×

Jackals’ TBL Season Ends With Game 3 Loss

Jamestown’s Bernard Edwards takes the ball to the basket in front of teammate Julius Brooks (25) while a pair of Toledo defenders look on during Sunday’s The Basketball League playoff game against the Toledo Glass City Basketball Club at Jamestown Community College’s Physical Education Complex. P-J photo by Jason Bower

With the season on the line, the Jamestown Jackals found themselves down to the Toledo Glass City Basketball Club 107-96 in the fourth quarter of Game 3 of the Upper Midwest Division finals of The Basketball League playoffs.

The time was ticking away on the season and the Jackals needed a big push. That’s exactly what they got, scoring the next 10 points to trail 107-106 in the final minute of the fourth quarter.

“The toughest thing all season for our guys has been to buy in completely,” Jamestown player-coach Raheem Singleton said. “When you have a team as talented as we do, the thing you run into is the egos, the little things and the commitment to doing the little things. It takes for us to get down sometimes for us to fight, if we fight like that before we get down then it’s a different ballgame.”

After Toledo’s Chris Darrington missed a free throw, Jamestown had its best chance to tie the game at 108-all. A full-court pass was made to Jamestown’s Jon Lee for what should have been a routine layup, but the top-scoring Lee uncharacteristically missed the shot and instead of a tie game, Toledo was sent back to the free throw line.

DeVonte Pratt made his last four shots at the line for Toledo and put the score out of reach for the Jackals as they fell 112-110 after a buzzer-beater from Lee.

“It shouldn’t take going down,” Singleton said about getting the best out of the team. “This is the pro level; guys are getting paid to play. They have got to have that locked in ability from the beginning.”

Jamestown and Toledo had split games all through the regular season. Then, in the playoffs, split the first two games to set the table for an exciting Game 3.

“It’s been battles,” Singleton said about the games between Jamestown and Toledo. “Throughout this season we won on two buzzer-beaters and they beat us a few times as well. We split this season, then we won Game 1 and then they won two here.”

Jamestown was the better team in the first quarter, ahead until the very end when Toledo scored four points in the final 10 seconds, including a shot at the buzzer by Katwan Singleton, who stole the inbound to make it 27-27.

In the second quarter, Toledo struggled turning the ball over and fouling, which gave the Jackals the opportunity to build up a lead. Luckily for Toledo, in that span the shots were not falling for Jamestown.

However, once Toledo took the lead, Jamestown started to heat up again. The Jackals hit five treys in a row with three from Tommy Garrick, and one each from Bernard Edwards and Singleton. By the end of the half the Jackals led 65-59, with Garrick and Lee leading with 13 points apiece. At half for Toledo, Darrington had 16 points and Clemmye Owens had 13.

In the second half, Jamestown and Toledo continued to go back and forth. It wasn’t until the fourth quarter that Toledo pulled away and got up by double-digits, which then again lit the fire under the Jackals.

The last lead proved to be too much for Jamestown. A valiant effort was put into a Jamestown comeback, but it was too late and time expired with Toledo heading to the next round of the playoffs.

“It’s a tough team,” Singleton said about Toledo. “It’s their first year in the TBL, but they won a championship the year before in another league. But at any level those guys have a level of togetherness. They’re already bought into their system and they know how to rally together in those tough times.”

Jamestown’s top scorers in the game were Lee with 27, Garrick with 25 and six treys, and Singleton with 16. Toledo was led by Darrington with 31, Owens had 25, and both Pratt and Jonathan Brown had 12.

“It’s not a season to hang your head on, but not necessarily one to be proud of,” Singleton said. “It’s getting back to the drawing board and really making sure to get guys to buy in from day one next year.”

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

Starting at $4.62/week.

Subscribe Today