By Justin Feil, Contributor
The Hillsborough High School boys basketball team played hard, but wins were still hard to come by last season.
The Raiders are back, led by four seniors and a huge group of juniors who remember last year’s eight-win season, and the results are coming with their effort this season.
“It’s experience,” said Raiders second-year head coach Len Parham. “All those guys got a lot of experience last year. They’re coming back and nothing is new to them now which is good. That’s why we played them last year, so they could get some experience and be ready to go.”
Hillsborough rode a balanced attack into the championship game of their own Hillsborough Holiday Classic. Steve Rudd had 19 points and seven rebounds, Jackson Parham had 13 points, six rebounds, four steals and three assists and Matt Moore had 12 points including a pair of 3-pointers as Hillsborough won for the third straight time, 65-58, in the first round of the Holiday Classic on Tuesday.
“Being able to win and finish strong, making our free throws, taking care of the ball down the stretch has been good,” the elder Parham said. “We have to continue to do that.”
Last season, it took until the end of January for the Raiders to win their third game. The hardest part was that the Raiders were competitive and doing just about everything they could except win.
“Them not seeing the reward of their effort,” was difficult, Coach Parham said. “We lost a lot of close ones early too. We lost in overtime in this tournament last year.”
This season, they won three of their first four games heading into Wednesday’s scheduled Holiday Classic title game against Hunterdon Central. Their only loss came at Phillipsburg in the season opener.
“The people we’re playing are good,” Coach Parham said. “We played at Phillipsburg on Opening Night. We went on the road our first three games. We’ve been road warriors. This is our first home game (Tuesday). It was nice to play at home and play in the white uniforms.”
The three-game road trip to start the season certainly tested the returning players’ experience. Hillsborough’s four seniors are Saddiq Adkins, Pat Cahill, Ethan Griffith and Steve Rudd.
The Raiders have even overcome some early adversity with the loss of Ethan Griffith, a starter, just a couple plays into their season opener. Matt Moore, a junior who has made a big jump from last year when he swung between varsity and JV, has stepped up to fill his spot.
“We have the majority of the guys back,” Len Parham said. “Our seniors graduated and we had all those returners back. All those sophomores we had up last year are all juniors now. They’re getting quality minutes and they all played a lot last year too, which is helping. Nothing is new to them now. It’s just a matter of getting out there and understanding how to be successful in their positions.”
Juniors this year are Justin Brown, Aron Lauan, Ryan McCaffery, Matt Moore, Jackson Parham, Gary Redden, David Yost and Tim Yost. The Raiders do not have a sophomore on the varsity roster.
“Some of the newer guys are fitting in and learning and understanding their roles and playing more minutes now,” Len Parham said. “That’s been good. I think they’re still trying to settle into them only four games in. And we had some good competition so it’s not like they’ve had a break and breather during the games. It’s been focus and play as hard as they can when they’re out there.”
The Raiders have started to figure out how they can fit together best and be successful on the court. It starts on the defensive end, where Hillsborough has been stingy.
“Our team defense has been pretty good,” Coach Parham said. “We’ve been holding opponents under 50. (Tuesday) was our first opponent to have more than 50. We’ve been doing a pretty good job with just good solid team defense.”
The Raiders knew defense would be important, especially in the early going while they figured out their offensive leaders. Hillsborough graduated its top two scorers from a year ago, but has found a staple in their defense.
“They’re getting better at it,” Coach Parham said. “We tried to play good team defense, but this year actually understanding the concepts better and being able to execute them helps. That’s the thing that’s been encouraging – them understanding the system and playing good team defense.”
The offense is coming along as well. That started to improve shortly after last season’s end, when the players realized what it would take to develop their team. They haven’t stopped working to improve since then.
“We had a lot of kids working out all spring, all summer,” Coach Parham said. “They did a great job in the weight room. We had a good preseason as a team, as a group. Guys were in the gym to do morning workouts and weight room. They’re all buying in and getting better and working on their games individually. Obviously, if they get better individually we become a better team.”
Coach Parham has seen changes, too, once the team got together for the preseason. With everyone a year older and more experienced, the offense has found its footing.
“We’ve really improved understanding how to score, now we just need to convert,” Coach Parham said. “They’re understanding the system better, what we’re asking for, the expectations are clear. They’re really grasping the system better.”
Hillsborough has been able to create better scoring chances than a year ago even if they haven’t converted all of them.
“We just have to shoot it better,” Coach Parham said. “The Phillipsburg game, we probably shot about 15 percent. We had wide open shots. We had wide open shots (Tuesday) too, and we probably missed 10 layups, putbacks. We just have to finish and convert offensively. When we do that, we’re a pretty good team. Some of that is just coming with playing, and some of the guys who are new need to play with confidence.”
Their season-high 65 points was a step forward. In addition to three double-digit scorers against Bishop Ahr, the Raiders had five other scorers. Pat Cahill and Ryan McCaffery had five points apiece, and Saddiq Adkins and Justin Brown had four points apiece. Gary Redden had three points.
“We’re just trying to execute a little better offensively,” Coach Parham said. “We’re doing a pretty good job defending. We have to start to execute better on offense. We did a pretty good job (Tuesday) since we scored 65 points. We should have probably scored more points, we had some unforced turnovers that we probably shouldn’t have had. If we can take care of the ball and execute better on offense, that should increase our percentages of being successful.”
Bishop Ahr employed a trapping three-quarters court press. Hillsborough proved it could handle a different look.
“We don’t see a whole lot of that during the year,” Coach Parham said. “Not a lot of teams in our conference play that three-quarters court 1-2-2, halfcourt trap. They probably played it 75 percent of the game.
“We spread it out and I thought we did a good job of attacking and finishing at the rim,” he added. “Steve Rudd led us with 19. He was a very effective being a recipient of those catches from the penetration from guys dishing to him. He had a good game.”
It was still a tight one-point lead for Hillsborough at halftime, but they owned the third quarter, 26-19, and maintained that edge through the fourth quarter. The Raiders relied on their decisive third quarter to earn some breathing room.
“We came out and executed and converted off the turnovers,” Coach Parham said. “If we can do that for four quarters, we’ll be all right.”
It’s early and the Raiders are still figuring out roles and their top lineups for different situations. Coach Parham is playing 10 players per game, switching defenses and focusing on executing better offensively.
“We need our guys to get better and continue to grow during this early part of the season,” he said. “I’m happy with our effort. I think we’re playing hard.”
