Photos
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Livingston senior forward Sam White runs a fast break in Tuesday night's victory. White finished with five points.
Livingston Stays Perfect; Defeats Caldwell, 62-36
Wednesday, January 12, 2011 • 12:43am
LIVINGSTON, NJ- The Livingston Lancers entered Tuesday night's contest against the Caldwell Chiefs with the best start in the program’s history as well as being ranked as the Essex County’s sixth best team, another first. Livingston took care of business at the Fitness and Wellness Center as they overpowered and handily defeated their opponents 62-36.
“It is nice that people are recognizing the good work that we are doing,” Livingston head coach Dave Cohen said. “On the other hand, I wouldn’t mind flying under the radar and surprising some people.”
For six straight games Cohen and his staff have devised masterful schemes to defeat Livingston’s opponents. The Lancers’ defense is only allowing 35 points per game, which ranks in the top ten in the state.
“Since coach got here three years ago he has preached defense,” senior captain Matt Fung said. “Our defense was strong last year, but this year we are really clamping down because we know defense wins games.”
Livingston led by ten points at half, 27-17, but had first half offensive struggles.
“We missed a lot of open layups and weren’t executing in the half-court,” Livingston junior guard Sam Abam said.
The Lancers came out energized in the second half, especially Fung and Abam.
Fung scored ten of his game-high 18 points in the third quarter. Abam connected with eight of his 12 points in the second half.
There was no letdown in the fourth period as Livingston went on a 16-8 run.
Defensively, Livingston knew they were playing against one of the best players in Essex County, junior Caldwell forward Dave Levinsky.
Prior to Tuesday’s contest, Levinsky was averaging 16 points per game. Livingston was able to neutralize Levinsky as they showed numerous defensive looks and only allowed him to score four points.
Bill Pierce led Caldwell with ten points and five rebounds.
“We are playing very good basketball right now,” Cohen said. “But we cannot be content with where we are at if we want to bring a championship to Livingston.”
