By JOSE NEGRON
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Veteran Thomas Jefferson head coach Dom DeCicco will be the first to admit that he learns more about his team when it suffers a slight setback than when it wins.
“When we lose a game, you get to pick apart some of your mistakes and some of the things you aren’t doing well,” said DeCicco, whose Jaguars suffered a 48-36 non-section loss to Class 3A South Allegheny Saturday.
“I thought our last three practices were great because of that.”
TJ fixed its mistakes and bounced back in a huge way Wednesday by rolling past visiting Connellsville, 67-19, in Section 1-5A play.
The Jaguars (15-3, 5-2), who have now won six of their last seven games, took a 29-10 lead into halftime before outscoring the Falcons (0-6, 0-6) by a 38-9 margin in the second half.
“I thought our team defense was really good, I thought our transition was really good and the way we moved the ball was really good,” DeCicco said.
After hitting four 3-pointers and scoring 20 points in TJ’s last meeting against Connellsville, Aidan Kelly had quite the encore as he finished with five 3-pointers and 15 points.
Ethan Dunsey was the other TJ player in double figures with 13 points, while Ian Hansen (9), Jake Pugh (8) and Evan Berger (8) combined for 25.
“They played a great game and the better team won,” Connellsville head coach Andy Hedrick said. “I love the way that Thomas Jefferson plays. I think they play hard and they play like a team, and coach DeCicco is getting everything he has out of the guys he has.”
TJ started the game red hot from the field, opening up with a 12-1 run in the first four and a half minutes behind three points apiece from Kelly, Hansen, Dunsey and Shawn McSwiggen.
Connellsville cut its deficit to six over the span of a minute, but a bucket by Jordan Mayer and a 3-pointer by Berger gave TJ a 17-6 edge after one quarter.
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