Jim Mower article

LC Local Fan · Jim Mower article

Pacing the Prep
Senior Jim Mower looks to lead St. Joseph's Prep into the playoffs.

By Keith Pompey

Inquirer Staff Writer
How is this for a definition of a leader?

Sidelined with a broken hand, he inspired his teammates from the bench. Since returning, the team captain has played every possession as if it were his last, and he refuses to take even the smallest thing for granted.

"He's done a great job," St. Joseph's Prep basketball coach Speedy Morris said of Hawks senior Jim Mower. "He's a leader in every sense of the word. He makes us better."

Right now, Mower's goal is to lead his team to a seventh consecutive Catholic League playoff appearance.

With four Southern Division games remaining, the Prep (11-9 overall, 5-5 division) and Neumann-Goretti (10-9, 5-5) are tied for the division's fourth and final postseason spot.

"We have to pretty much win all [four] games, probably," Mower said. "We will still have a chance with [three], but we never want to take that chance."

With the Lafayette College signee in the lineup, the Hawks always have a chance. No longer just a jump shooter, the 6-foot-3 guard dribble drives through the lane with power. As a result, the 18-year-old has attempted more free throws and is averaging a career-best 17 points per game.

Mower's newfound all-around game was evident during a 17-point effort Jan. 13 against West Catholic. He was 5 of 7 from the foul line, in addition to shooting 5 for 11 from the floor and 2 of 5 on three-pointers in the 50-35 victory.

"He has a high basketball IQ," Morris said. "He's very athletic, and he can shoot it."

Mower could not display his skills at the start of the season. He missed the first nine games after breaking his shooting hand at practice three days before the season opener. His right ring finger got caught in the jersey of senior guard Sean Dooley.

During Mower's absence, the Prep struggled through a 4-5 start. Three of those losses were by three points or fewer.

"It was tough just watching," he said.

Things were tougher upon his return.

In Mower's first game back, Dooley, the team's best defender, suffered a season-ending broken foot. Shortly afterward, starting forward Mike Leithead (ACL) and seventh man Brandon Robinson (broken foot) went down with season-ending injuries.

"It's been tough," Mower said of the season. "But at the same time, you can't do anything about it, because everyone is losing people in the Catholic League.

"The remaining games, that's our season right now. I have to get focused for that."

Steve

Last Saturday, I saw the second half of the St. Joe's Prep-Roman Catholic Game on TV. (I couldn't make the Lehigh game, so that was my LC-hoops-related viewing for the day.) Unfortunately, Roman really was able to shut Mower down offensively. He only had four points in the second half (and only scored two in the first half, so that apparently wasn't any better.) He really struggled to get opportunities to shoot against Roman's man-to-man D. In fairness to Mower, Roman had some quick defenders who were paying a lot of attention to him, and in the third quarter, the defender who was covering Mower was hand-checking and grabbing him quite a bit. However, I didn't notice nearly as much hand-checking and grabbing in the fourth quarter, and Mower still had trouble getting open for his shot.

On the bright side, Mower has good size for a PL shooting guard and is fairly athletic. He's not just a stand-still shooter and is capable of taking the ball toward the basket. His one offensive highlight in the second half was a 16-foot pull-up jumper off a drive near the end of the game. As the article noted, he has done a good job of drawing fouls this year (he drew one shooting foul in the second half of the Roman game, and hit both of his foul shots.), which indicates that he is driving toward the hoop. He's a lefty, which can be a slight advantage. On defense, he made one really nice play, in which he came from behind and solidly blocked a shot by a Roman player that a teammate of his was defending.

It was only one game, and Roman is the class of the division in the Philly Catholic school league, but I was a little disappointed that Mower struggled so much to get open for his shot. I don't know to what extent those difficulties might be attributable to the type of half-court offense that St. Joe's ran.

LC Local Fan

Here's the latest Mower article

St. Joseph's Prep Mower gets hot in stunner over Roman Catholic
By TED SILARY
Philadelphia Daily News

silaryt@phillynews.com

Previous experiences are not always a reliable barometer.
For Exhibit A, we give you Jim Mower. That is, we'll give him to you once he can be convinced to stop knocking down jump shots from all portions of the gymnasium at Cardinal O'Hara High.

On Mower's Favorite Place To Be list, O'Hara's cave-like facility pretty much ranked at the bottom before a Catholic League quarterfinal, played Saturday, that wound up producing the biggest rush of his still-young basketball life.

OK, so he had a 19-point effort there earlier this season. But he had been quite average in two other appearances and his first brush Saturday did not go well.

Plus, that was his second outing of the day and the first had likewise been a downer.

Let it be reported up front that Mower, a 6-3, 180-pound senior wing guard bound for Lafayette, poured in 32 points as St. Joseph's Prep, which had to win a pre-playoff just to join the full-blown postseason party, stunned 14-0 Roman Catholic, 61-55.

Now, Mower will tell us about his day.

"We met at Prep at 11:15 for Mass and something to eat, then we worked out in our gym for maybe 1 1/2 hours," he said. "We went over all of our plays and all of Roman's plays, then did some shooting drills. I wasn't doing too hot.

"Then we got to O'Hara at about 2:30 [game time was 4] and were surprised to find that the place was empty. We had a good hour to shoot around some more. I started off close, then took maybe 20 to 30 threes. It wasn't feeling too great then, either."

What's a sniper of much renown to do? Sulk? Fret?

"I just figured I was getting all the misses out of my system in pregame," he quipped.

While ch-chinging his way to 32 points, an outburst that tied for the second-most in CL playoff history, Mower shot 12-for-21 from the floor and 3-for-4 at the line. He drained half of his 10 attempts at treys and finished the first half with a mere 22 markers (4-for-5 from deep).

"Sometimes I think I'll be tired from all the pregame stuff we do," Mower said. "But it really does help you get mentally focused.

"Hitting my first three felt good. But then I airballed the next. I got the feeling right back. When you're on, you feel like you can make harder shots, and take them from longer."

As Mower made sure to mention, he was hardly a one-man band. Also vital were Matt Williams, who scored 16 points while sniping 4-for-8 on treys (all in the first half), and Sean Dooley, whose dogged defense helped to limit Villanova-bound junior point guard Maalik Wayns (19 points) to 6-for-20 frustration from the floor, lowlighted by 0-for-6 on treys.

Dooley had been out since early January with ankle/foot miseries.

"We didn't know he'd be back until [Thursday]," Mower said. "He only had one regular practice. Not even at full speed. The job he did was huge."

The CL playoffs expanded from six to eight teams in 1967-68. This is only the third time a perfect regular-season champ has suffered a first-round upset (also North in '74 and Roman in '81). Like that Roman squad, this one was humbled by an opponent (St. James, of Chester; it closed in June '93) that first had to win a pre-playoff.

Major coincidence: The coach of that Roman team was William "Speedy" Morris, now the head man at Prep.

"He didn't mention anything about that," Mower said. "He harped on defense and just playing our best."

Late, after Roman fashioned a three-point lead, the plea was for composure. No sweat. Mike Bradley's three-point play on a pass from Williams put the Hawks ahead for good, at 56-55, with 55 seconds left and Roman had no answers.