Raff ejected on way to victory

Jefferson Academy’s victory against The Academy last Saturday in boys basketball was decisive but nonetheless a downer for the winning team.

Broomfield’s Jefferson Academy, coached by Mark Sharpley, improved to 8-1 with its non-league victory against visiting Westminster’s The Academy, 61-44. The Wildcats dropped to 2-4.

And while it was an impressive win for the Jaguars, the ejection of leading scorer, Joe Raff, called for a pair of technical fouls, dampened the victory.

Raff scored a game high 26 points before he was ejected with 6-minutes, 24-seconds left in the game. The double technical forced him to miss Jefferson Academy’s game against visiting Northridge on Jan. 8.  

“I was freaked out,” Raff said after committing a turnover. “I didn’t say anything wrong to the officials, but to myself, and the official thought otherwise. This just leaves a bad taste in my mouth as I have to set out our next game. I had just turned the ball over and I was frustrated.”

Frustration, too, for Sharpley. But he was more than pleased with his team’s overall effort.

“He told me he was just talking to himself,” Sharpley said. “I told him, how do you think that is going to be perceived by an official. I think we all learned a lesson tonight.”

It was a fine defensive effort, as well, that helped Jefferson Academy to gain the victory. The Jaguars were only behind early in the first quarter, 6-2, before they exploded. They established a 13-6 lead after the first quarter and were able to extend their lead to 36-12 at the half.

It was fairly balanced in the scoring column the rest of the way for Jefferson Academy, but only one other player, Andrew Ullman, was able to reach double-figures with 12 points.

“It was a good win, but we have to do better in all phases of the game,” Ullman said. “Our defense came through, but we still have a lot to work on. Offensively, we just want to get back into the swing of things. I just tried to push hard, but not play in a hurry.”

Jefferson Academy increased its lead to 52-22 heading into the fourth quarter and eventually, 55-22, before The Academy came though on a short comeback.

“I think we had a good tempo, and we were able to take advantage of their mistakes,” Sharpley said. “We got our game going in the second quarter and got on a confident pace, and we pushed hard. Shane Davis, our transfer, who had to set out the first part of the season, will now be able to play and see a lot more action since Joe will miss our next game.”

Leading the way for The Academy, coached by Ken Rutt, was Angel Hernandez with 17 points  and Devan Caswell with 15.

“We just didn’t have a lot of interaction, and we just didn’t seem to play as a team tonight,” Hernandez said. “We’re in better shape, but we just couldn’t execute with the offense and we just didn’t get the job done.”

Caswell added, “I’m glad this is a team with heart. We just stumbled and couldn’t move the ball and we just gave up to much. I think we can improve due to this loss. It just seems that we should have been better prepared.”

The opening moments of the game went in The Academy’s favor with that 6-2 lead. But, it was downhill from there, much to Rutt’s dismay.

“We came out strong,” Rutt said. “But we just had too many turnovers, 14 in the first half alone. They just shot the heck out of the ball against us. The boys played hard, but there was just too much for us to overcome. We just have to come back hard from this one.”

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