TJ’s season ends with loss to New Oxford

By clay sauertieg

For the Mon Valley Independent

The shots were falling early and often for New Oxford on Friday night in the first round of the PIAA Class 5A tournament.

The Colonials, who came in as the third seed of District 3, hit seven 3-pointers, six of which came in the first half on the way to a 70-48 victory over WPIAL third-seed Thomas Jefferson.

“We even banked a few in early to keep us going,” Colonials coach Nate Myers said of the hot shooting.

New Oxford (22-5), which came in as the de facto home team, had just a short bus ride compared to the nearly four-hour trip for the Jaguars (16-9) and it showed early on.

The Colonials started the game on a 10-2 run over the first four minutes of the ball game, including five early points from Brayden Long, who led all scorers with 19 in the game.

“I’ve been saying all year that with the senior leadership we have, we’re going to come out and we’re going to respond,” Myers said. “I think the crowd, obviously, was in our favor and it helped tremendously.”

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