Jahmeek Jones started on the undefeated Rice freshman championship team and on the title-winning junior varsity squad a year later. Since them, playing time on the varsity level has been sparse.
But with a pair of starters out because of injury, Rice coach Dwayne Mitchell called Jones’ No. 11 and the 5-foot-7 senior guard responded in a big way, helping lead the Raiders to a 79-63 victory against Holy Cross in a CHSAA Class AA league game at Gauchos Gym Tuesday.
“He came out with the right attitude,” Mitchell said of Jones. “He hasn’t been playing much, but he didn’t come out and try to force it. He’s a shooter and he waited for his shots. I give him a lot of credit for being mentally strong enough to still come out there, even though he hasn’t been playing much, in a big league game and produce.”
When he walked into the famed gym on Gerard Ave., Jones already knew Rice (12-7, 5-2 Archdiocesan New York), ranked No. 3 in the city by The Post, would be without starters Richard Council and Devaughn Reid to injury.
“Since they weren’t here, I had the mindset that I had to be ready to play and do what I do best, which is shoot,” Jones said.
And shoot he did. Jones finished with 16 points, burying four critical 3-pointers, opening everyone’s eyes in the gym.
“He hit some very big shots,” Holy Cross coach Paul Gilvary said. “When you’re playing against a team that talented, you have to give up something because you can’t take away all their weapons. They have so many of them.”
The Raiders most well-known weapon is Jermaine Sanders and the Cincinnati-bound senior finished with a game-high 22 points and led the charge in the Raiders dominance of the boards. He made sure there was no repeat of last year’s game when the Raiders were upset in Queens.
“We came in with the mindset to not let what happened last year happen today,” Sanders said. “We came out, played hard and role players stepped up today in a big way and we got the win.”
Rice, which also received 12 points from Melvin Johnson, took control of the game early in the third quarter, turning a three-point halftime lead into a 10-point bulge on a basket by Joshua Gomez less than two minutes into the second half.
Led by Marquise Moore (21 points) and Evan Conti (18 points), Holy Cross (12-8, 4-5 Brooklyn/Queens) quickly rallied and got within two following a 3-point play by Marcus Hopper, who added 12 points.
But then Sanders banged a 3-pointer, Jones knocked down a pair of long-distance shots in the final three minutes of the third quarter and the Raiders took a 56-49 lead into the fourth quarter.
“He’s always ready no matter what and he just goes hard in practice all the time,” Sanders said of Jones. “I knew one game he was going to have a big game and thank God it was today that he made a statement that he could play and hit shots when we need him.”
Jones best performance on the varsity level came at a key time. Rice came into the game off an impressive win against Mount Vernon in the consolation game of the SNY Invitational Saturday and has a brutal weekend ahead with league games against All Hallows, Christ the King and St. Raymond on consecutive days.
“It’s a time where we have to start peaking,” Mitchell said. “We don’t want to peak too soon, but we definitely want to build up some steam and take some momentum going into the playoffs.”
