In Battle of North Jersey's Best, Eastside Loses to Teaneck
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 • 9:37am
PATERSON, NJ - The top two teams in North Jersey got together Tuesday night and in a sloppy game Teaneck Highwaymen showed the Mighty Ghosts of Eastside High why they are they are ranked number one with a 53-45 victory.
Teaneck's star point guard Shakir Lindsey was the best player on the floor, presenting problems for the Ghosts on both the offensive and defensive end. Lindsey 23 points with 5 assists and 5 steals.
Lindsey’s contribution was key because Eastside was playing at the pace that it wanted. Teaneck had trouble getting its fast break started and aside from a few gorgeous moves Teaneck’s leading scorer, senior Chris Jones was held in check, netting only 7 points.
Eastside’s main problem was turnovers and number of missed layups as Teaneck Junior Neville Fincher blocked two shots, but more importantly, the big man altered many more.
After a slow start, Eastside did manage to cut the lead to 8 in the third quarter, but allowed the Highwayman to go on a 10-2 run to end the quarter and build their biggest lead of the game 43-27.
Teaneck led in the 1st half 24-15 as junior Joel Hernandez scored 10 of his 15 points and rocked the crowd with a thunderous dunk in the 3rd.
Eastside, which suffered its second loss of the season, was led by senior DeAndre Noble-Haywood who struggled a bit with Teaneck’s strategy of double-teaming and throwing different players at him to keep the defenders fresh. He finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds while Junior Jetor Brown added 10. Eastside now fell to 15-2.
