The Hoboken High School JV squad won a close game against the Dickinson High School Rams of Jersey City on Tuesday evening.
In a fast-paced first quarter, Hoboken took the lead early on. Dickinson was never far behind, however, and narrowed the Hoboken lead to only one point by the end of the quarter.
Hoboken's Carlos Garcia opened the second quarter with a perfect 3 pointer to bring the Hoboken lead to four, making the score 15-11. With 6 minutes and 22 seconds left in the half, Dickinson's Denzel Clinton had a chance to tie the score with a pair of free throws, but only managed to connect on one, making the score 17-16 in favor of Hoboken.
At this point in the game, Dickinson began running a full-court press. Hoboken faltered somewhat, but the remainder of the half saw sloppy play from both teams. A successful 3 point shot by Dickinson's Rob Mattei and a single free throw made by his teammate Alcee Mack gave Dickinson a 4 point lead at halftime with the score at 24-20.
The Redwings came out swinging in the second half and quickly tied the game up with a jumper by Carlos Garcia and a subsequent basket by Marquise Hanberry.
Marquise then stole the ball and passed off to Spencer Perez who connected with an easy lay-up to give Hoboken the lead, 26-24.
Dickinson called a time-out with 5:27 left in the 3rd quarter and came back out on the floor with a sense of precision and calm. They took their time looking for an open shot and got it with Rob Mattei's top-of-the-key jump shot that connected for 2 points, tying the game at 26-26.
Hoboken retaliated with a surge of scoring. A handful of shots were fired and made by Carlos Garcia and Marquise Hanberry and suddenly the Hoboken lead grew to 7 points. Just as quickly, Dickinson answered with their own barrage of scoring and with a short range jumper by Jimmy Peralta in the quarter's final seconds, the game was again tied at 35-35.
In the game's final quarter, both teams played tough and traded shots and the score remained tied at 40-40 with 3:20 left to play. Hoboken led by 2 points with 1:35 left and kept the lead for the remainder of the game, mostly through a series of foul shots as Dickinson made intentional fouls in an attempt to regain possession of the ball.
With 5 seconds remaining in the game, Carlos Garcia made 1 of 2 foul shots to clinch the Hoboken victory 54-48.
