Garnet Valley’s Jake Sniras hits 1,000 point mark, but can’t prevent Springfield comeback

CONCORD TWP. — Jake Sniras wasn’t in a celebratory mood Sunday afternoon.

The Garnet Valley wing had led his team with 16 points. Along the way, he’d achieved his 1,000th career point with plenty of basketball left in his junior season. But the balance between individual accolades and team achievement is one of many Sniras is trying to strike this year. And a 45-35 Central League loss to Springfield wasn’t it, no matter what signs and balloons awaited him.

“It’s awesome, yeah,” Sniras said. “But my main focus is on winning games and being in the playoff hunt all the time. We’re not there yet. It’s frustrating.”

Sunday’s performance from Garnet Valley (8-6, 4-5 Central) is the kind Sniras fears. He got his points, 16 in total, nearly half of the Jaguars’ output. His seven made baskets accounted for more than half of the Jags’ 13 on the day.

But GV shot just 25.5 percent from the field, and an unsightly 3-for-23 from 3-point range. That took the steam out of the layup Sniras hit a minute into the third to become just the eighth player in program history to hit 1,000 points and just the fifth to score all 1,000 at Garnet Valley.

It speaks to the line Sniras is trying to walk on a young team. While he was Garnet Valley’s leading scorer at 17.6 points per game last year, a team that made the state tournament lost four significant contributors. The replacements are largely young and inexperienced.

So Sniras’ role is to score. But it’s also to move the ball, defend and get teammates involved. And when shots aren’t falling on days like Sunday, the arithmetic shifts.

“I trust my teammates,” Sniras said. “All the credit to my teammates. Just some nights, we don’t shoot the ball well, and some nights, we shoot the ball great. We’re not very consistent in that aspect.”

The same was largely true for Springfield – at least for players not named Jake Adams. But the visiting Cougars were quick to adjust. Baited by Garnet Valley’s early 3-2 zone, Springfield started with six straight misses from 3-point range. The Cougars would’ve been in a deep hole early if not for Adams accounting for all 11 of the team’s first-quarter points.

Eventually, the Cougars (7-7, 4-5) adjusted, on a day where they shot 5-for-19 from 3-point range. They were 13-for-17 from inside the arc, including 10-for-12 in the second half.

“It’s very important,” Adams said. “We can’t just heavily rely on 3s. We have two great big guys in the paint. The 3s will fall, but paint points are definitely superior.”

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Garnet Valley’s Jake Sniras, right, here taking a shot against Methacton earlier in his career, scored his 1,000th career point Sunday in a loss to Springfield. (MediaNews Group file photo)