is well aware that it will be tested in an attempt to achieve the final goal of the Class AAA State Champion to be crown.
On Thursday, Eastern Panhandal Athletic Conference rival Jefferson provided a test and then some, but the cardinals ran away with a win of 48–47 at Shenando Junction.
Spring Mills head coach Luke Samples said, “We played one of the best teams in the state and defeated them in their place.”
A recent addition of Spring Mills launched the cardinals quickly to start the lineup as Sophomore Tyler Jones gave the first of its five three-pointers to start scoring.
Jones spent most of the season in the role of the sixth man, but a strong defensive effort earned him a place with a start and he rewarded his coach with a game-high 19 points.
“He stays for these moments. When a child plays well with a bench, and again, it is more protected from anything, you give him a chance, and he is walking with it and he has done really good work,” the sample said.
While Jones rolled the ball, Jefferson seized the speed in the first quarter, scored the last seven points of the frame, including five directly from Sophomore Takim Drake.
Spring Mills began the second quarter keeping a counter in mind and the cardinals definitely stagger the cougar with it. The 15–0 run to start the second verse kept the cardinals under control and Spring mills ‘Kaleb Thomas’ drove Jefferson away from three points attempts, before spraying the floor to get a pass from Max Anderson and to punish Rim with a two-hand slam sting.
In the second, by excluding Jefferson by 21–5, Spring Mills led half to 31–22, but the Kagar team was to rally.
JHS scored the first six points of the third quarter as Jayden Gladney made a reverse paste to bring the deficit into the same possession.
Spring Mills replied by pulling the lead back more than nine, but again Jefferson pulled it back with Jamari Jenkins, which found Nelan Johnson for an open corner, which made it a difference of 36–32 at the end of the third.
After scoring in the third quarter, Jones resumed to open the fourth place with his fifth triple of the night, before the Ty Wichers responded with one of their own for Jefferson.
The full-applied pressure from the cougars proved to be the cause of issues for the spring mills as a handful of turnover helped Jefferson pull back within a minute to play within a minute to play.
Drake, a sophomore, again stepped up to create a bindu deficit as he followed his own shot and gave a second chance from under the rim, fouled only by Thomas. He was able to convert both free throw that made it a 46-45 game as Spring Mills tried to get the clock out, the remaining time was fouled to the Akwasi Opoku-ignorance before running down for 12.8 seconds.
With spring mills in the bonus, the Sophomore point guard stepped into the line, but not before receiving some words from his head coach.
“I called him and I called him ‘Morgantown’. He did the same thing against Morgantown.
Those free throws forced Jefferson to try a three-pointer to force overtime, but did not fall a good look for gladney and Drake could only tip in miss.
Cardinals move 19–0 in a regular season in one night, their first five played the entirety of the second half.
“They are separate. We work for this throughout the year. We don’t tired.” Samples said, “We are going to play those who should be on the floor and they have to rally and they have to ensure that they do their work so that they can play 32 minutes in a game.”
Thomas added 12 points to Spring Mills.
Jefferson was led with Drake’s 13 points and Jenkins scored 10 runs after entering the lineup again after an injury against Martinsburg on 26 January.