Ramapo U, Mahwah,N.J…….The Bergen County Jamboree night belonged to Senior Justin Salem as he led Bergen Catholic to it’s first Championship since 2003! Salem(left) scored a game high 29 points with 5″triples” and was a problem for Teaneck the entire night! Senior and St.Joe’s commit PierFrancisco Oliva added 13 points, 17 rebounds, 4 assists and 5 blocked shots, not to mention altering other shots as his length also gave Teaneck problems! With Salem and Oliva being matchup problems Bergen Catholic added another dimension as Sophomore Taj Benning became the x-factor in the game by scoring 12 points, pulling down 5 rebounds, blocking 3 shots and being the primary defender on Teaneck’s star guard Leondre Washington! He helped hold Washington, who could never get off to 12 points with only 2 points coming in the 2nd half as Bergen made every shot difficult for him! With the game still in doubt at the half and B.C. holding a 28-26 lead, Bergen Catholic cranked up the D and held Teaneck to 18 second half points! Salem scored 14 after intermission, while Oliva scored 10 of his points after the half! Teaneck came up short in trying to win the Bergen Jamboree for the 5th straight year! Freshman Ja’Quaye James added 10 points and Senior Tyler Dearing added 9 points for Teaneck!

Kean University, Union,N.J…… The Union County Tournament came this close to being a big time shocker! But when the storm cleared Roselle Catholic and Linden will be the two teams ready to compete against each other Saturday for the Union County Championship!

                                                                ROSELLE CATHOLIC  78        ST. MARY’S(ELIZABETH)  74

For three quarters and 5 minutes of the 4th quarter it looked like one of the biggest upsets of this basketball season was going to happen as St.Mary’s led by as much as 20 points and answered every run Roselle Catholic made! But the well ran drive late in the game as Kantucky commit Isaiah Briscoe(bottom right) was not to be denied as he scored 34 points with 8 rebounds and 4 assists and 6’9 Freshman sensation Nazereon Reid came off the bench to score 15 points and finally gave Roselle Catholic a 65-63 lead on a dunk with 3 and some change left in the game and walk a way with a close, exciting 78-74 win! It took the clutch free throw shooting from Junior guard Tahir Pretlow(right) who went 6 for 6 down the stretch for R.C. to get out of there with a win! Roselle Catholic had to overcome the outstanding shooting of Senior guard Dontay Julius who finished with 25 points and hit a”triple” with 8 seconds to cut the lead to 76-74! But Pretlow iced it with 5.3 seconds in the game and send Roselle Catholic to the finals!

                                                                                                 LINDEN  65      PATRICK SCHOOL  54

Senior guard Joshua Carter(right) scored 19 points and Senior guard Otis Livingston had 18 points to lead Linden past The Patrick School 65-54! Linden held the lead for the entire game and even though the game was within reach for the Patrick School, Linden’s methodical offense consistently made plays in their sets! Late in the game when the Patrick School would press, Linden would consistently beat the press with long passes by Senior Juwan Dolbrice! Junior Cyril Langevine led the Patrick School with 16 points and Sophomore Jamir Harris added 15 points for the Patrick School! Linden will meet Roselle Catholic 7:30pm at Kean University!

Paterson,N.J…. As the season winds down Paterson Charter is still a work in progress and it showed in their 70-47 lost to St.Mary’s(Rutherford)!