THE CELEBRATION in Bishop McDevitt High's gymnasium preceded the final buzzer by more than 48 hours.
Reason: It had nothing to do with basketball, but meant the school had once again avoided the Archdiocese's meat cleaver.
Time for glee at Mickey D!
"When we all went into the gym on Friday, we had no idea what was going to happen," said Brahieme Jackson, a 6-2, 200-pound forward. "I mean, we were all hoping we'd be staying open, but we didn't know. Everybody was nervous.
"Then the principal took the microphone and said we'd be staying open and everybody just jumped up and screamed. The whole school went wild. The celebration lasted for a good minute."
Since Jackson is a senior, a closure would not have crushed him forevermore. He certainly did not want his underclass buddies to suffer pain, however, so if the announcement had turned out poorly, he would have effectively slipped into mentor mode.
You see, through the 10th grade, Jackson attended North Catholic, which was joined on the June 2010 outta-here list by Cardinal Dougherty and Kennedy-Kenrick.
"I'm the only guy on our team from North," Jackson said, "but we have a decent number from Dougherty. So, we know what all this stuff is like. It hurts, then you do your best to get past it. McDevitt is a great school, too, and we're all glad we're here."
Jackson spoke yesterday after having all kinds of basketball fun.
As the Lancers rolled past visiting Cardinal O'Hara, 68-57, in a Catholic League game that wasn't remotely that close, Jackson shot 8-for-13 and 2-for-4 for 18 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and recorded three rejections.
Division II schools such as Philadelphia University and Bloomsburg are darn near stalking Jackson and it's easy to see why. He boasts good strength and instincts and his ball skills, which will be vital to his transition to wing guard for college, are improving daily.
"The main thing I want to do is improve my defense," he said. "That's going to make me better at what I want to become [as a college player]. I also want to improve my shot, especially at the line."
Last Wednesday, McDevitt put together a respectable outing at Roman Catholic, losing by 66-58.
"Actually, we thought we should have played harder," Jackson said. "We took that loss and decided to build off it. We came out here today to work very hard, and you saw the results.
"Our game plan was to be more aggressive. Don't walk it up the court anymore. We wanted to run-and-gun . . . in sensible fashion."
