PJP II hangs on to defeat Pearl River

Pope John Paul II scored the first 17 points of Tuesday’s basketball game and built a 28-point lead, but Pearl River came back and cut it to four before coming up short, 56-49 at PRHS.

“We are not 30 points better than that team,” PJP coach Major Gorgone said. “To get that type of lead, we were making shots and they weren’t.”

The victory put the Jaguars at 8-2. PJP now has more wins than it did last season when it won just seven games. Pearl River slipped to 1-5.

PJP dominated the first half and took a 38-15 lead to the break. Pearl River’s Jacob Maxwell scored 10 points in the opening half and finished with 14.

What seemed to be a blowout continued into the third quarter as the Jaguars scored the first five points. Ryan Palmisano, who had a game-high 26 points, completed a three-point play and then followed up a miss with a score and the Jaguars led 43-15 with 7:16 left in the third quarter.

Game over, right? Well not exactly.

Pearl River came back with a ferocious run, spearheaded by Chris Simon, who had 11 points.

“We came out with a lot of energy in the first half and got on them early. That was good,” said PJP’s Scott Joffe, who scored 19 points. “They fought back really hard in the third quarter, and we were lucky to hold on to win.”

PJP turned the ball over and the Rebels missed a couple shots before Simon got fouled. He split the free throws, and it was 43-16. Then Kelsey Holmes hit for two. Simon hit back-to-back shots.

Jeremy Lang, who tallied 12 points, then completed a three-point play, and Eric Mavor knocked down a pair from the line. Gabe Wiley split from the charity stripe, and suddenly a 28-point lead was down to 43-28 with 1:05 left in the third period.

Joffe hit a 3-pointer with eight seconds left in the third, and the Jaguars took a 45-28 advantage into the fourth quarter.

But that didn’t stop PRHS. Maxwell hit a layup with 7:29 left in the fourth, then Joffe scored for PJP. The Rebels hit a trey, making it 47-33. Lang split from the charity stripe and then drained a 3-pointer. Maxwell hit Mavor for a layup, and the lead was under double figures at 47-39 with 4:31 remaining.

Palmisano then drove baseline for a layup to get the lead up to 49-39.

The teams exchanged buckets, and PJP led 51-41 with 3:18 to go in the game, but the Rebels had one more spurt left.

Simon and Lang both hit for two, then Maxwell came up with a steal and a dunk. Now it was 51-47 with 2:21 left.

PJP had the ball with 1:24 remaining when Palmisano hit a layup, but Simon scored for Pearl River. It was 53-49 at the 1:24 mark.

PJP was fouled with 1:02 left. After the inbounds, the Jaguars played keep away and Joffe was fouled with 32.3 seconds to go. He hit the front end of a 1-and-1. After a scoreless possession by PRHS, Joffe was sent to the line again with 22.6 left and hit both to seal a 56-49 victory.

Pearl River coach Jason Rogers said he told his team to keep playing after being down by so much.

“I’m going to try to keep coaching, and they’re going to try to keep playing. Don’t look at the scoreboard, don’t look to see what the score is, just try to make plays, one after another,” Rogers said.

The coach added it was a good effort in the second half. He said it was just too much of a slow start.