West Orange……Junior Dallas Anglin and Senior Sterling Gibbs combined for 53 points in their North Non Public B State game win over Paramus Catholic 86-77! The Maryland bound Gibbs led the 1st half onslaught by scoring 19 of his 25 points in the stanza and when Paramus Catholic made a 2nd half run it was Anglin who made big shots to stem the tide! Anglin(right) scored 16 of his game high 28 points in the second half, including back to back”triples” that sent P.C. on their heels! PC. trailed by as much as 20 points, but slowly chipped away, cutting the lead to 70-58 going into the 4th quarter! The Paladins were getting a strong effort from 6’8 Senior Justin Harris, Senior Manny Hernandez and Sophomore Tommy Rivera who never backed down from the challenge of going against Gibbs! They cut the lead to as low as 6, but Anglin with the help of 6’6 Junior Stephon Mosley kept making big plays in crucial moments! Gibbs also had 7 assists and Anglin had 4 steals! Mosley added 18 points and grabbed 6 rebounds! Harris finished with 27 points and 14 rebounds, Rivera scored 19 points and dropped 5 dimes and Hernandez added 16 points! Seton Hall Prep will now meet Union Catholic in the Semifinals Saturday!

NOTES: Hoop Journal would like to say farewell to two of our favorite people! Senior’s Justin Harris and Manny Hernandez have played their last highschool games for Paramus Catholic and believe me, they will be missed! Harris(bottom right) who will be on a profile in a few days became a 1,000 point scorer this season and went out like a champion in their loss to Seton Hall Prep! Harris is a Division 1 player and you can be sure to hear from him in the future! Hernandez(top right) has a special place in the heart of the Journal as he is a kid that’s been known to this writer since boyhood! Manny is a quality player and kid who has a strong family foundation! The sky is the limit for him on the court,but especially off of it! Good luck to both of these scholar athletes, they will be missed by this site !

Wayne……….. For the second time in the past week, Kennedy has avenged losses to a team that has beaten them twice during the season! First it was Eastside H.S. in the Passaic County Final and now Passaic County Tech has been the next victim as Kennedy beats Tech 67-65 in the 2nd round of the North1 Group 4 State Playoff contest! In a wild affair Kennedy outlasted P.C.T. behind the play of Senior’s Dawon Lighty and Jhamir White! Lighty(right)caught fire in the second half as his shooting gave Kennedy a 6 point lead 54-48 going into the 4th quarter! Tech was not through, getting as close as two 62-60 on  a layup by Sophomore Isaac Williams with 2:06 left! But Senior Kaheem Davis played big defensively for Kennedy as he accounted for 8 blocked shots to go with his 10 points, contesting every shot that Tech put up and White(right) controlled the ball late and made 3of 4 free throws to ice the game despite Senior Brandon James “triple”to cut the lead to 66-65! White then made a free throw to finish the scoring! Lighty finished the game with 26 points and 5 rebounds while White added 18 points and 5 assists! Junior Assaad Hinton led Tech with 17 points and Senior Xavier Nieves played a complete game with 15 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 blocked shots! James finished with 13 points, 6 rebounds and 5 dimes! Williams also scored in double figures with 10!

NOTES: Hoops Journal would like to acknowledge the highschool careers of Senior’s Brandon James(left) and Xavier Nieves(right)! One of the best combos in Northern New Jersey, the both of them gave the Passaic County Tech crowd their money’s worth throughout the years! We expect to be hearing from both players next year playing for some college! On a personal level they were two of the most personable players in the area and were both a pleasure to deal with and talk to! Nothing but the best for the two of them!

Jersey City……….Hudson Catholic will find out what they have learned this season when they face St. Anthony Friday after they beat Immaculate Conception of Montclair 80-46 in the 1st round of the North Non-public B state playoff game!! Sophomore point guard Kavon Stewart(top right) was a wizard with the rock as he dished out 14 dimes for Hudson Catholic, which went primarily to Sophomore forward Reggie Cameron(right) who scored 22 points and grabbed 10 rebounds and Sophomore wing Raekwon Kelly(left) who scored 17 points and grabbed 11 boards! Hudson had a 41-28 halftime lead and came out and extended the lead to 22 at the end of the 3rd 57-35! Immaculate was lead by the impressive play of Senior Davi Austin who scored 27 points,grabbed 5 rebounds and had 4 steals! The Hudson-Anthony game will reunite ex-Paterson Catholic teammates Myles Mack and Kyle Anderson for St. Anthony and Cameron and Stewart with Hudson Catholic! while Mack and Anderson have been on this stage before, Cameron and Stewart as well as their young teammates are new to this kind of big game! But this is a signature contest and they can see where their progress is, coming into this game with a 22-6 record! Meanwhile St. Anthony will come into the contest at 26-0 and ranked #2 in the country!