Given the fact Jeannette was leading but not in complete control, Jayce Powell felt the need to be vocal in the huddle.
He fired up the Jayhawks with his voice, but his game also did a lot of talking.
The junior guard scored 11 of his 16 points in the second half and roared at his teammates with a raised tone during a fourth-quarter timeout as the host Jayhawks held back Norwin, 60-50, on Saturday in the Westmoreland County Coaches Association Boys Basketball Showcase.
Jeannette (7-1) has won five straight. Norwin (4-4) has dropped 3 of 4.
After Norwin cut the lead to nine, Jeannette called a timeout and Powell turned up his volume, telling teammates to quiet down and pay attention to coach Adrian Batts.
“We needed to stop talking and listen,” Powell said. “I felt like somebody needed to step up. Coaches tell me to be more aggressive, and I tried to be today.”
The Jayhawks listened to Powell and followed his lead.
The No. 2-ranked team in WPIAL 2A and the defending WPIAL champion took the lead for good early in the second quarter and never gave it back against 6A Norwin.
The Jayhawks’ last four wins were by an average of 35 points, so a close game was somewhat of a tester. The Knights kept it close despite seeing the deficit reach double digits in the third. They shaved the lead to less than 10 three times inside the final five minutes before Jeannette closed them out with a 22-point fourth quarter propelled by Powell.
“Jayce has kind of been in the shadow of Markus (McGowan) and Kymon’e (Brown),” Jeannette coach Adrian Batts said. “But he does so many things you don’t see on the stat sheets. He has that unselfish attitude, but there are times we need him to be more selfish.”
Powell, who ended the third with a three-point play, started the fourth with a 3-pointer, then finished another and-1 to make it 51-41. After he delivered an assist to McGowan to push the advantage to 12, he took his energy into a huddle with Jeannette leading 55-46.
“He took over that huddle,” Batts said.
Out of the timeout, senior forward Xavier Odorisio-Farrow tipped in a miss, senior forward Noah Sunder scored off a feed from Odorisio-Farrow and Powell made a free throw to extend the lead to 60-46 with just less than a minute to play.
Asked what his team did well in the setback, Norwin coach Cam Auld said, “Nothing. We lost.”
Senior Alex Graney was a bright spot for the Knights with a game-high 20 points, and sophomore King Carver and senior Nate Kuch had 10 apiece. The Knights did not attempt a free throw in the second half after going 4 for 10 in the first half.
“We’d get the lead to single digits, and they would make a play to take the momentum back,” Auld said. “That’s what championship teams do. Our rebounding stunk; we didn’t have the want-to to rebound. They pressured us in the second quarter and had us going east-west more. We need to do a better job of getting to the paint.”
Batts thought Jeannette could have — and should have — won by more.
“We missed some transition layups,” he said. “We need to finish on those.”
Norwin led after the first quarter 10-8 and went up 13-12 on a layup by King Carver. But Powell’s three-point play put Jeannette in front to stay.
The Jayhawks led 23-19 at the half and 38-32 after three. The lead reached eight in the third on a putback by junior forward Noah Clary.
“Norwin made it tough on us,” Batts said. “We needed a game like this at this time of year. We don’t see a lot of back-screens and things that Norwin does. Once we got the pace going, it helped us. We didn’t give them any space.”
McGowan, a junior guard, led Jeannette with 17 points, including a pair of 3s. Senior leader Brown had nine points, including back-to-back hoops in the fourth, one on a smooth left-handed layup.
Jeannette was 9 of 17 from the foul line.
“We need these type of games,” Powell said, “to prepare us for bigger things.”