Basketball Team Warms Up for Friday Game



The Cranford Cougars boys' basketball team visited Governor Livingston High School for the second time in four days on Tuesday, December 14. This time, it was to take part in a tri-scrimmage hosted by the Highlanders that also featured Edison High School.

The Cougars were originally supposed to scrimmage Rahway on Tuesday, but the scrimmage had to be cancelled due to a scheduling conflict.

"We were up here Saturday, and (Governor Livingston Head Coach Steve) Petruzelli extended the offer for us to come back and do a tri-scrimmage," said Cougars' head coach Ryan Huber.

The Cougars struggled shooting early on, dropping a pair of ten-minute scrimmage periods to the Highlanders. Cranford would then drop their first scrimmage period to Edison by a score of 13-8, but showed signs that they were beginning to click. That was evident in the following period, where they bested Edison, 12-5.

"I think we got some open shots. We didn't shoot the ball well (early on), but we set up some good screens," said Huber. "We got good looks at the basket. The shots we've got to make, though. We're gonna work on making those shots."

The scrimmage was just the tune-up the Cougars needed before heading into regular season, which starts this Friday against Roselle.

"Basically, what we wanted to do was try and do a little fine-tuning of things," said Huber. "(We wanted to) shoot the ball a little bit better than we have."

As with any team, there are still focus points for the Cougars to improve upon as the regular season gets underway. High on the list is a consistent use of sound fundamentals to make up for Cranford's lack of size.

"We're gonna have to do better at rebounding," said Huber. "You can see that we have a size disadvantage, so we're gonna have to be very fundamentally sound and box out. We'll have to do our job on the boards that way."

Friday's game is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. and will be held at Roselle High School.