By: Rich Fisher
The new gym is here, and with it came a victory for the home team.
The Cranbury School boy’s basketball team christened the long-awaited debut of the new gymnasium by taking a 59-50 victory over Pond Road last week. The Vikings rallied from a 12-point deficit after one quarter. "They finally woke up," coach Jay Gilligan said. "It was their first game in the new gym, they had the jitters, they didn’t want to lose their first game.
"I told them ‘You don’t’ want to be the team that loses their first game, they were pensive, then they woke up. I told them to relax, just have fun. Once they loosened up they were a whole lot better."
Clint O’Brien, Joe Deramo, Michael Douglas, John Bichsel, Shabeg Singh and Luke Brunskill led the way.
"Bichsel has probably been my most consistent player," Gilligan said. "And O’Brien has consistently been our high scorer. He powers our offense and our defense."
In the Crossroads game, the Vikings stormed to a 46-26 victory, getting contributions up and down the lineup. Aside from the usual suspects, Cranbury got strong games from reserves Matt Johnson, Nayir Chowdhury, Sam Grubb, A.J. Dowers and Cameron Orcutt.
The victory put Cranbury’s record at 4-1 entering Thursday’s game with Kreps.
GIRLS
The Viking girls continue to strive for improvement during a winless season, falling to Crossroads (33-26) and Pond Road (43-23).
In the Crossroads game, Olivia Johnston had 10 points, followed by Brittany Scheer (six), Maggie Bleach (five), Zara Stasi (three) and Laura Mawn (two).
In the loss to Pond Road, Mawn had nine points, followed by Stasi (eight), Bleach (four) and Johnson (two).
"Olivia Johnston is still playing the best basketball for us, and Zara Stasi is stepping up her play," coach Frank Silva said. "We had some games cancelled because of the weather, which hurts a team like ours that needs to play on a consistent basis in order to improve."
