The Jordan Panthers needed to play a near-perfect ballgame on Wednesday night on Ron Massey Court if they were going to knock off one of the section’s best teams in St. John Bosco. The Panthers fell short of perfection in the first half, but looked a lot better over the final 16 minutes as they went toe-to-toe with the high-powered Braves.
Ultimately, a 29-point halftime deficit was too much to overcome as Jordan (1-1) suffered a 109-85 loss against St. John Bosco (1-0) in an early non-league showdown.
“One thing we’re never gonna do is lay down, and we’re always gonna play 32 minutes,” said Jordan head coach Chris Francis after the game. “You’re getting 32 minutes out of us, 32 minutes of hard, energetic basketball. When you shoot 8/40 in your own gym in the first half, you’re not going to beat anybody, so it was the tale of two halves. In the first half, we couldn’t make a shot. In the second half we knocked some shots down and we got into J-Town Basketball, so that’s something to build on.”
As anticipated, the Redmond Brothers–Dennis and Jaymari–led the Jordan attack scoring 49 points combined. Dennis had 24 points, including 11 in the fourth quarter, while younger brother Jaymari had 25 points to go with six assists.
Senior Franklyn Chambers had 16 points in his home debut for Jordan, while sophomore Daveyon Chisom and senior Jerome Wilson each added nine.
Bosco was led by 22 points from Kade Bonam, 17 from Elzie Harrington, 16 from Jaison Joyce, and 16 from Jack Turner. The Braves raced out to a 27-8 lead in the opening quarter thanks in large part to their size advantage down low and their second-chance points. The lead swelled to 57-28 at halftime, but that’s when the shots started to fall for the home team and things remained very even throughout the final 16 minutes.
Despite giving up their fair share of points, the shots began to fall and Jordan’s harassing defense started to wear the Braves down. Jordan won the second half, 57-52.
“We told them that basketball is a game of runs,” said Francis on his message to the team following the game. “Especially the style we play, it’s going to be a game of runs. On nights that we can’t make shots, we’ve gotta get stops and rebound the ball a lot better … You win every game with your effort. If you give 32 minutes of maximum effort, then anything can happen.”
Both teams will be back in action on Saturday as Jordan takes on Fairfax and Bosco faces Capital Christian from Sacramento.
