Passaic County Tech Upsets Passaic 63-61!

 Wayne,N.J. :     Even though Passaic County Tech has a nice young up and coming team they needed a signature win that would prove to them that they are moving in the right direction. After tough losses to St. Joseph’s H. S. in the Indian Hills Holiday tournament final and a close loss to Kennedy H.S. earlier this week, Tech found itself pitted against Passaic H.S.  What they came away with was “That” signature win as they held off Passaic 63-61 friday in an exciting contest the whole way. The Bulldogs were led by 6’2  swingman Xavier Nieves( pictured) who scored 19 points,grabbed 7 rebounds and dished out 5 assists. The junior’s last 8 points came from the foul line.  His play and that of  5’7 sophomore guard Asaad Hinton (13 pts., 4 rebs, 2 stls) along with an aggressive defense helped Tech overcome the dynamic play of Passaic’s 6’5 senior Najee Salaam and 6’5 senior Tyshon Pickett. Salaam scored a career high 30 points and pulled down 12 rebounds, while Pickett went for 18 points and 14 boards. With Tech ahead at the half 35-31 they started the 2nd half strong moving out to a 9 point lead . The Indians would not be thrown away that easily and came storming back  going on a 14-3 run and pulling ahead 45-43 on a Pickett bucket. Tech went into the 4th with a 51-50 lead and from there the game was in question until the final buzzer. With Tech ahead by 2, Tech’s Brandon James missed the front end of a one and one. Passaic called time with 12 seconds on the clock but for some reason never got a shot off as their two top players( Salaam and Pickett) never touched the ball in the end.