Kennedy H.S.,Paterson,NJ…..Very seldom if ever is a Eastside-Kennedy game over in the 1st half! Tonight it was Over! Senior guards Jetor Brown and Tommy Rivera completely dominated the contest in Eastside’s 65-41 win over Kennedy! Brown(right) was special from the floor shooting 11 of 15, including 4″triples” and scoring 22 of his 27 points in the 1st half and probably could have gotten more if the game had not been so out of reach! Rivera(left) didn’t put up the scoring numbers but was the catalyst on nearly every play as he had 11 dimes, with most coming in the 1st half and his 5’9 frame grabbed 5 rebounds and turned them into transiton points! Kennedy which is usually a good perimeter shooting team was stone cold in the 1st half and fell behind 41-18! To make matters worse they only could score 3 points in the 3rd to fall behind 59-21 going into the 4th quarter! Sophomore Asem Johnson scored 11 points for Eastside and Junior Quincy Jones scored 10! The game was also the debut of 6’6 Sophomore Marquel Sheffield(bottom right) who became eligible after sitting the mandatory 30 days in a transfer! Sheffield came off the bench and made his presence felt right away, pulling down 6 rebounds but more importantly blocking 5 shots! His presence in the paint will help Eastside tremendously going into the Counties and the States! Senior Hassan Townes led Kennedy with 9 points and 5 steals, while Senior Justin Kimchen had 11 points! Freshman stud Alphonso Gee was held to 4 points by the Ghosts in the game!!

Over the last couple of weeks, their have been a couple of recent accomplishments in the area! We have a few new 1,000 point scorers in the area that we are aware of:

JOEL HERNANDEZ  SR. —TEANECK – Joel  became a 1,000 point scorer for the Highwaymen as he scored 28 points against Pascack Valley in the third game of the season!!!! 

JOSH MARQUEZ  SR.—- DEPAUL—- Josh got his 1,000th point Dec. 22nd against St. Joseph in scoring 26 points!

RASHARD FIGURES   JR.—-HACKENSACK–As a Junior, Rashard scored 21 points against Tenafly to go over 1.000 points in Hackensack’s 87-54 win

Little Falls,N.J……Passaic used a balanced attack from Senior’s Rashaan Johnson, Marquise Stephens, Aziah Miller and Gervon Williams to beat Passaic Valley  64-59! Johnson(#4) scored 15 points,grabbed 13 rebounds, blocked 4 shots and had 4 steals, Stephens(#3) led the scoring with 18 points, including 4 big”triples” in the contest, Miller(#2) finished with 16 points and went 5 of 6 from the line down the stretch to ice the game and Williams(21) ran the offense enroute to an 11 point,8 assist night! The game was close, but Passaic seemed to take control at the end of the 3rd getting ahead by as much as 14 and finishing the quarter up 50-39! But Passaic Valley which is a scrappy team would not go away in the 4th and closed the lead to two 58-56 on a layup by Freshman guard Jihad Wright with 1:27 left in the game! Miller hit two free throws to give Passaic a 60-56 lead with 1:00 left and after a Valley miss made two more free throws to give the Indians a 62-56 advantage with 44.7 left! Passaic Valley was led by Junior Stefan Minic with 15 points, Senior Ian Hanley with 10 and a double-double 10 point, 10 rebound game from Sophomore Shawn Ulrich! Passaic is now on a 4 game winning streak and play Dickinson in the Coaches vs Cancer Event Saturday at Kennedy H.S. while Passaic Valley will go up against Bergen Catholic in the same event!