John Jay heating up on court with pair of wins

Braydon Gates sinks a jump shot for John Jay in win over Pawling. Jim MacLean photo

By JIM MACLEAN 

It was a perfect balance of scoring from the inside and outside as the John Jay boys varsity basketball team started and finished strong for a victory over Pawling at home Wednesday, Jan. 21.

John Jay then went on the road and scored another impressive win over Ardsley to make it two straight as the Wolves hope to turn it on for a strong finish heading into the playoffs.

Against Pawling, John Jay started out hot from the outside as Braydon Gates hit four three-pointers in the first quarter and added another in the second to help the Wolves open up a 29-16 halftime lead. Then Timmy Pastore took over inside in the second half as John Jay closed out a 65-53 victory.

“One thing carried over to the other,” John Jay coach Tyler Sayre said. “We played good defense, they have two really good players and we forced them to take a lot of tough shots and led to offense. It always helps when the ball is going in. Braydon is a really good shooter and he got hot early, then they had to start crowding on him and that opened it up for Timmy inside.”

With Gates nailing four 3-pointers, John Jay built a 16-12 lead in the first quarter. It was on the defensive end in the second quarter where the Wolves really took control, holding Pawling to just 4 points in the quarter and heading into halftime with a 13-point lead at 29-16.

Pastore made some strong moves inside for a pair of 3-point plays the old fashioned way with a hoop and drawing the foul and sinking the free throws. He finished with 8 points in the second quarter, and he kept it up in the third quarter scoring nine points, including a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Wolves a 43-32 lead at the end of three quarters.

Down the stretch, it was Pastore and Gates hitting from the free throw line as well to ice the victory. Pastore was a perfect 7-for-7 from the line overall, and he nailed another 3-pointer from downtown as well to finish with a team-high 23 points to lead the Wolves to the win. Gates finished with 20 points, including six 3-pointers. Point guard Will Green finished with 9 points, Marc Fein added 6 points, and Seth Denker chipped in 5 points for the Wolves.

“Timmy is only a sophomore, he was hurt to start the year, but he’s a very skilled player and strong around the basket,” Sayre said of Pastore. “For him, perimeter shooting is a bonus and he really helps us around the rim. He scored 23 points and probably played only 20 minutes, an impressive game for sure.”

John Jay carried the momentum over to the next game as the Wolves went on the road to Ardsley, Jan. 23, and came home with a 44-34 victory.

Once again it was a strong start with some hot shooting from Gates to get them going in the first quarter as he hit a pair of 3-pointers and scored 8 points to help the Wolves build a 17-7 lead at the end of the first quarter.

And once again it was the defense that made the difference in the second quarter as the Wolves limited Ardsley to just 6 points and closed out the first half with a 28-15 lead. Gates finished with a team-high 11 points to lead the Wolves to the victory, while Alex Palacio came on strong inside and scored nine points. Pastore, Green, and Nate Summer each added 7 points for the Wolves.

With the two wins, John Jay improved to 5-8 overall as the Wolves head down the stretch run with two home games coming up against Pelham on Friday, Jan. 30, and Brewster on Monday, Feb. 2.

“I look at the rest of our schedule, they’re all competitive games, no cupcakes, no teams that are clearly better than us, we could win every game,” Sayre said. “We just have to keep working hard to get better the rest of the way into the playoffs.”