AMITIE 28 PTS, 12 RBS; McGUIRE 20 PTS, TEEL 11 RBS

A landslide of near catastrophic proportions seemed to spell doom for the home team when top-seeded Cranford High School boys basketball team was outscored 25-3 in the second quarter by the eighth-seeded Chatham Cougars during the quarterfinal round of the North Jersey, Section 2, Group 3 Tournament in Cranford on February 27. Despite trailing 39-18 at the half, the nevergive- up attitude of the Cranford Cougars would earn them a 66-64, overtime victory.

It actually did not take long for the 21-6 Cranford Cougars to respond as they force fed the 13-12 Chatham Cougars a douse of their own medi- cine with a 27-6 third quarter run to knot the score 45-45 entering the fourth quarter that ended in a 12-12 deadlock to set up the overtime. The Cranford boys then managed to push past Chatham, 9-7, to secure the win.

“The speech at halftime was all about effort. Our guys looked out of sorts and unlike them. So I told them that they’ve worked too hard to get here. So we needed to pick up the pace and intensity and battle back into the game and that is exactly what they did,” Coach Head Coach Sean Trotter explained.

Cranford senior Nick Amitie finished with another one of his doubledoubles by leading his team with 28 points and 12 rebounds to go with five assists, a block and a steal. Junior Jack McGuire (2 steals, rebound, assist) turned out to be a real outside threat and finished with 20 points, which included three 3-pointers in the first half alone. Senior Chase Teel (2 steals, 3 assists) nearly achieved a double-double with 11 rebounds and nine points. Sophomore DylanAveno finished with six points, two assists and a rebound. Junior Josh Ketschke had three points, four rebounds, an assist and a steal. Senior Chris Santarelli pulled two rebounds and junior Darren Bush had a rebound, assist and a steal.

The first quarter was a dogfight from the start and Cranford hung to an 11-9 lead with 1:36 on the clock. Within seconds, Chatham’s Mike MacAniff knotted the score then Amitie was fouled and sank a pair of free throws with 1:26 showing. But Quinn Burke nailed a 3-pointer to put Chatham up 14-13 with :59 remaining. Amitie came back to give Cranford a 15-14 lead at the end of the quarter.

Amitie had four points, Teel had three points, Aveno had two points and McGuire sank a pair of 3-pointers in the quarter. Burke and MacAniff both had five points, while Ryan Leach and Mike Tedesco each scored two points.

The second-quarter landslide began with Chatham’s Will DesMarais banging a 3-pointer. Burke added two points then McGuire nailed his third 3-pointer but that would be all for Cranford in the quarter. Chatham was clicking at 100 percent with excellent assists that led to points, while the defense was disrupting the Cranford Cougars, whose shooting turned to icebergs. MacAniff finished with nine points in the quarter and Tedesco netted seven points, while Burke put in six points and DesMarais had three.

But the tables did a 180 degree turn with the Cranford Cougars mesmerizing the Chatham Cougars, 27-6, to send a tie game into the fourth quarter. An even-Steven showing set up the dramatic overtime.

“They had us on our heels in the first half and we did the opposite in the second. We took control of the game and made them to react to us instead of vice versa. and luckily for us, we have been down at halftime before this year so it was not something new for us [Not 21 but we were down 16 at halftime to New Prov(idence) and came back and won by 16],” Coach Trotter pointed out.

On February 29, the Cranford Cougars would host the fourth-seeded, 21-6 Millburn Millers, who knocked off fifth-seeded Payne Tech, 55-52, in overtime.

“It was a fun one. Chatham played a really tough game and shot the ball really well throughout. It hopefully teaches us many things 1. Everyone this time of the year is a very good basketball team and are playing for their season. 2. Basketball is a game of runs and anything can happen, so you need to play until the clock says 0.0. And 3. Effort is what will keep us going. We need to give everything we have to keep this run alive,” Coach Trotter concluded.

Chatham 14 25 6 12 7 64 Cranford 15 3 27 12 9 66