East Orange……..Wood Ridge style of play is no secret to the North Jersey area! First good shot,Take It! It can be a layup,but more likely than not,it’s a”triple”! It has won them alot of games, but the old saying is” You live by the three, you die by the three! Tonight Wood Ridge died by it in their 72-54 loss to Dayton H.S. of Springfield in the North 1 Group 1 Championship! The Blue Devils shot 6 of 28 from behind the arc and was outrebounded 46 to 19 by Dayton! Senior Aaron Williams(pictured) was the leader for the Bulldogs, scoring 23 points with 5 rebounds and 3 steals and throwing down a couple crowd pleasing dunks! Senior Kevin Kirk also played well scoring 18 points and grabbing 9 boards! Wood Ridge always seemed to be one shot away from getting in the game, because if you know their style it felt like it was just a matter of time! But nobody besides Sophomore Mike Gibney could knock down shots! Gibney led them in scoring with 22 points and Junior Angel Colon added 15, but the other players could not find their rhythm! Junior forward Vin O’Bierne scored 11 points and added 7 rebounds for Wood Ridge! Dayton’s Ronnie Herman added 14 points and Kareem Jackson grabbed 12 boards!

Rutgers University………It was a heavyweight fight and neither #2 ranked St. Anthony nor #1 ranked  St. Patrick would break for three quarters as Patrick’s went into the 4th with a 40-39 lead! But this was a long time coming for former Paterson Catholic teammates Myles Mack(top right) and Kyle Anderson(bottom right) and they, with the help of their St.Anthony teammates brought extra life in the 4th! St. Anthony played lights out defense and started making the shots that weren’t falling early in the contest! They outscored St.Pats 23-5 and won the game going away and for the moment being looked at as the mythical National Champs if they finish the season off undefeated! Mack was superb in the game as he was locked in from start to finish! The Rutgers recruit finished with 19 points, 4 assists, 3 steals and a whole lot of swagger! Anderson also was up for the challenge finishing with 11 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists,4 steals and 2 blocked shots! Senior Lucious Jones( 12pts,7rebs), Senior Jordan Quick( 8pts,4rebs) and Junior Jerome Frink(8pts,6rebs) had big moments in the game! Quick hit two huge”triples”, Jones made big layups and was tough on the defensive end and Frink’s had a couple big put backs late in the game during the finishing run! More importantly, All everything swingman Michael Gilchrist was held to 7 points! Although he had 9 rebounds and 5 blocked shots,the Kentucky recruit was neutralized most of the game! Senior Derrick Gordon was the only St. Pat’s player to play well, scoring 26 points with 7 rebounds! Senior guard Chris Martin was the only other St. Pat player to score in double figures with 10 points! St. Anthony will meet Cardinal McCarrick Saturday in Toms River!

Elizabeth…………No one truly believed, but Eastside’s Player’s and Coaches did! Enough to pull off the shocking upset over Linden 45-44 to surprise everyone in winning the North 1 Group 4 championship!! Junior DeAndre Noble’s steal and assist to Senior Carl Barrett(Left) gave Eastside a one point lead which ended up being the final score as Linden got two chances to win the game, but came up short! Senior Dave Burgos led the scoring with 13 points for Eastside! They will meet Rancocas Valley in the State final Sunday at Rutgers! Linden was led by Rodney Sanders with 14!