The JSC men’s basketball team finished its season with a pair of losses at Castleton State and Husson College on Feb. 22 and 26, respectively. It finished the season with a record of 9-17.
Despite playing a tight second half, the Badgers could not overcome a 13 point half-time lead held by Castleton State, eventually losing by a score of 93-82. The visiting Badgers were led by strong scoring efforts from All-NAC 1st teamer Charlie Viana, who netted 28 points, and Bobby Shedd (All-NAC Honorable Mention), with 23 on 10 of 15 shooting. Josh Howe scored 25 points off the bench to lead a trio of Spartans who scored more than 19 points.
JSC finished the regular season in third place in the NAC West Division with an overall record of 11-14 and a conference record of 7-8.
On Tuesday, Feb. 26, JSC traveled up to Bangor, Maine to face the East Division’s second place team, Husson College, in the NAC quarter-finals. The perimeter shooting of the Eagles paced them to a comfortable half-time lead. The Eagles shot 54 percent from the field and a staggering 63 percent from the arc en route to a 43-28 half-time lead.
With my collegiate basketball career ending on Feb 26, I look back and see how truly grateful I was to be a NCAA student-athlete for the past four years. Granted, it was at a small division three school, but college ball is college ball no matter where you are, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. No matter what division it is, every athlete has to go to practice, go to class, and find time for the lifting and running that is necessary to compete at the college level.
Having the longest season of all the collegiate sports made basketball for me that much more enjoyable and, most importantly, memorable. From October to the end of February, I was with the same group of guys day in and day out. We had our ups and downs, the long grueling practices when no one wanted to be there, the game that wasn’t going our way and everyone seemed to be against each other, the early morning runs and lifts, but most importantly, we did it all together.