Kennedy H.S., Paterson,N.J……. The Playaz Fallball Monday and Wednesday Leagues Semifnal teams have been decided and while most of the games were as expected, their was one major upset with an asterick! In the Wednesday portion of the playoffs the upset game was between the Bergen Highwaymen and the Reebok’s Back! Reebok came in the favorite but were without the servicesof their three D1 players Kyle Anderson, Jimmy Hall and Jerome Frink! And that was all the opportunity that the Highwaymen needed! Junior Shakir Lindsey’s “triple”put Bergen up for good and his steal iced the game in a 48-43 win! Lindsey finished with 12 points as did Junior Joel Hernandez(pictured right)! Senior Chris Jones added 11 for the Highwaymen! Reebok were led by Senior Rashard Andrews with 11 points and Junior Josh Brown with 10! The Highwaymen will meet the Hudson Hawks who won a barn burner against St. Raymond’s 54-48! Junior’s Mike Young and Reggie Cameron scored 15 points each to lead the Hawks! The game went down to the wire as Young(top left) made a beautiful post move to put them ahead, Junior Kavon Stewart made a layup late and Cameron(right) finished the scoring with a couple of free throws! Senior Daniel Dingle who played a spirited game scored 14 points to lead Rays! Senior Nkereuwem Okoro added 12 points! In the other Wednesday Playoff games the Gray Bees outstanding Freshman Isaiah Briscoe(bottom left) scored 20 points to lead them to a 43-23 win over the Paterson Spirits! Senior DeAndre Noble led the Spirits with 13 points! The Gray Bees will meet the Somerset County’s Best as they cruised to 41-20 win over the Paramus Paladins as Senior Alex Mottola scored 17 points, including 4″ triples”! Sophomore Jalen Hernandez scored 6 points for Paramus! The semis will be played for these teams at 6:30 pm Wednesday!

             The Monday League Playoffs were decided with four games tonight with all games being decided early! Higher seeds won all the contests as the Essex Terriors behind Junior Duane Merrill’s 12 points and Junior Jarrett Hall’s(left) 11 points handled the Hawthorne Defenders 48-28! Senior Paul Little and Sophomore Alex Thomas each scored 8 points for the Defenders! The Terriors will meet the Silk City Knights in one semifinal as they defeated the Sparta Minutemen 65-26! Senior Gary Simpson scored 15 points and Senior Sammy Singletary added 14 points to lead the Knights! Senior Jaquan Bryant led the Minutemen with 6 points! The other semifinal game will pit the Bergen Comets against the Essex County Raiders! The Comets beat the Union City Players 58-35 as they had a balanced attack with four players in double figures as Sophomore Rashard Figures(right) and Junior Jamiek Moore each had 12 points and Senior Mershan Monroe and Junior Eugene Marshall had 11 points apiece! Senior Savon Williams scored 14 points for the Players! The Essex County Raiders blew out the Englewood Force 40-17 as Senior Aaron Boddie led the scoring with 14 points! The semifinals will be played at 5:30pm Wednesday! Championship will be the same night for both leagues at 8:00pm!  

Kennedy H.S., Paterson, N.J……. The Playaz Club Sponsored Fallball League will come to it’s conclusion this week as the playoffs begin Monday and the semifinals and “Chip” will be played Wednesday! First round games start at 5:00pm as the Monday night teams play with the #1 seed Essex Terriors playing the #8 seeded Hawthorne Defenders,#2 Bergen Comets vs. #7 Union City Players! 6:00pm #3 Essex County Raiders vs. #6 Englewood Force and #4 Silk City Knights vs. #5 Sparta Minutemen! The Wednesday night teams start at 7:00 featuring #1 Seed Reebok’s Back vs. #8 seed Bergen Highwaymen, #2 Gray Bees vs.#7 seed Paterson Spirits and the last games of the night will be #3 Somerset’s Best vs.#6 Paramus Paladins and #4 Hudson Hawks vs. #5 St. Raymond’s!

Jamaica,Queens,N.Y….. The Playaz Sr. team went into Queens,New York and came home with the highly regarded IS8 “Chip” with a win over the New York Panthers 81-75! U.C.L.A. recruit Kyle Anderson, New Jersey’s highest regarded player and ranked #2 by Rivals scored 14 of his 22 points in the 2nd half including a 6 point run in the 3rd quarter to help the Playaz expand a three point halftime lead 37-34 into a 14 point lead 63-49 at the end of the 3rd! Anderson who was voted IS8 Player Of The Year for the second straight year and the M.V.P. of the “chip”game finished the contest with a triple double as he had 12 rebounds and 12 dimes to go with his point total! He got special help this year as Lithonia, Georgia’s Tony Parker the #33 ranked player by Rivals came up to give him the extra boost in the final games! Parker(far left with Anderson) made his presence felt early as he scored 11 at the half and finished with 20 points, 10 rebounds and 2 blocked shots! The Panthers cut the lead down in to 6 in the 4th, but a layup from Parker and a dagger”triple” by old veteran Myles Davis put the Playaz up 11 and that proved to be the nail in the coffin for the Panthers! Davis finished with 17 points and Darrick Woods added 11! The Playaz win was a team effort as the contributions came from everyone! Jerome Frink, Chris Jones, Neville Fincher and DeAndre Noble all had a hand in the victory! The Panther’s were led by Miami commit Melvin Johnson with 23 points, including 5″triples” and Hofstra recruit Malik Nichols with 15! Johnson’s(sportsman award right) treys early kept the Panthers in the contest! This is now the Playaz Basketball Club’s 5th IS8 championship in the 15 years of existence! The Playaz Junior team played well also reaching the elite 8!