Passaic County Tech Shocks Eastside 43-39 To Win Group 4 Sectional Title!

Paterson, N.J……. Strange things were happening in Passaic County Tech’s 43-39 upset win at Eastside as the Ghosts hosted the Sectional “Chip”! The scoreboard kept going out and the SRO crowd was pretty silent most of the 1st half and even though Eastside was ahead 25-16, it was not a cleanly played Eastside game that people had become accustomed to seeing! P.C.T. ended up creating the real problem as they held the Ghosts to two 3rd quarter points and closed the game to 26-25 entering the 4th quarter! That’s also when the place got loud! Senior Shackquiel Scott tied the game with a little over 5 minutes left at 30 on a jumper from the foul line! Eastside seemed to take back control as Senior DeAndre Noble-Haywood got loose for a fastbreak dunk and Senior Nassir Crawford hit a big”triple” to make it 35-30! But on this day P.C.T. was not going away! Sophomore Zaheem Beal tied the game at 35 on two free throws and a”triple” with 2:45 left in the game and with 1:45 left Senior Jarrad Sykes hit a short jumper in the lane to give Tech a 37-35 lead! Then Beal made a steal and found Senior Aazaad Hinton for a layup to make it 39-35! Noble-Haywood then made two free throws to cut it to 39-37, but Scott made the biggest play of the game with a put back of a missed layup to give Tech a 41-37 lead with 31 seconds left in the contest! A tip in by Senior Ky’re Jackson with 10 seconds left cut it to 41-39 but Sykes iced the game with 2 free throws and Tech had pulled off an improbable win! The game was low scoring but their were many heroes on Tech’s side! Scott(pictured) finished the game with 15 points,7 rebounds and 2 blocked shots, Hinton scored 10 points, Sykes had 9 points and 7 rebounds including those big points late! Beal finished with 5 points and 5 assists and Junior Isaac Williams scored 5 points and had 4 steals! Eastside was led by Noble-Haywood with 17 points, 6 rebounds and 4 steals! Jackson finished with only 7 points and 4 rebounds! The only other player to play well was Crawford who scored 8 points including 2″triples and 3 steals as the Ghosts only shot 6 for 14 from the fouline! Eastside finishes the season with a 25-3 record! Tech improves to 20-8 and will be at the Dunn Center Thursday for the North Group 4″Chip” against Elizabeth who beat Bridgewater-Raritan 51-47!

NOTE: Hoop Journal would like to acknowledge the final highschool games of Seniors Ky’re Jackson, Nassir Crawford, Jordan Smith, Najee Ricks, Curtis Askew and Shaquille Murphy for Eastside! All will have a chance to continue their basketball careers on the next level! Jackson has also proved to be a great character kid and was the glue to the Ghost’s great season!

A special acknowledgement goes to Senior DeAndre Noble-Haywood! Having known Deandre since he was a little kid watching not only the evolution of his basketball game which has reached Division1 level, but his maturation in his attitude as a person has been a pleasure! The 6’1 combo guard has a big future ahead of him! Noble-Haywood came from Paterson Catholic and spent two years with the Ghosts where he became a State champion and a 1,000 point scorer! His improvement over the last two years is a credit to the hard work that he has put in! With a strong family to support him, led by his mother Janet there is no doubt that DeAndre has what is needed to succeed! Noble-Haywood is like family and he still acknowledges his P.C. family as well as his Eastside family so here is a special acknowledgement DeAndre, you deserve it!!!!!!! Hoop Journal hopes for nothing but the best for your future!!