Montgomery senior reached 1,000 point plateau
By: Bob Nuse
HILLSBOROUGH Justin Freid feels pretty confident in saying that very few of the 1,000 points he’s scored as a member of the Montgomery High boys’ basketball team have been meaningless points.
"When I think about the points I’ve scored, there haven’t been many times were we were just shooting to score points," said Freid, who scored his 1,000th career point Saturday in helping the Cougars to a 43-34 win over Hillsborough. "Most of the points have been meaningful. I remember a game against Bridgewater where I scored 26 and we almost beat them. And there was a game against Bernards where I only scored five, but the one shot I made was at the end of the game and it put us ahead.
"I’ve had a couple of buzzer beaters. I really feel like most of the points have been meaningful."
And a large number of them have come the way he scored his 1,000th point. With the Cougars clinging to a 33-30 lead against Hillsborough, Freid put in a rebound of a missed Cougar shot to give them a 35-30 lead. After Hillsborough scored four straight points to cut it to 35-34, the Cougars scored the final eight points of the game to run their record to 19-4 on the season.
"It was special to get it in a game like this against Hillsborough," said Freid, who had nine rebounds to go along with his eight points. "I haven’t beaten them since I’ve been here, so it’s nice to finally do that. And I know a lot of their guys and I play AAU ball with some of them, so they know me too.
"We were also motivated because we felt like we should have had a higher seed in the county tournament and if we did we might still be playing in the semifinals. But we were seeded sixth and Hillsborough was fourth, even though we had a 12-3 record at the cutoff."
The win capped off a couple of pretty good days for Freid and the Cougars. After falling to Immaculata in the SCT quarterfinals on Wednesday, Montgomery bounced back and beat Voorhees, 59-47, Friday night to capture the Skyland Conference Raritan Division title. They then came back the next afternoon to beat Hillsborough.
"The thing is, before these last three games if you said we’d win two of the three, I’d take it," said Montgomery coach Jeff Tagliareni, whose team will open play in the Central Jersey Group II tournament on March 4 against Rumson-Fair Haven. "I think the kids were motivated because they really felt like we should have been a higher seed in the county tournament.
"We’re 19-4 now and I still don’t think the kids get the respect they deserve. But they’ve had a great year. It was a nice win over Voorhees to get the outright championship in the conference. And then this was a nice win for us today."
The win was capped off by Freid becoming the first Montgomery player to reach 1,000 points since Derek Grant reached the milestone two years ago. Those two join Maurice Bahr, Nicole DeLarato and Mike D’Allegro as the school’s 1,000 point scorers.
"He was so nervous in the beginning of the game," Tagliareni said. "I just kept telling him it would come. He just needed to relax and play his game. I took him out at one point to just get him to relax a little bit. Even though I’ve only been here this year, Justin has had a great career."
More than anything else, Freid has been consistent in his four-year Cougar career. He averaged 4.9 points a game coming off the bench as a freshman, then moved into the starting lineup as a sophomore, averaging 11.4 points a game. That number improved to 13.9 a game last year and is at 13.2 a game this year.
"I’ve always felt like a pretty consistent player," said Freid, who is still trying to decide whether to pursue football or basketball in college. "I usually get 10 rebounds and anywhere from 12-20 points in a game. I don’t ever feel like I have to score 25 points every game, especially this year with the guys we have. I know if I’m having an off game, the other guys are there to step up."
For four years, Montgomery basketball has been able to rely on Justin Freid stepping up game after game. On Saturday, he found his place in school basketball history to reflect that characteristic.

