MANSFIELD — John F. Kennedy was in the White House the last time the Mansfield St. Peter’s basketball team completed a perfect regular season.
That 1961-62 and 1962-63 teams both achieved that magical mark. Those runs were in the midst of Camelot. This 2017-18 season comes in the aftermath of Hamilton. Much like those classic musicals, basketball campaigns like these often outlive even those that made them so special.
Milt Pitts and Ben Cooper are the names associated with those unblemished regular seasons of yore. This time around it will be Jared Jakubick and Elijah Cobb that will keep the flame alive in the memories of those who saw them play.
“I’m just so fortunate,” Jakubick said. “I’ve had so much fun playing here, great memories, great teammates.”
On Friday night in their finale at the Franciscan Activity Center, Jakubick pumped in a career-high 38 points, while Cobb added 13 and controlled the glass in a 66-55 win over arch-rival Mansfield Christian to finish a 22-0 regular season.
“Jared carried us there a little bit,” said coach Joe Jakubick, Jared’s dad. “Elijah can beat you in so many ways, rebounding, passing, seeing the floor, controlling the tempo.”
Cobb flirted with foul trouble, but still played a superb floor game to finish his brilliant career at home.
“I’m going to miss these guys,” Cobb said while holding a piece of net that was snipped from the rim after the game. “Before the season I didn’t think we could do this, but about halfway through the year you start thinking maybe we can.”
It also marked the first perfect season for the Spartans’ boss. In his previous coaching stops, Jakubick took the Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary’s girls basketball team to the Final Four. He’s also piloted the last two St. Peter’s boys squads to the regional finals. In addition, he was a high school phenom at Madison and led the nation in scoring as a collegian at the University of Akron.
Yet in all that time he’s never been part of a squad that went unscathed through the regular season.
“Our schedule wasn’t really conducive to going undefeated,” Coach Jakubick said, noting a slate that included Columbus Watterson, Northmor and Berlin Hiland. “It was all about getting us ready for the tournament.
“We never talked about (going undefeated) as a team. Enough other people did. We just want to focus on getting better for the next game — Danbury, that’s our focus.”
St. Peter’s jumped to a 16-3 bulge against the Flames, but as they would do all night long, Mansfield Christian (13-9) rallied to within 16-9 at the first-quarter buzzer. The Spartans opened a 32-18 second-quarter advantage, but the Flames closed to within 36-27 at the half.
“We kind of had a meltdown there in the final 1:02 of the half, and that’s uncharacteristic of us,” Joe Jakubick said.
Mansfield Christian sliced the deficit to 50-43 heading to the final eight minutes, and got within 52-48 on a Kyle Kurtz trey, but Jared Jakubick answered with a bucket and the Flames would get no closer.
Kurtz finished with 25 points, while Jared McPeek added 16 and Ethan DeLaney posted nine points to spearhead the Mansfield Christian attack.
Caleb Stewart pitched in eight points for the No. 1-ranked Spartans, who should pocket a state poll championship when the final rankings are released next week.
“We’re going to let them enjoy tonight,” Joe Jakubick said. “But we need to get back to work and focus on the next game (in the sectional tournament).”
