Winning feels good and the Cranford High School boys basketball team put its entire roster on the court in a 75-32 rout of the Roselle Rams on January 29 then on January 30, the Cougars kept ahead of the Rahway Indians to come up with a 79-70 victory in Cranford. On February 1, the 15-5 Cougars trounced the Roselle Rams again, 59-22, in Roselle and once again, the entire roster got into the act.
“Yes we have had multiple guys step up this year and have shot the ball pretty well from behind the arc. It has not been just one guy but multiple guys stepping up in different games. I also have a very unselfish team, we have spent a lot of time on playing together, movement and passing and this group has really bought in. They trust each other to make the right plays and play very well together,” Cougar Head Coach Sean Trotter said.
Nick Amitie poured in 16 points and grabbed seven rebounds in the first win over the Rams, while Chase Teel put in 12 points and pulled six boards. Josh Ketschke netted 10 points and had five rebounds. Enzo Madrini had five points and three rebounds. Chris Santarelli had four rebounds and two points and Jack Mcguire bucketed five points. Dylan Aveno had two points and three rebounds.
Coming off the bench, Sean Riley sank seven points and Billy Caminos sank five points. Yousf Elashry and Dennis McCaffery each scored four points. Ryan Klimko had three points and Darren Bush had two rebounds.
Against Rahway, Amitie had an enormous evening with a doubledouble (33 points, 22 rebounds) to go with five assists, two steals and a blocked shot. Santarelli banged in 22 points and added three rebounds and an assist. Ketschke was dangerous from the arc and finished with 11 points (2 3-pointers), a block and a rebound. Teel netted nine points, grabbed 11 boards and dished out three assists. McGuire had four points, four assists and five rebounds. Aveno had two assists and two rebounds. Bush had three assists.
James Downing led the 6-12 Indians with 22 points, while Craig West andAljanai Best each netted 14 points. Jaiden McDonald scored 13 points. Eric McClain had four points and Dmitri Dulorie had three points.
The Cougars zoomed to an 18-9 lead with 2:43 left in the first quarter. By the end of the quarter, the Cougars led 22-12. Amitie scored eight of the points, which included a pair of free throws. Santarelli sank five points, including a 3-pointer, and Ketschke nailed a pair of 3-pointers, was fouled attempting another and sank all three free throws. Downing hit a 3-pointer and sank four of five free throws. Best banged a 3-pointer and McClain rolled in a lay-up.
Rahway began to chip away at the Cougars’ lead in the second quarter and cut the margin to 27-21 with 5:48 showing. With 4:49 showing, the margin narrowed to 27-24. Each team traded two points for a minute then Amitie put in a lay-up at 4:05 to make the score 31-26. Teel followed 15 seconds later to spread the margin to 33-26. By halftime, the Cougars’ lead was 42-28. The Cougars yielded seven points of the lead in the third quarter but outscored the Indians, 18-16, in the final quarter.
The second game against Roselle had Amitie putting in 18 points and pulling seven rebounds. Teel finished with eight rebounds and six points. Santarelli had five points and three rebounds. Ketschke had three points and three rebounds. Caminos scored six points and grabbed four rebounds. Aveno had five points and a rebound. Riley (6 rebounds), McCaffery (2 rebounds) and Madrini each netted four points. McGuire had three points and two rebounds.
“We are playing very well and really are starting to look like a team. While we are getting closer to tournament play, I am excited to see these guys continue to improve as they have and keep ironing out the little mistakes that happen in a game. This has been a very fun group to coach over the last year. They took last year personally and put in the work necessary to compete at the Varsity level and I am looking forward to continuing watching them improve,” Coach Trotter concluded.
Rahway 12 16 26 16 70 Cranford 22 20 19 18 79
