The562’s coverage of Jordan Athletics is sponsored by John Ross, Class of 2013.
Jordan boys’ basketball coach Chris Francis got exactly what he wished for on Thursday night. After an emotional CIF Southern Section championship win on Saturday, his Panthers are looking to take a state title–to do so, the scrappy Jordan kids will have to win four games in eight days. With so many minutes so late in the season, there’s nothing that pleases a coach like a comfortable win, and that’s what Jordan got in the second round of the CIF State Division IV bracket, taking down visiting Beaumont 86-60.
With the win, Jordan advances to the regional semifinals on Saturday, where they’ll travel to top-seeded Valencia on Saturday.
“I had a friend of mine who went to school here and he said, ‘Man, there’s people that coach for 19 or 20 years and never get this far,’” said Francis. “I’m just being humble and taking it in. My coaching staff put together a great gameplan, the kids all bought into it again. It’s like they say man, the band’s back together.”
The Panthers ended the night with their bench emptied, and crowd favorite Jalan Chisom draining a 3-pointer to a roar from the capacity crowd, with the Panthers celebrating so hard on the bench they drew a technical foul, and the fans in the stands dancing long after the Beaumont free throws had happened.
“That’s always fun, man, I was happy for him, our crowd loves him,” said Francis.
The game was put away by the end of the second quarter as Jordan put on a perfect version of its offensive and defensive gameplan, scoring 20 points in the first and 23 in the second, while holding Beaumont to 14 in the first and just 11 in the second, building a 43-25 halftime lead.
The Panthers ran Beaumont’s shooters off the line, and held the sharpshooting team to just 5/20 shooting from beyond the arc, speeding them up and turning them over in the way that only Jordan can. On offense, Beaumont tried to avoid Jordan bombing away from beyond the arc by chasing them off the line, but they picked the wrong players to push into the mid-range.
Dennis Remond Jr. was on fire in the first half, only missing one shot as he put in 20 of his game-high 27 points.
“They played me to my mid-range, so you know, that’s the wrong place to let me get to,” he said. “We just wanted to come and go all out, all the fans come out and support us and we just wanted to keep it rolling.”
Jordan has gotten great fan support all postseason and the gym was rocking on Thursday night for what could be the team’s final home game of the year, unless they upset Valencia and St. Bonaventure is upset in the other regional semifinal.
“The support has been unbelievable,” said Francis. “That’s who we’re doing it for, the community.”
Frankie Chambers added 24 points for Jordan and the Panthers got 17 points off the bench in the win.
