On Fridays during Lent, it is a tradition for folks to somehow, someway get themselves to a local fish fry.
Well on the first Friday in March, the most popular Fry in Jefferson Borough was 6-foot-4 junior Justin Fry.
With his teammates struggling, all Fry did was play tough defense and rack up 40 points as Thomas Jefferson came from behind late to defeat visiting New Oxford in a PIAA Class 5A boys basketball first-round playoff game, 66-61.
“He was completely dominant on both ends of the court,” Thomas Jefferson coach Dom DeCicco said. “Justin was unbelievable.”
Fry had to be great because it was a big-time struggle for his Jaguars teammates to score the basketball until the fourth quarter.
He scored seven of his team’s 11 points in the first quarter, 11 of the Jaguars’ 13 points in the second quarter and 11 of their 19 points in the third quarter.
During those quarters, outside of a 3-2 and a 7-5 lead, Thomas Jefferson trailed the No. 8 seed Colonials out of District 3 until midway through the fourth quarter.
“It’s honestly just a mental thing. Like I really tell myself when I have to go out there and play my best when my team really needs me,” Fry said.
With the WPIAL runners-up leading 7-5 in the first quarter, New Oxford scored the next 10 points to take an eight-point lead.
From that point until midway through the third quarter, the Colonials’ lead never shrunk below five points and got as high as 11 points in the early moments of the third quarter.
Thomas Jefferson, which lost big to Chartiers Valley in the WPIAL finals six days earlier, was struggling from the field outside of Fry. Plus New Oxford was dominating the defensive glass, leaving the Jaguars to go one and done on many first-half possessions.
“Tuesday was a tough practice because the guys were down,’ DeCicco said. “By the end of practice, though, we were physical and they were getting after it. They were (angry) with how they played down at The Pete. We knew how good (New Oxford) was and we knew we had to play well.”
After being held to 24 total points in the first half, Thomas Jefferson picked up the offense in the third quarter.
“After losing the WPIAL championship, heads might be down, and I think that’s what happened,” Fry said of the early struggles. “Once we started to get it going, started moving the ball and getting out on transition and locking down on defense, that’s when things started to spark for us.”
Down nine points at the half, the Jaguars started chipping away at the Colonials’ lead, coming as close as one point twice late in the quarter; however, a 3-pointer at the buzzer by New Oxford senior Luke Frey made the score 47-43 heading into the fourth.
It was the second buzzer beater of the game for the Colonials after Owen MacGregor hit a 3-pointer off a blocked shot at the end of the first quarter.
Senior Joshua Gerber got a steal at midcourt and his layup tied the game at 52 before junior Kane Eggerton drove the paint and scored with 3:38 left in regulation to give the Jaguars their first lead since the first quarter.
“I thought defense created offense,” DeCicco said. “We’ve won games this year 43-39 or 87-79. We think we can win in different ways. We just have a special group.”
After New Oxford tied the game again, Fry put TJ up to stay with a 3-pointer from the corner, giving the Jags a 57-54 lead.
Fry went 4 for 4 from the free-throw line down the stretch to help ice the victory for Thomas Jefferson.
“Our team all year has been down, but they always have the belief they can come back,” DeCicco said. “They all stepped up. That’s a great win for our kids.”
Eggerton had 12 points for the Jaguars, including seven in the fourth quarter, while senior Nick Trklja was limited to only nine points.
“Whenever Nick is struggling, I have to have his back because we’re the one and two,” Fry said of the team’s top two scorers. “Kane was struggling in the first half, and he’s our third guy. I have to have everybody’s back when things aren’t going right.”
New Oxford ends its season with a record of 17-10. Senior guard Brody Holmes was outstanding with a team-high 26 points for the Colonials.
“That kid, if he was in the WPIAL, he’d be one of the top five players in the league,” DeCicco said of Holmes. “He’s a great shooter, and he can get to the rim.”
Senior Brayden Billman added 13 points for New Oxford.
Thomas Jefferson improves to 24-3 and will face Moon (21-4) in the second round of the state playoffs at a site to be determined Tuesday.
Fry had one more point to make about TJ’s upcoming opponent before leaving the gym, perhaps for a fish dinner somewhere.
“It’s going to be tough,” he said, “but we’re going to get them.”