Jersey City……The Playaz sponsored Jingle Bells Holiday Tournament has come to this! A young Hudson Catholic team advanced against another talented young squad in Teaneck Highschool! The Hawks are going to the “Chip” because they handled a tough gritty Passaic H.S. team that came ready to play, while Teaneck advanced by beating a game Kennedy H.S. squad! Passaic Valley and Scotch Plains also get play in the fifth place contest with wins!

                            Hudson Catholic   55     Passaic  40

         Passaic had the game the way they wanted through alot of the contest as they put pressure on Hudson Catholic defensively, getting up in their chest! The Indians led at the half 26-22 and controlled the game most of the 3rd quarter until the Hawks decided to change the tide by turning up the pressure on Passaic! That, and the 4th quarter of Sophomore Reggie Cameron put the game out of reach! The Hawks pressed and created turnovers and got two big 3’s from Junior’s Michael Alford and Grant Ellis, with Alford’s giving Hudson Catholic their first lead of the game, Ellis(pictured below) also had 2 beautiful assists in the run! Cameron(pictured right) scored 10 of his 19 points in the 4th quarter and helped his squad finish off Passaic by outscoring them 22-8 in the final stanza! Guard Travis Flagg added 10 points while Kavon Stewart  scored 7 and dished out 4 assists despite being in foul trouble the entire game! Cameron also finished with 12 rebounds for a double, double! Guard Darien Giles led Passaic with 15 points, while Senior Andre Dixon who had a good defensive game added 9!

                                   Teaneck  63             Kennedy  49

        Senior Duquan Russ(pictured) came off the bench to score 15 points and Neville Fincher(below) made his presence felt with 12 points, 10 rebounds and 6 block shots to give Teaneck the win over Kennedy! The Highwaymen kept a slight lead during most of the game but Kennedy, behind Jahmir White(20pts) and Dawon Lighty(14 pts,5stls) was not going away! The Knights created 17 turnovers in the game which kept them in it, but by only going with a 6 man rotation, Kennedy ran out of gas! Sophomore guard Shakir Lindsey( 12pts) and Junior guard Kris Hargraves kept the tempo up for Teaneck. the Highwaymen  got 9 points from Joel Hernandez who also had 4 steals and Chris Jones who scored 8 points even though he spent the majority of the game in foul trouble! Junior Sammy Singletary and Kaheem Davis each gave great efforts! Singletary finished with 6 points,8 rebounds and 5 steals while Davis went head to head with the 6’8 Fincher and grabbed 10 rebounds!

                           Passaic Valley  66          Newark Tech  55

Passaic Valley took a 15 point halftime lead and held on in the 2nd half behind Senior Nick DiCristina’s 18 points,including 4 “triples” and Olumide Onajide’s 12 points and 10 rebounds! The Hornets had to overcome the shooting of Sophomore guard Jared Hall who scored 23 and 6’7 Senior Eric Anderson who scored 12 points and grabbed 8 rebounds! Passaic Valley got big help from Senior’s Tom Gaccione(11 pts) and Dave Clough( 8 pts, 8rebs) as Tech came all the way back and took the lead on a Hall jumper! But DiCristina(pictured) answered with a “3” to put P.V. back ahead for good!  

                             Scotch Plains  58       St. Peters Prep  56

     In a very entertaining game, Scotch Plains outlasted St. Peters Prep behind the play of Senior Charles( Rifleman)Oliver(pictured) who scored 20 points and help hold off the play of  St.Peters Prep trio Kevin Walker( 21pts), Stephon Wyatt( 15pts, 7rebs) and Chase Fluellen( 11 pts,11rebs)! Scotch Plains Senior guard Patrick Dougher knocked down 4 big “triples” in the contest and Junior forward Matt Jegede stayed active on the offensive and defensive ends with 6 points and 11 rebounds! The contest didn’t get decided until Wyatt missed on a long three to end the game! 

    Friday’s schedule:

12:00pm    Passaic Valley  vs.  Scotch Plains 

1:45pm       Kennedy   vs.  Passaic

3:15pm       Hudson Catholic  vs. Teaneck   (Chip)      

Oakland……..Bergen Catholic and Passaic County Tech will battle Sunday in the 24th Annual Indian Hills Holiday Festival with impressive wins! P.C.T. advanced by hanging on in a 73-66 win over St. Joseph’s, while Bergen took advantage of Englewood’s lack of depth coasting to a 91-52 win!

                          Bergen Catholic  91       Englewood  52

      Senior Steve Ferreri came off the bench to score 17 points on 5’triples”to lead a balanced attack for Bergen Catholic as they took advantage of Englewood’s lack of depth due to missing two players! Senior Eric Flanagan scored 16 with 4 “triples” and Senior Mark Richards(pictured) proved to be the hardest man to handle in the game by scoring 15 points,grabbing 8 rebounds with a blocked shot and demanding attention throughout the contest! B.C. also got a strong game off the bench from Sophomore P.J. Reid who added 10 points and 6 boards! Bergen had 11 players score and took a 20 point lead at 44-24 at intermission and never looked back! Englewood got 11 points from Joel Berliner and 10 apiece Brandon Lee and Bruce Richardson!

                          Passaic County Tech 73      St. Joseph’s 66

  Passaic County Tech led by as much as 20′ but had to hang on to a 73-66 win as St. Joe’s put on a furious rally that came up short! Senior Xavier Nieves(right) kept poised down the stretch to lead Tech to the win! Nieves scored 21 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, with 5 assists which helped offset the 26 point effort by St. Joes Senior guard Michael Pelham(left)! Sophomore guard Isaac Williams(bottom) came off the bench to give Tech a much needed 14 points and 3 steals! Brandon James added 12 points, while Joe Bennett and Washon Franklin finished with 9 points apiece! Sophomore Terrance McNair finished with 14 points for  St.Joe’s, while Senior Nick Gardner grabbed 10 rebounds with 6 on the offensive boards! St. Joe’s outscored Tech  27 to 14 in the 4th quarter and cut the lead to as low as 5, but Nieves layup and Williams free throws iced it! 

                      Hackensack  67          North Bergen  57

          Freshman Rashard Fiqures(pictured right) scored 22 points, grabbed 6 rebounds dished out 4 assists and 2 blocks to give Hackensack a 68 – 57 win over North Bergen in a Indian Hills Holiday Festival consolation game! figures got support from Junior guard Mershon Monroe(left) who scored 14 points! Figures scored 11 in the 1st half as the Comets never trailed! North Bergen was led by Sophomore guard Alex Gil with 19 points and Senior guard Peter Ramanand with 10! 

                                  Memorial  75          Indian Hills  55

      Memorial looked very impressive in their win as 4 players scored in double figures! David Almonte and Luis Perez scored 17 points apiece, while Kermy Amparo scored 15 and Alex Carpino added 12! Adam Menner led Indian Hills with 17! 

Jersey City….. After a two day delay due to the weekend thunderstorm, The Playaz sponsored Jingle Bells Jubilee Holiday Tournament got under way! Christian Brothers was snowed in, so they cancelled out giving Passaic H.S. a win in the first round! St. Peters Prep will play the loser game tomorrow in place of C.B.A. Meanwhile Teaneck, Hudson Catholic and Kennedy all advanced to the 2nd round Wednesday!

                                    Teaneck 65          Passaic Valley 44

     Sophomore Joel Hernandez(pictured) scored 26 points, including 5 treys and snatched 8 rebounds,while Junior Chris Jones added 16 to lead Teaneck to their first win of the season and 1st under new coach Jerome Smart 65 – 44 over Passaic Valley H.S. The Highwaymen pressured P.V. into a fast paced game and forced the Hornets into turnovers throughout the contest! Led defensively by Sophomore Shakir Lindsey, Duquan Russ and Anthony Upshaw the Highwaymen raced to a 29-18 halftime lead and gradually pulled away in the 2nd half! Russ finished the game with 9 points and 3 steals, while Lindsey dished out 7 assists! The game featured the debut of 6’8 Junior Neville Fincher, a transfer from St. Anthony’s. Fincher made his presence felt in the middle, grabbing 8 rebounds and altering many Passaic Valley shots! The two bright spots for P.V. belonged to Senior guard Nick DiCristina who scored 15 points on 5 “triples” and Junior Olumide Onajide who dropped in 11 points with 7 boards!

                         Hudson Catholic  57     Scotch Plains  47

    Sophomore guards Kavon Stewart and Travis Flagg controlled the tempo of the game the entire contest as they keyed Hudson Catholic’s 57 – 47 win over Scotch Plains H.S. Both squads came in with 3 – 0 records and each played that way in the 1st quarter with Scotch Plains holding an 11-10 lead! but after Senior guard Charles(rifleman)Oliver picked up his 3rd foul in the 2nd quarter, The Hawks out scored Scotch Plains 19-3 to take a 29-15 halftime lead! Even though Scotch Plains made a few runs, cutting the lead down by as much as 5, Stewart#3 and Flagg#5 continued to make plays by either picking up an assist, but more importantly getting to the foul line as Stewart made 12 from the stripe and finished with 19 and Flagg hit 9 from the line and finished with 13! Sophomore Raekwon Kelly added 13 points and Sophomore Reggie Cameron contributed 8 points and 11 rebounds! Oliver finished with 19 points and Patrick Dougher added 13!

                                Kennedy  70            Newark Tech  53 

       Kennedy H.S. got double figure scoring from 4 players and put on a relentless defensive effort against Newark Tech in a 70 – 53 win! Junior Jamar Ellerbee(16pts.), Sammy Singletary( 15pts), Dawon Lighty(15pts) and Jhimir White( 13pts) all scored in double figures for the Knights as they simply out played and out hustled Tech to every ball! Ellerbee(left) got off early, scoring 13 points in the 1st half to ignite    Kennedy! Lighty, Singletary and White took over in the 2nd half with White and Singletary(right) each having 4 steals in a defensive onslaught! Eric Anderson led Newark Tech with 12 points and 6 rebounds, while Jordan Arthur had 8 points, 5 assists and 4 blocks! 

Wednesday’s Games:

2:00pm  Passaic Valley vs. Newark Tech

3:45pm   Scotch Plains  vs.  St. Peters Prep

5:30pm   Teaneck  vs. Kennedy

7:00pm   Hudson Catholic  vs.  Passaic