On Monday, the Red & Green hosted Bishop Timon in a matinee that had the pace and energy to a playoff matchup. Led by Nakyhi Harris, the son of Niagara Falls legend Paul Harris, the Tigers pulled away from Jamestown for a 67-57 victory at McElrath Gymnasium.

“Going into the season we kind of knew it was going to be us and Niagara Falls in AAA with the few teams we have,” Jamestown head coach Bill Miley stated. “We want to be able to play some teams that mirror them a little bit and certainly Timon does that. Their strength, their athleticism, they can play. We wanted to kind of see where we can compete with those teams and what we need to do better going forward and I think today did that for us.”

Harris finished with 24 points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals as the Tigers (19-5) turned a two-point halftime lead into a double-digit victory.

“He’s tough,” Miley said about Harris. “He can shoot it, he gets to the basket and he’s going to take advantage of every mistake you make and he certainly did that tonight.”

Jamestown’s Elijah Farmer attempts to move past Bishop Timon’s Joey Insera during nonleague boys basketball action at McElrath Gymnasium on Monday. P-J photo by Christian Storms

Jamestown (16-3) went back and forth with the Tigers in the first half, but in the second half the turnovers started to catch up with the Red & Green and they paid the price. Jamestown finished the game with 21 turnovers and several came from nonchalant passes that Bishop Timon had no problem reading.

“I don’t know what the number was, it was pretty high,” Miley said about the turnovers. “It’s kind of frustrating as a coach when they’re just playing straight up man and we turn the ball over carelessly like we did. It’s hard to beat a team like that and compounding with giving up some offensive rebounds where I thought they were a little bit tougher than us on the glass at times. It’s tough to come back from that kind of stuff.”

While it looked like there was some relaxed play from the Red & Green it was not Elijah Farmer around the glass. The Jamestown senior collected nine rebounds and two blocks, while Carson Panebianco collected six boards, Jaydian Johnson had five boards and three blocks and Gavin Johnson made two blocks.

“It’s been a blessing and a curse for us,” Miley said about Farmer’s intensity on the boards. “He’s been great, averaging double-digit rebounds, but I think some guys expect him to go get every rebound and in a game like this he’s not going to be able to do that. We’ve got to have some other guys contribute in that kind of thing and hopefully we learn from that and go do that going forward.”

Farmer did his best on the glass, but Bishop Timon had more bodies crashing with two players posting double-doubles. Mike Gibson scored 14 points with 10 rebounds and Joey Insera’s first double-double was 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Jamestown also had three players reach double-digit scoring, something that the Red & Green knows they will need when playing in the postseason.

“Going forward we’re going to play some teams where we’ve got to move the ball and have a lot of guys that can score,” Miley stated. “They might be able to take away one guy away at times, but they’re not going to be able to usually take away three.”

Jaydian Johnson finished with a team-high 18 points, Dom Gonzalez had 14 points with five assists, three steals and five rebounds and Farmer also scored 14.

Jamestown never could quite cover the deficit and Bishop Timon dealt the Red & Green their third loss of the season and third to a member of the Monsignor Martin Athletic Association with previous losses to Canisius and St. Joe’s. The Red & Green are back in action again on Wednesday when it hosts Clarence to another matinee game at 2:30.

BISHOP TIMON (67)

Bonzalakas 3 0 8, Hicks 2 1 5, Johnson 2 0 5, Harris 9 4 24, Insera 4 3 11, Gibson 6 2 14. Totals 24 10 67.

JAMESTOWN (57)

Farmer 6 2 14, Gonzalez 6 1 14, GJohnson 2 2 8, Thagard 1 0 3, Panebianco 0 0 0, JJohnson 8 0 18, Jackson 0 0 0. Totals 23 5 57.

3-point goals–Bonzalakas 2, Johnson, Harris, Gonzalez, GJohnson 2, Thagard, JJohnson 2.

Bishop Timon 13 15 22 17 — 67

Jamestown 13 13 18 13 — 57