Torrian Jones thought his senior season had ended before the opening tip-off.
The Falcons senior crashed to the floor after slamming down a dunk in a Nov. 30 scrimmage against Upper Merion. He had suffered a broken left wrist.
"In the beginning, the doctors told me four months, and that had me upset," Jones said. "A week later, a doctor at Temple [Hospital] told me six to eight weeks, so I knew I'd be back at least for the playoffs."
Jones was back much sooner than that. The 6-foot-2 guard missed just nine games of Pennsbury's season, and when he returned, he showcased his many talents. He is The Inquirer's boys' basketball player of the year for Bucks and Montgomery Counties.
"When the doctor told me that he thought I was already playing, I thought he was joking," Jones said, recalling his visit to Temple on Jan. 4. "But he thought I had healed so well that I was already back."
Jones hurried back to Pennsbury after that late-afternoon appointment and told coach Frank Sciolla that he had been cleared to play that night against Council Rock.
The Falcons went 26-5 for the second consecutive season. Jones averaged 19.3 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 4 assists in his senior year, capping it with a brilliant 29-point, nine-rebound effort in a 71-68 loss to Williamsport in the second round of the PIAA state Class AAAA playoffs.
"Torrian will be remembered for more than his individual stats," Sciolla said. "He had the ability to dominate games at both ends of the court. He might have scored a lot more points if we had played differently. The bigger the game situation, the bigger he played the game."
Jones had signed with Notre Dame two weeks before he suffered his wrist injury, so there was no concern about his disappearing from college recruiting lists.
That's something that had happened to him last summer, when he suffered a back injury while playing in AAU tournaments. The injury sidelined him for all of August.
"That was before all the big tournaments," Jones said. "Some schools wanted me to commit during the summer. My AAU coach told me Notre Dame was interested, but I didn't hear from them until October."
Jones said his decision was effectively made when he stepped off a plane in South Bend, Ind.
"I got there at 12 o'clock at night, and the whole staff was there, some with their wives," he said. "It was like I was really being accepted."
As soon as he returned from Notre Dame, he announced that he would be Irish for the next four years.
Torrian is the latest in the Jones family to star for Pennsbury, following his uncles Gary and Mike. He also is following them in playing Division I college basketball. Gary played at La Salle and Mike, who spent part of this season with a minor-league team in Trenton, played at Rutgers.
Gary and Mike both had one problem in college, though. Neither was a very good shooter, while Torrian has shown that he can be.
"Torrian showed that he could shoot the ball when he averaged 44 percent for threes as a junior," Sciolla said.
"Everybody compares me to my uncles," Jones said. "I work out with Gary, and he always stresses shooting a lot. I think that came from him not shooting as well as he could have."
Even after he returned from the wrist injury, Jones had doubts about what he could do. He said he held back from driving inside during practices because he was afraid of being hit on the wrist and hand.
"The C.B. West game made me feel if I wasn't 100 percent, I was really close to it," he said. "I made three threes in the first half and I was handling the ball a lot."
He doesn't consider the Williamsport game his best.
"It was the Hempfield game," he said, referring to a first-round state playoff game that Pennsbury won by 58-40, with Jones scoring 17 points and handing out six assists.
"I felt I could create and do what I wanted in that game," he said. "I could control whatever happened. Williamsport was a better scoring night, but I made mistakes."
Jones ended his four years with 1,188 points, fourth on the school's all-time list behind leader Rick Block, Jack Pepper, and his uncle Mike. His career per-game averages were 14.2 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 assists, all of which might have been higher if he had not missed nine games in his senior year.
"He never got that confidence back in his shooting after the injury," Sciolla said. "He might have averaged 23 or 24 points this season."
Jones still had enough time to stand above the crowd in his senior year.
