It did just that on Wednesday. The Jackals opened their best-of-three postseason series with Carolina in The Basketball League with a 116-95 win at Warren Area High School.

Every Jackal that suited up scored, led by Jon Lee’s 22 points, Dane Miller’s 21, and point guard Christian Nobles’ 19. Nobles was three rebounds from a triple-double, and Miller added 12 rebounds in the win.

“This is far from over,” said Jackals coach Brandon Lesovsky. “(Carolina) is a good team. They got a lot of pride over there in that locker room, so it’s not over. We’ve got to come out and do the same thing on Friday night. We really needed to keep them out of transition, and the key to that was us taking good shots on offense.”

Jamestown built an early 25-15 lead before the Coyotes (14-8) went on a 9-0 run to cut the lead to one.

Jamestown Jackals’ point guard Christian Nobles drive to the hoop during Wednesday’s 116-95 The Basketball League Eastern Conference playoff win over Carolina at Warren Area High School. Photo by Cody Elms

Bernard Edwards’ 3-pointer upped the lead back to four for Jamestown, which didn’t trail the rest of the way.

“This was fun,” Lesovsky said in a season during which COVID interruptions and restrictions have seemingly lasted forever.

“This is the Jamestown experience,” he said, “when sometimes you can get even bigger crowds than this. Hopefully on Friday even more people will come out.”

Lee, Edwards, and Glenroy Carr hit two 3-pointers each in a 32-26 Jamestown first quarter.

The atmosphere was friendly early on as Carolina’s Marshall Lange slapped hands with a toddler sitting in the front row who caught a loose ball.

Crosby knows what it’s like to play at Joseph A. Massa Gymnasium at Warren Area High School. She played there “a couple of times” as a member of the Eisenhower High School girls basketball team.

With a season that started at the Warren YMCA for a weekend of home games to the Erie Boys & Girls Club, now back to Warren, “this is great. This is what we’ve been looking for,” said Crosby. “To have the crowd, and the excitement of the noise in the gym, it was perfect.”

Playing there at the end of June was a hot, sweaty experience, but a multitude of Kayla’s family, regular volunteers and district staff were up to the challenge of a couple hundred fans.

“I’ve got amazing people that volunteer and commit their time,” said Crosby. “Some people have been here every single game, even going out to Erie and everything. I couldn’t do it by myself.”

Carolina shooting guard Quincy Washington scored a game-high 31 points, including 12 in the first quarter.

Miller’s 21 came without a point in the first quarter and 3-of-10 shooting at the line as Jamestown built its lead. Miller scored 13 and Nobles 12 in the second half for Jamestown (17-6).

The work’s not finished after a Game 1 win in which the Jackals led 54-44 at the half and 80-68 after three quarters.

“Oh, we want that national championship,” said Crosby. “So we’ve got to get another win on Friday, and next week it’s either Syracuse or Raleigh, North Carolina, and then we’d move on to the Midwest Division.”