The Woodbridge High School boys basketball team picked up its third win of the season after a 76-40 thumping of Highland Park. Woodbridge took advantage of a Highland Park team without the services of Temple University-bound senior Nate Smith.
The Barrons were led by a 21-point performance from guard Keith Hughes. Teammates Kyle Pearson and Zachary Colon finished with 16 and 11 points respectively. Mike Long led Highland Park with 14 points.
The Woodbridge win came on the heels of a 72-50 loss to St. Joes. Despite the lopsided loss to the Falcons, the outcome was much better than the team’s 75-34 loss earlier in the season.
“We’re still extremely young,” said Woodbridge head coach Antoine Patterson. “We’ve been playing a freshman and two sophomores in the backcourt and they’ve been getting better. Hughes has really come along. He’s been averaging close to 21 points and 10 rebounds the last five games.”
Also stepping up his game of late is senior John Stefanicha. In the loss to St. Joes, Stefanicha finished with 10 blocked shots. He added six more to his season tally against Highland Park.
“He’s definitely giving us a presence inside,” Patterson said. “He’s been working hard and really playing well right now. He’s rebounding well and opening up things for the guards on the outside.”
Colon’s 11 points in the team’s win over the Owls were impressive considering it was just the underclassman’s second game at the varsity level.
“He came off the bench and gave us a nice lift,” Patterson said. “He saw some action against St. Joe’s and was a reason we played them better the second time around. We were able to put 50 points on the board this time around. We don’t have many upperclassmen, so the guys are getting a world of experience.”
Two-guard Kyle Anderson is one of the team’s youngsters benefiting from significant playing time this year. Heading into this week’s action, Anderson is the team leader in assists.
“He came into this season with a lack of game-play experience, but he’s come pretty far,” Patterson said. “As a sophomore, he’s handled the pressure and the pace of the varsity game well. He’s also been taking care of the basketball and distributing to his teams consistently.”
After opening this week with a Tuesday match-up against South Brunswick, the Barrons will take on East Brunswick on Jan. 28 and look to avenge an early season loss to the Bears.
“East Brunswick is tough because they have so many guards,” Patterson said. “We’ll need to do a better job defending the threepoint shot and be more effective on the offensive end of the floor. East Brunswick has a couple of seniors that help take them to a different level.”