Teaneck……….Sophomore Joel Hernandez scored 23 points and Teaneck withstood a game Sparta team in the 1st half before taking the game completely over in their 56-36 win! The move puts Teaneck in the North 1 Group 3 Sectional Finals against Passaic Valley! Sparta was only down four 27-23 at the end of the 1st half, but Teaneck held them to 13 2nd half points as the defense led the way and Hernandez scored 14 of his points in the 3rd! Junior Chris Jones added 11 points and Dequan Russ came off the bench to score 9! Sparta was led by Nicholas DiSomma with 14points and Zachary Frick added 10! 

Little Falls……. Senior Nick DiCristina was unconscious in the biggest game of his career! DiCristina(right) led Passaic Valley to a 69-50 win over Wayne Valley by scoring a career high 27 points, including 6″triples” in the 1st half! Passaic Valley jumped to a 9-0 lead and finished the 1st quarter up 15-5 as Senior Elias Logothetis(bottom right) ran the show and put the pressure on Wayne Valley’s defense! He finished the game with 10 points,9 dimes and 3 steals! P.V. stretched the lead to twenty-one by the end of the 1st half 39-18 and even though W.V. continued to battle the game, was never in question! DiCristina hit all his treys in the 1st half, then got himself fouled in the 2nd half going 8 for 8 in the half and 9 for 9 in the game! P.V.’s other players followed suit as Senior Dave Clough and Junior Olumide Onajide each scored 11 points and Senior Tom Gaccione added 8! Wayne Valley was led by Senior Tom Larranaga with 12 points and Sophomore Andrew Keane finished with 10!

NOTES: Hoops Journal would like to recognize the highschool careers of Senior’s Tom Larranaga and Andrew Herasimtchuk! They have been two hard nosed players for Wayne Valley who always gave 100%! Larranaga(right) was an uncanny long range shooter and Herasimtchuk did his damage primarily on the inside! Here’s hoping the best for each player and maybe seeing them on the next level!

Paterson……… Right now Kennedy is playing inspired basketball and they continued their run in a 58-51 win over Montclair in a North 1 Group 4 State semifinal game! Senior Dawon Lighty and Senior Jhamir White both are playing like it could be their last game and are playing with a sense of purpose! Lighty had 19 points while White had 15 points,6 assists and 5 rebounds! But while these guys are doing their thing, the key to the success they are having is that of Senior Center Kaheem Davis(right) who had a personal block party! While Davis scored 8 points and grabbed 6 rebounds it was his intimidation on the defensive end that gave Montclair all they could handle! Davis blocked 8 shots in the game! Kennedy led 41-23 after the 3rd, but Montclair would not go away, cutting the lead to as low as 6 in the 4th! But Montclair spent too much time fouling the wrong person in White who sank 4 of his 5 free throws late and making 11 of 12 free throw for the game! Junior Sammy Singletary added 11 points for the Knights! Montclair was led by Kabir West with 13 points and Chinua Young with 12! Kennedy will now play it’s cross town rival Eastside for the 4th time this season for the Sectional title!