BERGEN HOLIDAY FESTIVAL: DWIGHT-ENGLEWOOD AND RIVER DELL REACH FINALS, ENGLEWOOD AND ELMWOOD PARK WIN!!
Englewood Cliffs, N.J…….. The Bergen Holiday Festival played at Dwight-Englewood Highschool four games were played, including the Semifinals game which resulted in Dwight-Englewood playing River Dell in the finals!
DWIGHT-ENGLEWOOD 61 WESTWOOD 57
Senior Austin James(right) scored 22 points,including 3″triples” to lead Dwight-Englewood to the finals of the Bergen Holiday Festival by defeating Westwood 61-57! Senior Keion Osbourne(right) and Senior Robert Zeller gave James all the support he needed! Osbourne scored 15 points and grabbed 8 rebounds and Zeller added 14 points and dished out 5 assists for the Bulldogs! D-E maintained the lead throughout the contest, opening up a 44-32 margin entering the 4th quarter! The Cardinals would not go away easily as they cut the lead down a few times in the final quarter behind the play of Junior forward EJ Bermudez! But free throws late by James and Zeller iced it! Bermudez was impressive and had polished moves in the paint! He finished with 26 points and was a problem the whole night for Dwight-Englewood!
RIVER DELL 37 BERGENFIELD 35
Junior Troy Bendian’s drop step layup, which were his only points of the game proved to be the game winner as River Dell which trailed the entire game came away with a 37-35 win over Bergenfield! The Bears held the lead in the low scoring contest all the way until the final seconds! Down 35-31 Senior C.J. Doornheim hit a “triple” 39.8 seconds to cut the lead to 35-34! Bergenfield then turned the ball over and it set the stage for Bendian’s game winner! Doornheim(right) led the scoring for River Dell with 12 points! Bergenfield was led by Senior Aessan Evans with 10 points and 10 rebounds!
ELMWOOD PARK 66 BERGEN TECH 44
Senior Andre Frasier(middle) scored 25 points, Senior Nick Smith(right) scored 21 points and 5 steals and Junior Veshawn Polite(left) had a double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds as the trio proved to be much too much for Bergen Tech in their 66-44 win! Tech stayed in the game in the 1st half, but Elmwood Park out scored Tech 20 to 6 in the 3rd to turn a 35-32 into a 55-38 lead at the end of the 3rd! They never looked back!
ENGLEWOOD 61 BOGOTA 57
Englewood came from behind to defeat Bogota 61-57 as Senior Anthony Vincent(right) scored 17 points including the game-tying field goal that sent Englewood on their way to the win! Junior Leon White hit 3″triples” enroute to 12 points and Sophomore Sidney Dawkin’s bucket bucket gave Englewood the lead for good! The Maroon Raiders came back due to their dominance on the backboards, particularly from Junior Justin Iton and Junior Julius Wingate! Iton grabbed 10 rebounds and Wingate(left) snatched 12 to go with 11 points! The sidebar to this contest is the fact that Englewood’s Coach Ozzie Osbourne played at Bogota and for Coach Jay Mahoney and it’s always very emotional for Osbourne as he has said on many occassions that Mahoney saved his life as a youth!