The Johnson City boys basketball team defeated Center Point last Tuesday, 72-23, to end the 20242025 season.
The Eagles finished the season 2-10 in district play and 10-15 overall. The win over Center Point (0-11 in district) let the season end with a high note and will help head coach Lewis Jenkins and his team regroup and prepare for the 2025-2026 season.
“Hopefully, that’ll help them,” Jenkins said. “For the younger ones to have a win at the end, hopefully, fuels the fire.”
Tuesday’s game between Johnson City and Center Point was all Johnson City rfrom the beginning. The Eagles scored 26 points in the first quarter and held Center Point to just five to build a strong early lead. Johnson City scoring slowed down in the second quarter and Center Point took advantage, outscoring Johnson City 108, but the halftime score was still firmly in favor of the Eagles, 34-15. Johnson City got back to work in the third quarter as it scored 19 points and held Center Point to six for a 53-21 lead.
“We shot the ball really well tonight,” Jenkins said. “We outrebounded them and shot the ball well.”
While the fourth quarter was another dominant quarter for Johnson City, which outscored Center Point 19-2, the players on the court and the atmosphere in the gym was unlike most other quarters in the season. The Johnson City seniors, such as Micah Ablon and Coy Doyle, were given the floor as their high school basketball careers entered their final minutes. Late in the game, the Eagle bench and bleachers filled the room with cheers as Doyle and Ablon scored their first field goals of the game, with Ablon’s being a three-point shot, but no reaction was louder than that which followed Ablon’s buzzer-beating two-point shot as time expired in the fourth quarter. When the ball hit the court with the clock at zero, Johnson City won its final game of the season, 72-23.
“It was senior night,” Jenkins said. “We appreciate everything they’ve done for us.”
Junior Brady Odiorne and sophomore Collin Corpus each scored 15 points for Johnson City, while freshman Jadyn Jenkins added 14 points. Walker and Marshall Jackson each picked up nine rebounds for the Eagles, and Corpus’s five assists and steals led both of those two categories. Walker, Jadyn, and Doyle each recorded one block, the only Johnson City blocks of the game.
Johnson City’s two district wins were each over Center Point. While losing ten games against the rest of the district, Johnson City was in most games throughout the season. In both games against San Saba, for example, Johnson City was seven points behind when time expired in the fourth. For coach Jenkins, highlighting what went right in these games for the returning players will play an important part as the team prepares for the future.
“We’re going to have to definitely get out in transition a lot, take good shots,” Jenkins said. “We’re going to probably be fairly guard oriented.”
All but four players – both Jacksons, Ablon and Doyle – were underclassmen this season.
