The Jim Thorpe Boys Basketball team played Lehighton on January 20th, 2016, on JT’s home court. It finally became time for them to face each other again. What were the results? Outstanding.

According to Rayan Green, a Senior at Jim Thorpe Area High School, the game was no joke.  Everyone knows that Lehighton is one of Jim Thorpe’s biggest rivals, so in order to prepare for the game, Green and his team got down to business, he stated “We all knew it was going to be a close game. We put our all into practice trying to strengthen our weak points.”

With all the hype about the game, to some it made it go by slowly, but to others the game flew by. With this, there was a lot that happened in the stands, and especially on the courts.

With the student body there for support, Green stated,  “The best moment for me was when I realized we had beaten our worst rivals, a team we haven’t beat in quite some time now.”

The game was all cheers. Having the student body there pumping up the boys, keeping their heads in the game, made everyone hyped. However, with all these cheers, there were moments of fear and self doubt.

When talking to Green, he stated, “That night’s game had so much going on, with everyone cheering and showing their support. This helped me a lot when I thought they were going to win the game with a lucky shot with only two seconds left on the clock. After this happened, it was a major disappointment, but I knew we could come back.”

With Green believing in himself and his team, lifting everyone up after that lucky shot, Green and his teammates were not the only ones lifting the players up.

Besides the crowd and his fellow teammates, Green said, “The best advice I got was from my coach. He said ‘If we wanted to win this game, we had to match their intensity.’ This helped a lot after their shot. I realized my team and I couldn’t slack off now.”

When the final buzzer went off, the Jim Thorpe Boys realized they won the game. Everyone was stoked and could not believe they won by just two points. Green commented, “It was a really good feeling, especially for the seniors. We felt with losing to them the past three years straight, and then coming out on top the last time facing them ever, we definitely made a victory our last year playing a really good team in our league.”

By: Stephanie Sparrow