All year Eastside Highschool has been carried by it’s senior guard trio of  Karon Abraham, Dave Robertson-West and Bryant Lewis and they more than held their own tonight, but the unsung heroes of this game belonged to Eastside’s big men. Allen Dantzler, Christopher Albuquerque and Travon Johnson combined for 32 points and 18 rebounds as the #4 seed Ghosts rolled past the #1 seeded Kennedy Knights 77-61 to advance to the Group 4 Sectional Championship against Union City H.S. Dantzler especially, played his best game of the season scoring 16 points and pulling  down 8 rebounds. Eastside out rebounded Kennedy 40 to 27 and held their best two players, Shondel Stewart and Asmar Edwards to a combined 11 points. Abraham led the ghosts in scoring with 20 but it was his timely passing at critical times that was most effective. He split Kennedy’s pressure defense to get in the lane and drop dimes to his teammates. He finished with 7 assists, most coming when the Ghosts extended a 5 point game into a 15 point lead. The rebound edge was primarily because of the relentless effort of  West. He grabbed 16 boards to go with 6 steals, 3 blocked shots and 10 points. Lewis also added 10 points to go along with 4 assists. Kennedy stayed within 5 for three quarters, then allowed Eastside to outscore them 30 -19 in the crucial 4th. Daquere Hayes led the Knights with 21 points, including 4 treys. Antoine Alexander added 16 while Dawon Lighty had 10.         

 NOTES: Hoop Journal would like to congratulate Kennedy seniors Asmar Edwards and Antoine Alexander on superior highschool careers. Edwards became a 1,000 point scorer for his career to go along with being one of the best rebounders for his size in Northern New Jersey.  Alexander established himself as a great defender who had a knack for getting big rebounds himself and making clutch shots. Hopefully the future will be bright for both.

           While Depaul Catholic will not move on due to the loss to St. Peter’s Prep 69-64, this is not about the game, but about the tremendous career of guard Justin Crosgile. Crosgile, a St. Joseph University recruit became the first player in Northern New Jersey to score 2,000 career points since N.B.A. player Tim Thomas accomplished the feat for Paterson Catholic. Crosgile scored 31 points against Prep after needing 21 entering the game. He finished his career with 2,010 career points. Hoops Journal would like to congratulate Justin on a spectacular career and hope for more in his promising future at the next level.

    Javae King -Gilchrist was not ready to go home and finish his career as he led Teaneck H.S. to a 61-50 win over Ramapo H.S. Gilchrist’s 23 points  and Teaneck’s relentless defense tamed Ramapo. Particularly the way Ramapo star Eric Halejian was bottled up. Halejian managed 18 points, but was held to 6 points in the first 3 quarters. Gilchrist was relentless in getting to the basket and got help from forward Jonathan Blue who added 13. Ramapo got 14 points from Matt Bunting and Donny Fletcher added 8.