The Alternative Press

MILLBURN, NJ - Drama unfolded across town, as rec basketball teams, which include players from grades four to eight, battled at Hartshorn School and Millburn Middle School.  All these games were played as though the teams knew that their seasons were on the line. Today was the Semifinal rounds of the rec playoffs. 

There were a number of games played today, including 7^th and 8^th grade girls games that took place at the Middle School. One action packed game was played when the Sky took on the Sparks.  The Sparks came up short, only putting up 11 points but many of their players still put up a valiant effort including Lauren Weisman with five points, and other scorers which included Elanor Davis, Naomi Merlaim, and Nakhata Mahomdu who each had two points. The victorious Sky had many players to help assist in scoring their fifteen-points including Angela Saggio who stole the show with nine points. Other Sky scorers included Emma Katz, Kathleen Yu, and Annie Beckerman who all contributed two points. 

Next up at MMS the Silver Stars took on the Shock. The Shock got shocked and the Silver Stars shined through to win seventeen to fourteen. The leading scorer for the Silver Stars was number 10, Courtney Rothman who added six crucial points to the Silver Stars’ win. Samantha Comito and Stephanie Rothman, who each had four points, provided other notable performances for the Silver Stars. The opposing Shock had many good efforts by their players. Eight of the teams fourteen points can be attributed to Abi Santos who led the game with eight points. In the 7^th and 8^th grade league, this is impressive, especially in such an important game. Also helping out was Lucia Singer who added four points to the Shock’s score, which turned out to be not enough.

Following the girls play, were the 7^th and 8^th grade boys, who played a couple of good games at MMS. The Black Knights took on the Hoyas to start off the festivities.  The Black Knights top scorer was Michael Goldberg who helped the Black Knights beat the Hoyas of a score of 33 to 26 with 10 points. Connor Lally also put up big points with 9, which helped the Black Knights tremendously. The Black Knights only scored two points in the first quarter, but got hot in the second quarter when they added eighteen points to the scoreboard. Though the Hoyas lost, they had contributions from Noah Adis, who contributed 10 points, Jeff Rosenthal with 6 points, and Tommy Quinn who had 5 points.

Concluding the 7^th and 8^th grade games was the close matchup between the Bulldogs and the Pirates. The Bulldogs had a decisive victory to head to the finals, which are Wednesday of next week. They won 31 to 25. Benjamin Goodman led the surge for the Bulldogs with 15 points. Number 7, Robby Aronson had a fantastic performance with 9 points to help lead the Bulldogs to a big win. For the Pirates, Justin Wallman had 19 of his team’s 25 points and managed to score all of his points from the field. Wallman had a triumphant performance and may have even earned more points to carry his team to victory if he had not fouled out.  Daniel Schild had the Pirate’s second most points with four points. 

Now, we will take a look at the 4th grade boy’s games and the 4^th, 5^th, 6^th grade girl’s games, which were played at Hartshorn Elementary School.

When the Nationals took on the Grizzles, the Grizzles crushed the Nationals with a score of 26 to 11.  Despite the large deficit, the Nationals put in great effort and many players on their team helped add points. Tommy Wachtel, Alex Graubard, Michael O’Key, and Max Reuben all helped make up the Nationals 11 point front. For the Grizzles, Jason Myers had twelve points, which is great for any player let alone a fourth grader.  Alex Maux went to the foul line a lot, and made many of his free throws, which added to his six-point performance on the day.  The Grizzles came out strong from the start, winning the first quarter 13 to 4. From there they just added points to build their victory.

The next game at Hartshorn was the Colonels versus the Squires. The Colonels pulled out victories putting up 17 points and only allowing 13 points for the opposition.  Scorers for the Squires included James Mitchell, Jacob Lim, David Lim, Bennett Murphy, and Chris Engelbart.  Jamie Cohen made the Colonels’ winning effort of 17 points with 2 points and an outstanding performance by Ben Goldberg who scored the rest of the team’s points. It goes without saying that fifteen-point performance is staggering for a rec game. 

Comets versus Mystics made for a very high scoring game where the Comets routed the Mystics, by putting up 58 points, which is an incredible feat. Ally Lipkin scored 18 points and her sister Jordy put up 16 points. This dynamic sister duo contributed 34 of the teams 58 points. Also adding to this impressive amount of scoring was Abbey Wish who scored 14 points. The Mystics lost put still had good effort from Molly Sysler who scored 6 points and Isabella Ries with 5 points.

Lastly, the Buckeyes will move on to their final as their opponent forfeited Saturday morning at Hartshorn because of an inadequate number of girls that were available to play.