By: Sean Moylan
Last Thursday was a great day in the history of Northern Burlington County Regional High School boys’ basketball.
First the Greyhounds pummeled the Delran Bears, 72-50, in the consolation game of the Riverside Tournament. Then, many Greyhound players and coaches took a ride up to the "World’s Most Famous Arena," Madison Square Garden to watch former teammate Cedric "the Entertainer" Jackson dive all over the floor and help Saint John’s beat No. 17 N.C. State, 63-45, in the title game of the Holiday Festival. It was the first time the Red Storm has won the event since 1996 and Jackson’s defensive presence had a lot to do with the victory (St. John’s led 27-10 at the half).
The Greyhounds, meanwhile, dominated both offensively and defensively in their victory over the Bears.
"The kids played well. We excelled in some things. We defended well. We looked like a very good team," said NBC Coach Herman Johnson.
Darius Newton led the scoring with 19 points but Keith Jones was right behind him with 17. Jerry Howell, who has played consistently well the entire season, netted a dozen points.
A well-schooled Moorestown team beat NBC, 55-39, Tuesday night.
"They’re (Moorestown) a good team. They run the Princeton motion-offense," noted Johnson.
"They are patient and disciplined in their offense and if you’re not patient and disciplined on defense you’re not (going to win)."
Defensively, the Greyhounds played well in a first half that ended in a 20-20 score. Unfortunately, Moorestown outscored NBC 16-6 in the third quarter to take a 10-point lead into the final stanza.
Howell led NBC with 11 points.
"He (Howell) been playing very good ball," added Johnson.
Darius Newton canned a couple of 3’s on his way to scoring eight points and Keith Jones chipped in with seven. Irving Fryar (four points), Danny Zimplemann (three points), Paul Urbish (two points) and Andre Jackson (two points) all had their positive moments too.
NBC’s trip to Moorestown wasn’t all bad, though. In the jayvee game freshman Marcus Cook connected on a long buzzer-beater to lift NBC to a thrilling victory over Moorestown.
While wins and losses matter to Johnson, right now he’s just looking for his club to create the most positive, hard-working, smart mind-set possible.
"We’re going to measure success by the kids’ attitudes and how much they want to be good (basketball players)," Johnson said.
He’d like for good decision making to become an innate part of all of their games. That only comes with practice.
Pictures from the Greyhounds’ trip to MSG can be found at Johnson’s Web site, NorthernHoops.com.
NBC (2-3) is scheduled to host Shawnee on Saturday. Then on Tuesday it is scheduled at Rancocas Valley.
