If there was a sweeter and more satisfying way for the Jamesville-DeWitt boys basketball team to earn the Section III Class A championship, it’s difficult to imagine.
Against the local legend who once coached them to so much glory, the Red Rams delivered a big second-half surge to defeat Bishop Grimes 73-68 in Sunday night’s sectional final at the Carrier Dome.
A 19-1 run, spread out over the third and fourth quarters, helped J-D overcome the Cobras’ height advantage and rebound disparity to reclaim the title it last won in 2017.
“Heart and fighting turned it around,” said Payton Shumpert, whose team-high 24 points, along with seven rebounds and five assists, helped him earn sectional tournament MVP honors.
Head coach Jeff Ike said his team was “a group of grinders that works hard and doesn’t give up”, which might not fit the profile of past star-studded J-D sides, but was enough to produce another championship for a program used to them.
To many fans, the storyline of Bob McKenney coaching for Grimes against the Red Rams he once led remained potent, but not as charged as it was when McKenney started his tenure with the Cobras.
What they now had, beyond their shared history when it came to the coaching ranks, was a genuine history of playing important games. In both 2017 and 2018, they met in sectional semifinals, J-D prevailing the first time, Grimes getting even a year later.
Now they clashed a round later, on a far bigger stage, for even higher stake. And there wasn’t any early-game nerves on display as J-D needed less than five minutes to get all five starters on the scoreboard and led 22-17 after one period.
Grimes’ taller, wider lineup slowly gained control during the second quarter, where it kept getting second and third chances off of missed shots while continuing to spread its production around.
All told, the Cobras grabbed 31 rebounds to the Rams’ 11 in the first half, with Gop Arop getting eight of those boards as he, along with David Mo and T.J. Bradford, combined for 19 points.
It took six 3-pointers, three of them by Max Schulman, to make up for that disparity on the glass and assured that the Rams only trailed by one, 33-32, at the break.
Grimes carried its slim lead deep into the third quarter, but the Rams’ switch from a zone defense to a man-to-man look would eventually turn the game in its favor for good.
Payton Shumpert’s eight straight points ignited a 15-1 run to close the period that Preston Shumpert finished off with a 3-pointer and a pair of free throws, giving J-D a 56-45 advantage going to the final period.
By the time Grimes finally regrouped, it trailed 64-49, and while it made up ground down the stretch, it never could fully recover from that J-D outburst, one where the Cobras did not have a field goal for nearly five minutes.
As throughout its late-season run, there was plenty of production to go around. Schulman finished with 17 points, while Preston Shumpert had 14 points and Matt Cieplicki gained 12 points.
“We don’t care who scores,” said Payton Shumpert. “As long as we’re winning and playing as a team, we’re happy.”
Grimes got 19 points and 12 rebounds from Mo, with Bradford (15 points, 10 rebounds) and Arop (11 points, 12 rebounds) also recording double-doubles.
J-D will play in Saturday’s Class A regional final at 1:45 at SRC Arena against the winner of Wednesday’s game between Troy (Section II) and Malone (Section X), with a berth in the March 15-16 state final four in Binghamton on the line.
“As long as we fight hard, we can beat anyone,” said Payton Shumpert.