By: Sean Moylan
Last week’s consecutive losses to Hamilton West and Holy Cross didn’t matter. They were merely warm-ups to get ready for the "real thing."
For the Florence Township Memorial High School boys’ varsity basketball team, the real thing came on Tuesday night when it blasted Bound Brook 56-45 in the Central Jersey Group I playoff opener at its new gym in Florence.
After scouting Bound Brook a couple of weeks ago, Flashes’ head coach Cesar Pereda knew he had the players and the game plan to defeat Bound Brook.
Because whether it be in football, baseball or basketball, Malcolm Jenkins, Quentin Loftin, Stevie "The Wonder" Giambrone, Chris Salaga, Brandin Youngblood, Marcus Curry, Chris Foehr and company know what it takes to win the big ones. And Tuesday’s game was the biggest game of the year, that is until the team plays Academy Charter on the road today (Thursday).
"We knew that we were a little better than them," said Pereda. "We were up by 10 at the half (35-25) and then they came back to tie it at 41-41. But then we pulled away again."
According to Pereda, the Flashes had a very good first half which seemed to set the tone for the game. As planned, they were able to work the ball inside to Jenkins, their big senior center, who ended up scoring a game-high 17 points.
"Brandin Youngblood (14 points) played well and "Q" (Quentin Loftin) played good defense," added Pereda, who also got 14 points out of Loftin, the Flashes’ talented junior point guard.
Giambrone did his job by extending the Bound Brook defense with a pair of 3-pointers on his way to netting 8 points. M. Curry, meanwhile, netted 3 points for the winners.
It was a special game because it was the Flashes’ first playoff game ever in their new gym and it was Pereda’s first post season win since taking over for retired Hall of Fame head basketball coach Art Bobik a few months ago.
"It feels good (to win a playoff game). It was a great atmosphere," said Pereda, who used to play point guard for Bobik . "We got that nervousness out (of our systems). There was a lot of poise (out there on the court)."
Most of the Flashes have been part of championship teams so they know they have to come out with extra intensity and focus in order to win playoff games. But Florence (seeded 7th) will need to bring its ‘A’ game tonight in order to defeat a second-seeded Academy Charter squad.

