RUTGERS UNIVERSITY, NEW JERSEY….. In the four Group State Championships, Atlantic City, Newark Eastside, Newark Tech and Point Pleasant Beach all win titles and will move on to the T.O.C.

                                                                                          NEWARK TECH  56       MEDFORD TECH  44

               Newark Tech fell behind 16-6 in the 1st quarter and 21-18 at the half to Medford Tech, but turned the game completely around in the 3rd quarter outscoring Medford Tech 24-10 and taking a 42-31 lead on their way to a 56-44 win! Senior Kemoko Turay’s dunk with 6:30 in the 3rd gave Newark Tech a 23-21 lead and they poured it on the rest of the way! Senior Rakwan Kelly led the scoring with 20 points and Senior Dwayne Murrill added 16 to lead Newark Tech to the Group 2 State “Chip”! Newark Tech did a very good job on Medford Tech’s top two players, Junior Elijah Cain and Sophomore Myles Powell holding each to a hard fought 15 points a piece! Turay finished with 8 points, while Tyree Sykes grabbed 12 rebounds!

                                                                     NEWARK EASTSIDE 60     CAMDEN 54

      Newark Eastside was led by their guard play in their 60-54 win over Camden for the Group 3 State Championship! Junior Akbar Hoffman scored 20 points, Senior Steph McNair came off the bench to score 15 points and Junior Ahmad Harrison added 10! It gave Newark Eastside it’s first “Chip” since 2002 when NBA guard Randy Foye was on the team!  McNair’s “triple in the 3rd quarter gave Newark Eastside it’s first lead at 31-28! They would never be behind the rest of the way! Senior Amir Maddred led Camden with 18 points, while Junior Tavaris Headen added 16!

                                                                                   ATLANTIC CITY   60    LINDEN   54   OT

In by far the best game of the day Atlantic City and Linden both played championship basketball, especially down the stretch! Each team made play after play and in the end Atlantic City just made a few more as they won back to back Group 4 Championships! A.C.’s backcourt of Junior Isaiah Graves and Senior Dayshawn Reynolds hit big three pointers from long range that keyed the win! Reynolds three sent the game into overtime, while Graves hit two that gave Atlantic City the lead including the biggest basket of overtime! Sophomore Josh Carter was the main weapon for Linden as he scored 21 points including a three point play late in the game which gave Linden a 48-45 lead with less than 40 seconds left before Reynolds shot! Atlantic City held star Junior Quadri Moore who was held to 9 points primarily by Senior Jaleem Montague! Montague scored 12 points himself and grbbed 10 rebounds! Junior Dennis White scored 16 points for Atlantic City!

                                 POINT PLEASANT BEACH  43    DAYTON  39

  Senior Riley Calzonetti scored 18 points and grabbed 7 rebounds and P.J. Kinneavy scored 9 points and dished out 4 assists to lead Point pleasant Beach to a 43-39 win over Dayton and a Group 3 State Championship! Calzonetti scored 12 of his 18 points in the second half including the layup that gave Point Pleasant Beach a 26-25 lead  It gave Pleasant Beach the lead for good! Dayton was lead by Joe Rogers with 12 points and Senior Elijah Brown with 10 points!

Pine Belt Arena, Toms River, NJ…. Roselle Catholic changed the scope of the NJ State Basketball Championships by taking down perennial favorite St. Anthony 48-44 and winning the Non-Public B title! Senior Hakim Santil(Interviewed) scored 14 points including two decisive plays, Syracuse commit Tyler Roberson had a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds and Sophomore Malachi Richardson added 10 points and 4 assists to overcome the tough performance of St.Anthony’s Temple commit Josh Brown who finished with 21 points and 11 rebounds! In a close game Senior Tim Coleman made a”triple with 2:10 left in the game to give St. Anthony a 42-40 lead! But with 1:26 left Santil made a field goal and was fouled! He missed the free throw but got the offensive rebound, made the put back and was fouled! This time he made the free throw and  turned it into a 45-42 Roselle Catholic lead with 1:21 left! Senior Cheddi Mosely made a bucket late but Freshman Matt Bullock’s two free throws clinched the contest! Roselle Catholic had a 22-14 1st half lead but the Friars managed to tie the game at 35 to end the 3rd! That set the stage for the exciting 4th quarter! Roselle Catholic moves into the T.O.C.!

Pine Belt Arena, Toms River,N.J…..St. Joseph of Metuchen’s big three of Junior’s Wade Baldwin, Kentucky commit Karl Towns and Marques Townes combined for 43 points as they beat St.Peters Prep 57-47 to win the Non-Public A Championship! Prep fought the entire way and this game was in question until about 2:25 in the game when Baldwin’s dunk off an assist from Townes gave St. Joe’s a 46-39 lead! Prep got big efforts from their guard combination of St. Peters University commit Trevis Wyche who scored 16 points, dished out 6 dimes and grabbed 6 boards and Junior Austin White who finished with 14 points! Baldwin led Joe’s with 17 points, Townes had 14 points and Towns finished with 12! Joe’s outrebounded Prep 34-24! St. Joe’s will be one of the favorites in the T.O.C.!