This time, Jamestown started hot and held on to a 123-117 win on Wednesday at Warren Area High School. The Jackals take a 1-0 lead in The Basketball League’s best-of-3 Eastern Conference second-round series.

The Jackals’ hot start was fueled by point guard Raheem “Radio” Singleton’s 12 first-quarter points — four 3-pointers.

“I just do what my team needs from me,” said Singleton. “The last few games I’ve been struggling; I haven’t really been myself, battling injuries. Today, I was feeling like myself, and I knew that I had to be aggressive early as they would probably give me shots. When I’m aggressive early, it just helps us flow a little bit better.”

Singleton hit three 3-pointers in building 6-0, 9-3, and 12-8 leads in the first-quarter.

Jamestown point guard Raheem “Radio” Singleton posts a Syracuse player during the Jackals’ 123-117 TBL second-round win Wednesday at Warren Area High School. Photo by Cody Elms

Two straight assists by Singleton led to dunks by Daniel Mulamba and Dane Miller for a 16-10 lead.

Singleton’s fourth 3-pointer and five straight points by Anthony Moe (9 in the quarter) upped the lead to 28-17 Jackals.

Jamestown led 36-24 after one quarter, and the Jackals would need every bit of that double-digit lead later on.

“It’s just winning possessions,” said Singleton. “You’ve got to continue to focus on stops. Sometimes we get too caught up on offense, we let it affect our defense. Today, we were just able to lock in and come up with those stops down the stretch.”

In the meantime, Miller continued his hot play in the playoffs, finishing with 15 points in a 65-51 first half, and 29 points and 17 rebounds for the game.

Jamestown led 70-55 in the third quarter, but Syracuse cut the lead to eight by the end of the third.

Jamestown held on to a 94-89 lead before three straight buckets from Miller got the lead back to 11.

Jon Lee converted a traditional three-point play, plus two more free throws — on consecutive possessions — for a 108-96 lead.

Again, the Stallions battled back to close within 110-107 and 120-116 with less than a minute to go.

Jordan Robertson and Mike Henry led Syracuse with 28 points each.

But Jamestown won the free-throw battle, converting 18-of-21 in the fourth quarter. Lee was 5-for-5 at the line and had 11 fourth-quarter points. Bernard Edwards was 7-for-8 at the line in the final quarter, and had a nifty no-look pass to Miller for a driving dunk with 1:02 left. That built the lead to 117-109.

Lee finished with 18 points, Edwards 16, Moe 15, Singleton 14, and Mulumba 10 and 13 rebounds. Christian Nobles added five assists.

Jamestown plays at the higher-seeded Stallions for Game 2 and, if necessary, Game 3.

“We played them eight times (in the regular season),” said Jackals head coach Brandon Lesovsky. “That’s what it’s been like in six of them. You let them hang around and all of a sudden they start making shots, and now you’ve got problems. We know they’re good, and we know we’ve got to beat them one more time.”

Game 2 is Friday at Syracuse.