After losing to St. Joseph High School to open last week, the J.P. Stevens High School boys basketball team rebounded with two straight wins to improve to 8-3 on the season. The Hawks followed their 64-42 loss to St. Joe’s with a 55-35 drumming of Woodbridge.
Against Woodbridge, Myles Reuben and Kenny Bland led the team with 18 and 17 points respectively. Nick Pol added seven in the victory.
“Myles, Kenny and Nick have been with me for a while now,” Stevens head coach James Cardillo said. “They’ve all been starting since their sophomore seasons, and I think they realize this is their year to lead us and that the burden is on them. They not only had to up their scoring, but do some other things to offset their scoring.”
In the team’s 68-52 win over Old Bridge, it was more of the same as the Hawks’ big three shouldered the responsibility and the bulk of the scoring. In this game, the trio accounted for all but three of the team’s total offensive outpouring. Bland finished with a double-double, scoring 26 points and pulling down 12 rebounds. Bland also blocked four shots.
“Kenny has had some monster games recently,” Cardillo said. “He’s been putting up some big numbers. Nick has really been shooting the ball well lately, and all three have been carrying us.”
Pol finished the Old Bridge game with 14 points and six rebounds.
“Nick has been in a good rhythm,” Cardillo said. “He’s really carried us offensively in games this year. St. Joe’s really put the clamps on him, and he struggled against them as a result. It was nice to see him get back on track after the loss. He seems to have his consistency back.”
In addition to the loss to St. Joseph, the Hawks suffered losses at the hands of Colonia and Piscataway, both quality teams and among the county’s top contenders. The loss to Colonia was a triple overtime affair that ended in a 76-73 score. Piscataway edged Stevens 45-43 with a winning shot at the buzzer.
“Aside from the hiccup against St. Joe’s, we’ve played consistently well,” Cardillo said. “We had a plan to play for the last shot against Piscataway but we rushed a bit and took a shot too soon. I’m sure this scenario will present itself again at some point this season, and hopefully we can learn from the mistake.”
Aside from the team’s big-three scoring attack, point guard Tahir Swinton has been playing excellent basketball of late.
“Tahir played a lot of minutes off the bench last season and did a nice job,” Cardillo said. “He’s taken over the starting point guard position and he’s done a great job of getting everybody involved. He had seven assists against Old Bridge and eight against Woodbridge. He’s really good at getting his teammates the ball in areas they can score.”