Saddle River……Hawthorne Christian came to Saddle River Day intent on stopping the #1 scorer in Bergen and Passaic County and getting a “W” in the process! They got what they came for as H.C. handled Saddle River Day rather easily in a 53-37 victory and holding Leading scorer Dave Rosado to 12 points, 13 below his average! While eyes were on Rosado, Hawthorne Christian had a few players establish themselves in the game!  6’6 Freshman Alex Thomas(#23) looks like a special talent who seems to have a lot of upside! Thomas finished with 17 points, 8 rebounds and 3 blocked shots! Junior Paul Little also showed the kind of athlete he is! Little(#12) had 8 points and 10 rebounds and showed spring in his legs with his vertical! The most entertaining was probably 5’6 Junior Jamari Moss(middle) who was a pain to Saddle River Day the whole game with his quickness and energy! He did a good job of getting the ball where it needed to be, accounting for 6 points, but more importantly 5 assists and 4 steals! Hawthorne Christian took a 35-18 halftime lead and never felt threatened!

NOTE: Rosado dealt with a box and one defense and was covered everywhere which has been par for the course during the season! He still showed glimpses of his scoring prowess and is a high quality athlete! 

Wayne………DePaul had to fight through the emotions that still lingered over their tough loss in the Passaic County Tournament to Kennedy! And behind a familiar face and an unfamiliar one DePaul shook it off to beat West Milford 59-56! Junior Davon Jacobs(right) once again showed his skill and toughness by scoring 21 points and grabbing 14 rebounds! But the play of Sophomore reserve Sanders Green(bottom right) was a pleasant and needed surprise! He came off the bench and scored 12 points including hitting big free throws down the stretch! He also played strong defense the entire contest! Their play and the play of Sophomore Josh Marquez( 14pts,7asts) was really needed because West Milford’s Connor Healy went off in the 2nd half! He started knocking down shots all over the place scoring 21 of his 25 points and bringing West Milford back from an 11 point deficit! It just wasn’t enough as Senior Tyler Coyle who usually helps Healy was in foul trouble and eventually fouled out early in the 4th quarter and their other teammates just could never find the range! The game probably wouldn’t have been that close but DePaul did struggle from the foul line! Freshman Kiy Hester added 8 points for DePaul while Mas Aronson helped Jacobs on the boards with 9 boards!

Wayne……..Senior Ky’re Jackson, Junior DeAndre Noble and Senior David Burgos combined for 49 points to lead Eastside to a 65-60 win over Passaic County Tech! All county guard Brandon James made his comeback for Tech after being out a month due to a torn ligament in his thumb! He started the game with a”triple” but got in foul trouble and had to sit the majority of the 1st half! Eastside took a 6 point lead 28-22 into the half as they held the ball for 1:51 seconds at the end of the 2nd quarter because Tech would not come out of a zone defense! The Ghosts ended the quarter as Noble hit a baseline jumper with 2 seconds on the clock! Tech kept making runs in the 2nd half but each time Eastside held them off! P.C.T. put in star guard Xavier Nieves who for some unknown reason didn’t play the 1st half but even that wasn’t going to keep the Ghosts from achieving their goal! Junior Shackquiel Scott help cut the lead to 56-53 on a put back dunk, but Eastside kept them at bay behind Burgos who controlled the game at the point and helped make the game easy for his teammates! Burgos(#10) filled the stat sheet up with 14 points,9 assists and 5 rebounds while Jackson(#21) finished with 18 points and 6 rebounds and Noble(#3) added 17 points and 6 boards! James led the scoring along with Sophomore Isaac Williams with 13 points and Scott scored 11 points and grabbed 8 rebounds for Tech!