Hun falls in Trenton final
By: Bob Nuse
Even after opening the season with three straight losses, the West Windsor-Plainsboro High South boys’ basketball team never lost the faith.
That faith was rewarded Tuesday as the Pirates picked up their first win of the season, topping Hillsborough, 52-49, in a consolation game of the Vaughn Stapleton Memorial Tournament at Bridgewater-Raritan High.
"As a team and as a program, we kept the faith," said South coach Eric Mooney, who picked up his first win at his new school. "It was a nice win and hopefully now we can build on it. I thought we played a real good defensive game. We challenged the kids to come up with a big defensive effort and we did that."
South had opened the tournament with a 65-45 loss to Bridgewater, then dropped a 56-48 decision to South Brunswick before coming back to beat Hillsborough.
In the Pirates’ win, Kevin Turner scored 17 points and Matt Howell added 14 to pace the offense. But it was their play on the defensive end that made the biggest difference.
"Uche (Ndubizu) had a big game for us on the boards and on defense," said Mooney, whose team is back in action Tuesday at Princeton. "He only had four points, but he was a beast on defense with some big stops for us. Grant MacQueen also played a great game on defense. We were able to hold the (Mike) Malko kid to five points for the first three quarters.
"And Vondre (Ossario) did a great job on their little guard. He had been lighting it up against other teams, but we held him to five points."
In addition to playing solid defense, the Pirates also took better care of the ball on offense.
"We really cut down on our turnovers," Mooney said. "We only had six in the first half, which is a lot better than we had been doing. This was a nice win for us. I think it will help give the kids a little confidence. Hopefully this will get us going."
After opening 0-3, getting that first win has to help.
"It’s nice to get a win," Mooney said. "Kevin Turner really stepped up on offense and did a nice job for us. It was really an all-around effort for us. Everybody did their part to help get the win."
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The schedule didn’t get any easier for the Hun School, which split a pair of games in the Capital City Classic at Trenton. The Raiders opened with a 73-70 win over Eastside of Paterson, then dropped a 54-50 decision to Trenton in the final.
"The effort was there and we went down to the wire, we just didn’t execute and I’ll take the blame for that," Hun coach said Jon Stone said after the loss. "I give credit to Trenton. They played well. Now we have to regroup. Every time you lose you have to regroup.
"We’ve got four games coming up in seven days, so there is no time for us to feel sorry for ourselves."
With the split in Trenton, the Raiders are now 5-3 on the season, having seen a modest three-game winning streak come to an end. Hun has already faced some tough competition in the likes of Trenton, St. Benedict’s, Lawrenceville and Blair, and has more on the horizon with Bullis (Md.) and Germantown Academy up next.
Noah Savage, who scored 42 points in the two games, was named to the all-tournament team at Trenton, while Tim Pounds picked up the sportsmanship award.
"Trenton is a good team, but we play a lot of good teams," Stone said. "We had our chances, but we just didn’t execute when we needed to."
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Princeton Day School split a pair of games in the Edgar Joyce Colt Classic at Cumberland Regional. The Panthers opened with a 49-43 win over the host school on Monday before dropping a 77-35 decision to Rancocas Valley in Tuesday’s championship game.
In the win on Monday, Drew Godwin led the Panthers with 15 points, while Dylan Leith chipped in with 10 points. Leith led the Panthers with 12 points in the loss to Rancocas Valley.
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Princeton dropped both of its games at the Len Sepanak Memorial Tournament at Ridge. The Little Tigers opened with a 66-49 loss to Montgomery on Saturday, then dropped a 57-49 decision to Ridge in the consolation game on Monday.
In the opening loss, Chris Newton and Kareem Blue scored 11 points apiece to pace the Princeton offense. In the loss to Ridge, Anthony Brown led the offense with 13 points.