Haledon, NJ……In a game with plenty of offense Manchester came into the game in second place in the BPSL and went against Elmwood Park, who was the top team in the league! When it was over it was all tied up for first place as Manchester defeated Elmwood Park 90-87! Senior Jamir Williams(right) scored 33 points and dished out 5 assists and Senior Nazmi Malqui(bottom) added a double-double with 25 points and 10 rebounds as Manchester grabbed a 30-22 lead at the end of the 1st quarter and extended the lead to as much as 20 in the 2nd half! Elmwood Park would not go away as they made a valiant comeback behind their big three of Senior Andre Frasier, Senior Nick Smith and Junior Veshawn Polite! Frasier finished with 35 points, Polite 22 points and 10 rebounds and Smith 19 points as they pulled to within 4! But a late play from Sophomore Asante Dyer to Junior Isaiah Bracey for a layup put the Falcons up 6 with a little more than a minute left! Sophomore Jevon Rawls who was in foul trouble early controlled the game for Manchester in the 2nd half and made the right plays! He finished with 6 assists, 5 in the second half! Manchester will meet Glen rock in their next contest, while Elmwood Park will go up against Pompton Lakes as the league title will go down to the wire!

Tenafly H.S., Tenafly,NJ…… In Bergen County Jamboree action, Cresskill, Teaneck, St. Joseph and Pascack Valley all advance!

                                                                  #14 PASCACK VALLEY  61        #3  DON BOSCO PREP  51

             The #14 seeded Pascack Valley came into the Jamboree and upset #3 seeded Don Bosco Prep 62-51 as they had 4 players in double figures and held on after taking a 43-37 lead at the end of the 3rd quarter! Junior twins Ryan Onderdunk(left) and Kyle Onderdunk(right) scored 17 and 10 points respectively,Senior Kyle Schneider scored 13 points and Junior Chris Jackson added 12! In addition, Senior Nick Soraville only scored 8 but was probably their biggest threat due to his mismatches against bigger players on Don Bosco Prep! P.V. was very patient and took advantage of every opportunity in their offensive sets! Prep cut the lead a few times but could not hit the big shot,at times missing chippies in the lane! Junior Paul Jorgensen lead DBP with 20 points! Sophomore guard Justin Salem scored 13 points and Junior Tom Sweeny added 11 points and 10 rebounds for Prep!

                                                                                               #6  St. Joseph  66       #11 Fort Lee  46 

Pascack Valley will face St. Joseph as Junior guard Kiy Hester scored 22 points as he was a hard matchup for Fort Lee the entire game in a 66-46 St.Joe’s win! Hester even blocked 7 shots from the guard position! Senior Pat Mensah scored 12 points as 10 Joe’s players scored in the game! With a 32-21 halftime lead St. Joe’s outscored Fort Lee 20-11 in the 3rd to take a 52-32 lead into the 4th! Junior Josh Ford was impressive for Fort Lee finishing with 18 points, while Senior Nick Gentile who just went over 1,000 points in his career early in the week added 10 points in the game for Fort Lee!

                                                                             #8  CRESSKILL  63           #9  RAMAPO   39

    Cresskill’s big three of Senior’s Alex DeCandia(#24), Tyler Jackson(#3) and Dom Wilson(22) was too much for Ramapo to handle in their 63-39 win! Cresskill jumped on them early and Ramapo could never recover! DeCandia scored 21 pointsand grabbed 9 rebounds, Jackson scored 10 points, 9 dimes and 8 rebounds and Wilson scored 17 points with 6 rebounds and 4 assists! Cresskill took a 35-16 lead at the half and never looked back! Junior Matt Grassi was the lone Ramapo player that could get it going finishing the game with 15 points and 7 rebounds!

                                                                        #1 TEANECK  82       #16  MAHWAH  52

Senior Joel Hernandez scored 31 points and Senior Shakir Lindsey added 19 points in three quarters as Teaneck proved by far they are the team to beat in the Bergen County Jamboree after manhandling Mahwah 82-52! Mahwah played hard, but Teaneck’s talent level was just too much as they led by as much as 40 points in the contest!! Hernandez and Lindsey are playng at a high level right now and with the solid play of their other teammates looks to still be the lock on repeating as Jamboree champs! Cresskill will find out next week as they are the next opponent! Senior Mike Leniw scored 14 points for Mahwah and Senior Matt Busch added 12!

 Northern Highland Regional H.S, Allendale,NJ……. Hoop Journal caught the last two games of the Bergen County Jamboree at Northern Highland H.S. and Hackensack and Pascack Hills both moved on!

                                                                  PASCACK  HILLS  60       OLD TAPPAN  58

     The best game of the day pitted two exciting guards head to head and neither disappointed! Pascack Hills Senior guard Brian Horn and Old Tappan’s Junior guard Troy McLaughlin are two of the best in the area, and they showed the crowd at Northern Highlands H.S. just how good they are! Old Tappan led most of the 2nd half and seemed prime to get the win! McLaughlin and Senior Liam Barry were both playing well, but Pascack Hills which is known for it’s never quit attitude did just that! Never Quit! Senior guard Drew Mann’s jumper with 1:14 left tied the game at 58! Old Tappan tried to hold for the last shot, but Sophomore guard Zach Bernstein got a steal with 15 seconds left! This set the stage for Horn(right)! His baseline runner off the glass at thje buzzer gave Hills the improbable 60-58 win! Horn finished with 32 points despite fighting cramps in his legs late in the game! Mann scored 10 points and Senior Andy Kovner added 9 for Pascack Hills! McLaughlin finished with 21 points and Barry had 14 points and 15 rebounds for Old Tappan! 

                                                         HACKENSACK  88       BERGEN CATHOLIC  66 

            Hackensack had 4 players score in double figures and dismantled Bergen Catholic 88-66 much easier than anyone expected! Senior Eugene Marshall  led the comets with 23 points with many coming on great passes from his teammates! Senior Chris Myers scored 14 points and dished out 8 dimes while Junior Rashard Figures had a stat sheet game with 13 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 blocks and a steal! Sophomore Anthony Uribe came off the bench to score 12 with all coming when the game was in doubt! The comets took a 41-22 lead at the half and kept that type of game the rest of the way! Bergen Catholic was led by Senior P.J. Reed who scored 17 pointsand grabbed 7 rebounds!, while Freshman point guard Gilberto Cue added 15 points!