The regular season has ended for high school winter sports, but several of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association tournaments are just getting started.
At 19-8, the South boys’ basketball team has been one of the area’s most successful teams this season. After falling to Notre Dame, 73-66, in the finals of the Mercer County Tournament on February 22, the Pirates rebounded to soundly defeat Freedhold Township, 78-59, in the first round of the Central Jersey Group IV Tournament on February 25.
Senior star Bryan Rivers carried South in both contests, contributing a team-high 22 points in the loss to Notre Dame. Against Freehold Rivers led four Pirates in double digits with 35 points. Zavon Johnson scored 15, Tommy Hussong had 14, and Jeff Paskewitz scored 11 points.
South moved on to face No. 3 seed Rancocas Valley on February 27 and edged out a 53-51 victory. Johnson scored 23 points and Rivers contributed 12. South advances to play Trenton Central in the semifinal on Friday, March 1.
The Rancocas game marked the first time any of South’s current players have been past the first round of the state tournament. The 2013 season has also been one of personal milestones for standout Rivers, who in January became the third player in South history to reach the 1,000 point mark for his career. With his 22 points in the Notre Dame game a month later, he surpassed Bill Royal to become the school’s all-time leading scorer.
While North’s boys’ team did not advance to the state tournament, the Knights’ 6-17 finish was a marked improvement over the team’s 1-20 record in 2012.
The No. 15 seed, North fell to No 2. Trenton, 83-46, in the opening round of the Mercer County Tournament on February 16 but came back to narrowly defeat Hamilton, 64-62, in the consolation round two days later. Three players scored in double digits for the Knights, led by Darrien Banks with 22 and Juwan Harrison with 20. Brian Wang contributed 12 points.
Harrison and Nigel Jordan led the team in the loss to Trenton with 15 and 12 points, respectively.
The North and South girls have also seen some success on the court. Like the boys’ team, the Knights (14-11) lost to Trenton in the first round of the Mercer County Tournament. But they followed the 43-28 defeat with a 59-22 victory against Princeton Day School in the consolation round. Kayla Foster had 12 points and Sarah McNeilly had 11 in the win.
South (11-14) also fell in the first round with a 51-38 loss to Allentown but finished the regular season on a high note with victories over Nottingham and Steinert.
Freshmen twins Alyssa and Alyssen Rivers — twin sisters of boys’ star Bryan Rivers — combined for 24 points to lead the team in scoring against Steinert. Andrea Ndubizu was the star against Nottingham with 11 points.
One team’s season was destined to end, though, as North and South faced each other in the opening round of the Central Jersey Group IV tournament. It was the Knights who emerged victorious, 46-37, in the February 25 matchup.
Lauren Schwartzman was the Knights’ leading scorer with 11 points, and Foster and Morgan Magid each had 10. Nine different Pirates scored at least two points, and Kate McCormick had a team-high seven points in the loss.
The Knights advanced to face Rancocas Valley in the quarterfinals on February 27 and fell, 74-35, to end their season.
On the ice, one goal came between the North hockey team and a victory over Roxbury in the first round of the state tournament. The Knights lost 7-6, ending their season at 13-9-2.
North jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the first period behind goals from Charles Singerhouse, Sam Engel, and Matt Strober. Strober struck again in the second period and Liam Corbett also knocked a goal in on a power play to give the Knights a 5-3 lead going into the final period. Greg Olsson added a goal two minutes into the third period, but Roxbury came from behind to win with four goals in the final 20 minutes of play.
South finished its 10-10-2 season with a 6-4 loss to Parsippany Hills in the preliminary round of the state tournament. Jonathan Matthews had two goals and Chris Clancey and Shikky Rathor each scored one in the loss.
On the track North’s Patrycja Dziekonska proved to be the state’s fastest at the 55-meter hurdles at the Meet of Champions on February 23. She took first place with a time of 8.19 seconds and in so doing became North’s first ever female state champion.
Other WW-P medalists included South’s Eddison Gulama, who took sixth place in the 800 meters in 1:54.81, and North’s Antony Zeng, who finished fifth in the shot put with a throw of 52 feet, 6.25 inches.
Distance runners from South’s boys’ squad, meanwhile, are turning heads on a national stage. At the Eastern State Championships in New York City on February 25 the distance medley relay team of seniors Jack Riff, Dan Riff, Donyell Reid, and Eddison Gulama ran the fastest time in the country this year, winning the race in 10:13.6.
