Lebanon’s Ortiz doesn’t dwell on mistake, helps Cedars to key win

Anyone who’s ever participated in competitive athletics has had a moment – or several – when they’ve made a mistake so embarrassing that they wished the ground would just swallow them up.
Lebanon High boys’ basketball player Jahlil Ortiz had his on Friday night, when he inexplicably scored in the opponent’s basket during the third quarter of the Cedars’ 61-55 win over Ephrata at Lebanon High.
Taking an inbounds pass in the backcourt near Ephrata’s basket, Ortiz momentarily lost his bearings in the heat of competition, and instead of darting up the floor headed straight for the wrong basket and laid in two points.
Oops. Hey, we’ve all had brain cramps, right? Half the time, I can’t even remember where I parked my car when I cover a game, so how can I or anyone else blame a kid for a lapse in concentration in a highly pressurized athletic environment.
So I decided to write about this not to make light of Ortiz’s gaffe, but to credit him for his response to it.
A lot of kids would have checked out of the game mentally at that point, humiliated to have made such a glaring mistake in front of a gym full of people.
Not Ortiz. He stayed in the game mentally and physically, scoring a game-high 17 points, including a hustling, twisting putback shortly after his mistake in which he relentlessly grabbed three offensive rebounds before finally finishing the play with two points. In the right basket.
Personally, seeing that brought a smile to my face. Jahlil Ortiz played a great all-around game on Friday night, and hopefully that’s what those attendance will remember first when they look back on the contest.
It’s certainly what Ortiz should remember.
“There was a timeout right after that and we just told him to forget about it,” said Lebanon coach Tim Speraw. “It’s over, you can’t change it. You scored in the wrong basket. So what? Not that everybody does it, but you gotta let it go and keep playing.
“I didn’t want to take him out because I wanted him to respond. And he responded the way I wanted him to.”