Earlier tonight, Jamestown traveled to Orchard Park for a huge league game. As these two dominant teams started out, it the focus was on one player on each team.
OP’s Brad Fowler and Jamestown’s Demarri Jones both scored their teams’ first six points, and it didn’t stop there. Both teams were full of energy and created opportunities for shots to take the lead. At the end of the first, Jamestown had a small lead.
To start the second quarter, the Quakers came back out firing and gained a lot of momentum during their scoring run. However, Jamestown guard Elijah Rojas began lighting it up and became a key player to the game and helped the Red Raiders increase their lead. As both teams were solid on offense, it came down to defense.
Brad Fowler carried the weight on defense for the Quakers, totalling 4 blocks throughout the game, yet the Raider’s tough offense was just too good. At the end of the half, the score was 27-24 Jamestown.
To open up the third, Jamestown picked up right where it left off, primarily off of buckets from Elijah Morris and Demarri Jones. Orchard Park was able to respond off of gritty put backs from players like Tino Mancabelli and Brad Fowler. As both teams continued to fire from all cylinders in a close game, the score at the end of the third was 39-33 in favor of Jamestown.
At the start of the fourth, both teams were loud. They knew how important this game was and knew what it took to win. Orchard Park made a subtle comeback with some layups and put-backs, but Jamestown also responded back. With 25 seconds left, and the score 54-52 Jamestown, OP’s Ethan Swiatek stole an inbound pass and passed it to Jackson Roskow, who scored and tied the game. As Jamestown took it down the court, with time expiring under five seconds, Jordan Crofoot took a 3-pointer but missed. However, this miss led to a putback shot from Trey Drake to give the Raiders the lead.
The shot was the game winner for the Raiders and gave them the 56-54 win.