Trenton tops Hightstown in division clash
TRENTON » A Trenton Central High boys basketball team that was having trouble closing teams out earlier this year is suddenly finding the knack.
The Tornadoes used a fourthquarter explosion to take a 79-65 win over Hightstown at Rivera Middle School Monday night, which clinches a share of the Colonial Valley Conference’s Colonial Division for the Tornadoes.
Trenton (15-5, 7-0 division) can take the division outright by winning at Hightstown Monday, or the Rams (13-4, 6-1) could grab a share with a victory.
“This was a test for the championship for the CVC,” said Nasir McMillan, who led the Tornadoes with 23 points. “Coach (Darryl Young) kept talking about it, and how we are going to go back to back with them, so they wanted us to get over them.”
They did it by rallying from a three-point deficit after three quarters and outscoring the Rams 28-11 in the final eight minutes. Trenton snapped Hightstown’s five-game winning streak, while upping its streak to six straight.
“They wore us down and we stopped hitting our shots late,” Hightstown coach Matt Durstewitz said. “This was a test, but we thought we could have won this game. We’ve got them again next Monday and we’ll go back at it.”
The final score was hardly reflective of the game, as the two teams intensely battled throughout. Trenton took an early 10-point lead at the start of the second quarter but the Rams battled back for a 31-30 halftime advantage that they expanded to 5451 after three quarters.
But Hightstown turned the ball over four straight times at the start of the fourth quarter, and Trenton responded with an 11-1 run to open a 62-55 edge with five minutes remaining. The Rams got within 6259 when Jamal Anderson, who led all scorers with 28, hit his fourth 3-pointer with 4:30 remaining.
Trenton then took control with nine straight, as Ji’Ayir Brown’s dramatic slam highlighted the run and sent the crowd into hysterics. After a missed layup attempt, Brown soared over the rim and jammed the ball back throw with incredible force as Rivera rocked.
Brown finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds.
“He’s our best player,” McMillan said. “We never saw him do a put-back dunk like that. When he did it, everybody went wild. We were surprised. We didn’t know he had it in him. So when he did it, we just loved it.”
Hightstown got no closer than eight the rest of the way and McMillan scored the game’s final six points to put it away.
“In the fourth quarter, that’s the wild quarter,” McMillan said. “Coach wanted us to play our style of defense the whole game, 94 feet, denying the wing. In the fourth quarter it’s just a different pace and different level, and who wanted it more. And we wanted it more.”
Also contributing was Jahid Whitmore (nine points), Jordan Williams (nine rebounds) newcomer Reggie James (19 points), who became eligible in Trenton’s last game after transferring from Perkiomen. James’ penetration ability and quickness give the Tornadoes an added boost with the tournament season looming.
“Reggie’s a facilitator,” McMillan said. “We just wanted him in our program. We love Reggie, we knew we’d need more to beat teams like Nottingham and TCA, so Reggie’s gonna help our team.”
“We played them in the summer, my kids knew who he was,” Durstewitz said. “He was definitely a playmaker for them tonight.”