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The title-game boxscore . . .

The Season's Results (24-8) . . .

Season Scoring . . .

Selected Photos . . .

Trayvond Massenburg reaches back for a rebound.

Rysheed Jordan takes the elevator . . .

. . . So does Amir Butler.

Assistant Randy Miller (L) and coach Jamie Ross.

Ted's Website Report . . .

MARCH 22
PIAA CLASS A FINAL
Vaux 83, Johnsonburg 63
(At Hershey’s Giant Center)
  Vaaaaaaaauuuuux! Hail to the Cougars. Faced with the prospect of perhaps experiencing a devastating loss in the final game in school history, coach Jamie Ross’ club, after some first-half hiccups, stormed to a blowout victory. A win by Johnsonburg would have trumped Hoosiers, folks. The Rams played no one over 6-1 and many of the kids looked like ninth-graders, even fifth-graders (smile). But they could shoot and they created the proper spacing and they refused to wilt when Vaux rolled to edges of 17-6 in the first quarter (six steals helped immensely) and 34-25 in the second. In fact, J-burg kept rolling and even carried a 37-36 halftime lead into the locker room after Vaux superstar sr. G Rysheed Jordan momentarily fell asleep and allowed a guy to convert a follow off a missed free throw right before the buzzer. There’d been a few other shaky moments, too. Most prominent was the elbow thrown by jr. F-C Trayvond Massenburg that connected hard with a J-burg kid and sent him crashing to the floor. For whatever strange reason, a replay was shown on the video board and, as you can imagine, the reaction was not exactly favorable. The J-burg fans erupted in anger and it’s likely any neutral spectators immediately turned against the Cougars. Whatever Ross said at halftime, it worked. The Cougars were composed and purposeful throughout the second half and it’s possible not one unwise shot was taken. Jordan was simultaneously electric and controlled and there was just no denying him, folks. He missed just one shot in the second half and that came on a failed alley-oop. Soph G Sammy Foreman, impressive in the semis, again played well while mixing drives with pullups. Meanwhile, J-burg – perhaps because of tired legs? – hit just one of 11 attempts from beyond the arc over the final 16 minutes. Somewhat surprisingly, Ross opted to spread the floor with 5:51 remaining and the score at 67-52. Teams sometimes lose their flow/momentum when that happens, but the Cougars remained zoned in and rode things home. The last minute featured dunks by Jordan (third of game) and Massenburg. Jordan shot 14-for-20 and 4-for-6 for 32 points, finalizing his career total at 1,817. He added six rebounds, four assists and five steals. Foreman had 22 points, six dimes and five thefts. Sr. G-F Amir Butler mixed nine points with six boards, Massenburg contributed eight boards and four blocks and soph sub G Khalief Tinley managed five points, three rebounds, two steals. The SportsWeek story described the fun stuff that happened thereafter and is linked below. Vaux, a former junior high, was able to play just seven Pub seasons. While everything unfolded, I couldn’t help but think about Chubby Cox, a former star at Roxborough (’73), Villanova/San Francisco and for a while an NBA player. Chubby, a GREAT guy, was able to guide the Cougars for just one season before experiencing a health setback. Vic Otarola and Ross were in charge for three seasons apiece. Vaux appeared to have about 150 supporters. Nothing close to J-burg’s throng, but not bad. Hopefully, Pub schools will continue to get at least semi-respectable support in Hershey now that the state finals have bid bye-bye to Penn State.
  Ted's SportsWeek story is here.