Oakland, N.J……. Junior Wahlik Watson(right) made a floater with 16 seconds on the clock that proved to be the winning bucket for Passaic County Tech as they beat St. Joseph 67-66 to reach the finals of the Indian Hills Holiday Tournament! Trailing by 3, P.C.T. got a steal and layup to cut the lead to one! St. Joe’s committed a turnover which set the stage for Watson’s heroics! Junior guard Isaaac Williams and Senior guard Aazaad Hinton contributed to the strength of the Bulldogs which is their backcourt! Williams played his best game of the year scoring 18 points with 4 assists and 4 steals! Hinton knocked down 4″triples”on his way to 15 points,while Watson scored 11 points with 6 assists! Junior Terrence McNair led the scoring for St. Joes with 16 points and 3 steals! Junior Ryan Rivera added 13 points,including 3″triples” and Senior Dan Mckinless added 9 points,6 rebounds and 4 assists! Joe’s still had an opportunity to win but missed two free throws with1.5 on the clock! Passaic County Tech will meet Tenafly in the “CHIP” as they defeated Indian Hills 54-43! Prolific scoring machine Chris Orozco(right) led the way for the Tigers! The Senior who is headed to New Hampshire next year had 30 points, 8 rebounds,4 assists and 4 steals  as Indian Hills tried everything and still stuggled in containing him! Junior Yaniv Cohen added 9 points and Senior Zach Rush grabbed 10 boards for Tenafly! Sophomore Ryan Warnet who scored 13 points was very impressive for Indian Hills and will be a force in the future!Senior Gil Smolenski scored 11 for Indian Hills and Senior Valon Kartoci grabbed 10 boards to go with 7 points for the Braves! Tech and Tenafly will meet Friday at 7:00 pm!

Paterson, N.J……..Teaneck and Hackensack pulled off wins to advance to the finals of the Jingle Bells Jubilee Holiday Tournament at the Paterson School of Science and Technology(formerly Paterson Catholic)! Both teams games went differently but the results were the same! Passaic Valley and Christian Brothers Academy also won their loser bracket games!

                                                HACKENSACK  78              NEWARK TECH  73     O.T.

     Sophomore Rashard Figures had a solid game with 18 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists and 6 steals in Hackensack’s 78-73 win over Newark Tech in overtime, but he still needed help from his friends and he got it! Figures scored 17 of his 18 in the first 3 quarters so Senior Mershan Monroe and Juniors Chris Myers, Jamiek Moore and Eugene Marshall decided to make plays late in the contest to help pull out the game! Monroe(right) was extra special at times scoring and creating plays for his teammates! He finished with 16 points, but many came when Tech was making their run! Moore scored 16 points while Myers had 9 points,6 assists and 5 steals! Marshall scored 8 points and grabbed 6 boards and made two plays late in the game, scoring a bucket and assisting on another in overtime! Newark Tech trailed 49-45 going into the 4th quarter but they started putting more ball pressure on the Comets and finally tied the game at 51 on a Dwayne Dixon “triple”! The game went back and forth until Junior Jared Hall’s bucket with 25 seconds left sent the contest into overtime! Hackensack’s defense proved to be the difference late as they forced Newark Tech into 25 turnovers! The last one resulting into free throws from Myers with 9.9 seconds to give Hackensack a 77-73 lead! Tech had all five starters in double figures with Senior Abel Yekeh leading the way with 116 points and 18 rebounds! Hall also had 16 with 4 dimes while Senior Dwayne Dixon scored 14 points and grabbed 17 rebounds and Junior Dwayne Merrill scored 15 with 7 boards! Their were 8 lead changes and 8 ties in the hotly contested game!

                                                TEANECK  60          ST. PETERS PREP  45

       After losing Junior Joel Hernandez to a freak accident in which his hand was injured, Teaneck regrouped and led by Junior Shakir Lindsey, beat St.Peters Prep convincingly 60-45! Lindsey(right) scored 15 points, dished out 5 assists and had 5 steals to pace the Highwaymen! Senior Chris Jones added 17  points with 4 steals, but the unsung play of Senior Siddiq Patterson(11 pts,5rebs,2stls), Junior Marcus Fulmore(5pts,4rebs) and Devaunte Locadia(6pts,4rebs,3asts,2stls) helped offset the loss of Hernandez for this night! Sophomore Austin White scored 20 for Prep while Senior Tyrone O’Garro grabbed 19 rebounds and Junior Jordan Arthur finished with 8 points and 11 rebounds! 

                                             PASSAIC VALLEY 35      KENNEDY 33

    Sophomore Stefan Minic(right) hit the game winning “triple” with 15 seconds left and Passaic Valley survived a desperation shot to pull off a 35-33 win! Minic scored 14 points and grabbed 6 rebounds to lead the Hornets! Senior Jamir Lennon scored 9 points with 6 steals and Senior Olumide Onajide grabbed 12 rebounds! Senior Sammy Singletary led Kennedy with 15 points and Senior Jamarr Ellerbee added 9!

                           CHRISTIAN BROTHERS ACADEMY  39      PASSAIC  33

   Senior Kieran Hughes had a monster game scoring 21 points and grabbing 18 rebounds as C.B.A. beat Passaic 39-33! The game was played at a slow pace but one constant was the play of Hughes(right) who made every play throughout! Passaic was led by Senior Michael Brown with 10 points and Junior Rashaan Johnson with 8 points and 10 rebounds! 

              Fridays Games :     Christian Brothers Academy vs. Passaic Valley 

                                                     St.Peters Prep   vs.  Newark Tech

                                                     Teaneck vs. Hackensack

 Oakland, N.J…….. The Indian Hills Tournament began today and Tenafly, Indian Hills, St. Joseph and Passaic County Tech all advanced to the semifinals! Senior guard Chris Orozco, the New Hampshire recruit scored 17 points, grabbed 7 rebounds, dished out 6 dimes and had 3 steals and Senior Zach Rush who was the recipient of many of his teams passes scored 20 points and grabbed 7 rebounds as Tenafly handled Englewood easily in a 64-39 win! Tenafly jumped out to a 20-7 1st quarter lead and never looked back! Orozco(right) and Rush(left) got plenty of help as Senior Marco Barrata scored 12 points with 6 rebounds, Junior Kyle Hioki scored 9 points and Senior point guard Tyler Garson only scored 2 points but ran Tenafly’s offense to perfection assisting on 7 baskets! Indian Hills beat Christ the King 79-41! No, not that Christ the King! They beat a Newark school with that name as Sophomore Ryan Warnet led the scoring with 17 points! Senior Valen Kortoci added 14, Senior Danny Green 11 and Junior point guard dished out 7 assists! Senior Dashon Adamson and 5’5 Freshman Rayshawn Stewart each scored 12 points for CTK while Senior Semiu Durowoju added 11! Junior Kori Haggie scored 20 points and Senior Shackquiel Scott added 14 as Passaic County Tech beat Memorial of West New York 70-64! Senior Luis Perez scored 25 for the Tigers! St. Joseph beat North Bergen 72-64 as Senior Dan McKinless(bottom right) led the scoring with 20 points! Sophomore Mike Jurzynski scored 18 points and Junior Terrence McNair added 12! Senior Alex Gill scored a game high 26 points for North Bergen!