Lancers' defense comes to play in win over Chiefs

It was not a pretty offensive performance, but the Livingston boys basketball defense definitely came to play.

The Lancers held Caldwell to eight and five points in the first and second quarter, respectively, and held on in the final seconds for a 37-34 victory over rival Caldwell on Saturday afternoon at home.

The victory raised Livingston's season record to 7-1, with the lone loss coming to Montclair.

The win also gave the Lancers a game up on Caldwell in the Super Essex Conference Colonial division race. The two teams will face each other again on Feb. 2 at Caldwell at 7 p.m.

Livingston had a strong first half that including a 16-8 lead early in the second quarter after an Alex Haberman basket in the first 90 seconds of the quarter.

But Caldwell sliced into that lead before the half at three, 16-13.

After Caldwell took a short-lived 18-16 lead, Livingston got hot and went on an 8-0 run that culminated on Sam Abam feeding Joey Fischer inside and lay in with four minutes remaining in the third quarter. Lancers guard Danny Chasin buried a three pointer to give Livingston a 27-20 lead with three minutes remaining in the third quarter.

Each time though Livingston would extend its lead, Caldwell would come back including tying the game at 32 with three minutes remaining in the contest.

Livingston though came back as Chasin drained a three-point shot from the left side to give the Lancers a lead for good at 34-32 with two minutes remaining in the game.

IN SHORT - The defensive play of Fischer, Alex Kalmus and Marc Schofel would be able to keep Caldwell's top scorer, Dave Levinsky, from scoring inside. Levinsky was limited to seven points on the day. While Livingston's top scorers of Abam with four points and Schofel with six points were limited, the Lancers received balanced scoring as eight Livingston players scored in the SEC contest.

LANCERS PLAYER OF THE GAME - DANNY CHASIN - The senior guard led Livingston with eight points and hit some timely shots including what turned out to be the game-winning three-point shot from the left corner with a little less than two minutes in the game.

OTHER NOTABLE PERFORMANCES

Marc Schofel - The senior co-captain might have been limited, but he scored six points on the day and his defensive play helped keep Levinsky at bay.

Sam Abam - The senior co-captain was contained by Caldwell's triangle-and-two defense with only four points, but his steal and a dunk in the last 30 seconds of the game helped to seal the win.

Alex Kalmus - The senior center also helped to keep Levinsky from scoring inside. He also added seven points in the victory.

THEY SAID IT

"We've known each other since we were in fifth grade. We battled each other in traveling teams with him at West Caldwell and me at Livingston." — Alex Kalmus, speaking about Dave Levinsky.

"This was kind of a special win." — Alex Kalmus.

"We did enough to get it down and we focus on defense. We know that when our shots aren't falling that we can do it on defense." — Alex Kalmus.

"We wanted to keep the ball away from (Rob) Petoia and (Dave) Levinsky and let the other guys take the shots." — Marc Schofel.

"They were doing a good job putting a triangle and two on me and Sam." — Marc Schofel, speaking about the Caldwell defense.

"It's been a battle between the two of us." — Marc Schofel, speaking about the games with Caldwell.

WHAT'S NEXT - Livingston has three games this week, at Weequahic on Tuesday at 7 p.m., hosting Christ the King on Thursday at traveling to North 13th Street Tech on Saturday.