Wayne……….. For the second time in the past week, Kennedy has avenged losses to a team that has beaten them twice during the season! First it was Eastside H.S. in the Passaic County Final and now Passaic County Tech has been the next victim as Kennedy beats Tech 67-65 in the 2nd round of the North1 Group 4 State Playoff contest! In a wild affair Kennedy outlasted P.C.T. behind the play of Senior’s Dawon Lighty and Jhamir White! Lighty(right)caught fire in the second half as his shooting gave Kennedy a 6 point lead 54-48 going into the 4th quarter! Tech was not through, getting as close as two 62-60 on  a layup by Sophomore Isaac Williams with 2:06 left! But Senior Kaheem Davis played big defensively for Kennedy as he accounted for 8 blocked shots to go with his 10 points, contesting every shot that Tech put up and White(right) controlled the ball late and made 3of 4 free throws to ice the game despite Senior Brandon James “triple”to cut the lead to 66-65! White then made a free throw to finish the scoring! Lighty finished the game with 26 points and 5 rebounds while White added 18 points and 5 assists! Junior Assaad Hinton led Tech with 17 points and Senior Xavier Nieves played a complete game with 15 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 blocked shots! James finished with 13 points, 6 rebounds and 5 dimes! Williams also scored in double figures with 10!

NOTES: Hoops Journal would like to acknowledge the highschool careers of Senior’s Brandon James(left) and Xavier Nieves(right)! One of the best combos in Northern New Jersey, the both of them gave the Passaic County Tech crowd their money’s worth throughout the years! We expect to be hearing from both players next year playing for some college! On a personal level they were two of the most personable players in the area and were both a pleasure to deal with and talk to! Nothing but the best for the two of them!

Jersey City……….Hudson Catholic will find out what they have learned this season when they face St. Anthony Friday after they beat Immaculate Conception of Montclair 80-46 in the 1st round of the North Non-public B state playoff game!! Sophomore point guard Kavon Stewart(top right) was a wizard with the rock as he dished out 14 dimes for Hudson Catholic, which went primarily to Sophomore forward Reggie Cameron(right) who scored 22 points and grabbed 10 rebounds and Sophomore wing Raekwon Kelly(left) who scored 17 points and grabbed 11 boards! Hudson had a 41-28 halftime lead and came out and extended the lead to 22 at the end of the 3rd 57-35! Immaculate was lead by the impressive play of Senior Davi Austin who scored 27 points,grabbed 5 rebounds and had 4 steals! The Hudson-Anthony game will reunite ex-Paterson Catholic teammates Myles Mack and Kyle Anderson for St. Anthony and Cameron and Stewart with Hudson Catholic! while Mack and Anderson have been on this stage before, Cameron and Stewart as well as their young teammates are new to this kind of big game! But this is a signature contest and they can see where their progress is, coming into this game with a 22-6 record! Meanwhile St. Anthony will come into the contest at 26-0 and ranked #2 in the country!

Paramus……….Paramus Catholic couldn’t have wanted it any other way! Their wing man scored, big man scored and rebounded, point guard dropped dimes and their defensive stopper locked down in their 59-40 victory over Bergen Catholic in the North 1 Non Public A state contest! Sophomore Elijah Davis(the wing,left) led P.C. with 21 points, while Senior Justin Harris(the bigman,right) dropped in 14 points and grabbed 18 rebounds, Sophomore Tommy Rivera(the point) scored 10 points, dished out 8 dimes and had 5 steals and Senior Manny Hernandez(the defensive stopper) did a great job on the defensive side of the ball as B.C. struggled from the field the entire game! the game was in doubt the 1st half as P.C. held a slight 27-22 lead! The 2nd half was all Paramus Catholic as they slowly took total control of the game behind Hernandez’s(#44) defense and Rivera’s(#4) passing! With the score 43-31 at the end of the 3rd, Bergen Catholic did not score for the first 4:00 minutes of the 4th quarter! The game was well decided by then! B.C. had no one in double figures as Senior Eric Flanagan led with 9 points and Senior Mark Richards finished with 8! Paramus Catholic will now face Seton Hall Prep in the next round!

NOTES: Hoop Journal would like to congratulate Senior’s Mark Richard(pictured), Eric Flanagan and Maurice Grant on their highschool scholastic careers with Bergen Catholic! The trio has contributed to a lot of winning during their basketball careers at B.C. and here’s hoping for continued success on the next level! All three have enough game to continue playing this game! Richard finished with a 13.1 points per game average,while Flanagan averaged 11.7 and Grant 10.4!