The Tigers’ success, which includes a 16-game win streak, has led to big expectations.
By Randy Whitehouse
Staff Writer

JAY – The stakes are higher this time for Zach Charles, though not for his team.

Charles is about to play his final basketball game at Jay and his second state championship game in three years when the Tigers meet Houlton for the Class C state championship Saturday night at the Augusta Civic Center.

“You want to go out on top,” he said.

The 6-5 senior center admits he may have taken it for granted when the Tigers beat Calais to win the state title in 2002. He won’t be taking it for granted this time.

“There’s a different perspective this time, definitely. Winning as a sophomore is definitely a lot different than winning as a senior,” Charles said. “If you lose as a senior, you’re gone. That’s the end of it.”

Charles may not be, but his teammate, Justin Wells, who was a freshman on that gold ball-winning team of two years ago, thinks folks around Jay have been taking the Tigers’ tournament run for granted. He bases it on the reaction he’s heard to their last two wins, an overtime defeat of St. Dom’s and a last-second victory over Georges Valley in the Western Maine final.

“Everyone around here was saying ‘You guys played really well, but you made us nervous,'” Wells said. “We’re like, ‘Sorry, we can’t blow out every team by 40 points.'” Everyone knows the talent we have but they don’t understand it’s not that easy. There are some good teams out there.”

The 19-2 Tigers have beaten virtually every good team they’ve seen this season, and they’ve done it in a variety of ways. In their 86-57 thumping of Telstar on Jan. 30 that included a 28-0 run, they won by bulldozing through an opponent. They’ve also won despite dozing through the first three quarters of their semifinal win over St. Dom’s.

It’s all added up to 16-straight wins. Jay hasn’t lost since falling to Hall-Dale two days before Christmas, a month to the day after they met their new coach, Mike Child.

“It seemed like I just started yesterday, and here we are getting ready for a state championship game,” Child said. “There have been a lot of ups and a lot of downs but I think our kids have handled it well. I think 16 in a row speaks for itself.”

While most of the accolades go to the Tigers’ offense, which is averaging around 63 points per game during the winning streak, a defense that has yielded an average of 42 points per game over their last five has gone somewhat unnoticed, except by the players.

“It all starts with defense,” Charles said. “That will make up for a bad shooting night. If you’re strictly an offensive team and you have a bad shooting night, you’re going to lose. Defense never really goes away.”

For defense to be a constant, so must commitment. Charles, Wells and Ryan DiPompo, another holdover from that 2002 team and perhaps the Tigers’ best defender, have seen first-hand that commitment and defense usually lead to championships.

Whether that equation holds up Saturday remains to be seen, but the math looks pretty familiar. Like this year, they had a new coach in 2002. They also had an athletic group of players who were playing their best basketball heading into the post-season.

“Hopefully, it turns out the same,” Wells said.

Maybe it will all add up in the end.

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