Jaguars roll in 30-point win over Titans

By Jeremy Tepper

MVI Sports

Dom DeCicco isn’t used to seeing his team find its stride early in the season. 

Usually, his Thomas Jefferson boys might begin to get things going toward the middle or end of the season. But not this year. A deep and talented team, the Jaguars have already started to roll early on.

Tuesday’s game was the latest example of that, as Thomas Jefferson easily handled West Mifflin, 72-42, in Section 1-5A play.

“I really like this team. They come to work everyday,” said DeCicco. “You can see it really starting to come together. You can see it’s getting a little bit better each day.”

Jake Pugh led the Jaguars (6-1, 1-1) with 21 points, while Evan Berger came off the bench for 16 points and Ian Hansen scored 11. 

Mekhi Scott led West Mifflin (2-2, 0-2) with 28 points. 

Thomas Jefferson jumped out early on the Titans with a 9-0 run before parlaying that into a 20-6 first quarter. 

DeCicco said starting out hot was a focus.

“That was our focus and our goal,” DeCicco said. “We thought if we could get the energy going and if our defense could create some offense and put them in a hole, that would be a big advantage.”

The Jaguars extended their lead to 38-18 at halftime and didn’t let up, eventually triggering the mercy rule late in the third quarter. 

All game long, TJ’s offense and defense ran effectively and together, using traps to create turnovers and subsequent layups.

“I think defensively our traps were causing breakouts and we got a lot of easy ones that way,” DeCicco said. “That’s what we were really doing tonight. We thought after watching them on film that that’s one of the things we could do to them.”

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