Newark Academy Dominates West Essex

LIVINGSTON—The Newark Academy boys basketball team snapped a halftime tie with West Essex by outscoring the Knights 37-13 in the final two quarters en route to a 62-38 home victory Tuesday.

Patrick Dyer and K.J. Gist led the Knights with 11 and nine points, respectively. Miles Young chipped in with seven and captain Joe Fusco added five for the Knights (1-10).

Griffin Glatt led the Minutemen (12-4) with 18 points, while Brian McHugh helped with eight points. Jordan Jett, Elvon Robinson and Zachary Taffet each scored seven.

"We played pretty well," Glatt said. "I got back into scoring after a couple of bad games, so that's always good."

The game opened with the Knights' offense on fire, as West Essex seized an 18-10 advantage after the first eight minutes.

However, the Minutemen stormed back in the second quarter, outscoring the Knights 15-6 to tie the game at 25 at halftime.

"We had a strong first half, but fell apart in the third quarter. We kept trying to make the basket, but we just couldn't knock 'em down," West Essex coach Mike Tierney said. " Although the first half was good, we fell defensively a little bit in the second. We were turning over the ball a lot, and it didn't get any better in the second half."

Newark Academy began its third-quarter run by scoring the first nine points of the half to seize a 34-25 advantage just a few minutes after halftime. The run was spurred by baskets from Jordan Jett and Chris Cutri.

"We played much better in the second half, especially defensively, which helped our offense," Newark Academy coach Jim Stoeckel said. "We played without our best player, Zaire Williams, today, so we were a bit worried about how it was going to turn out."

The Minutemen continued their surge in the third quarter when the Knights scored just one point as Newark Academy's Matt Gravesande and Glatt connected on baskets late in the quarter to extend the lead to 39-26 heading into the final quarter.

Newark Academy continued its hot shooting during the final eight minutes, pouring in 23 points in the period.

"As a team, we came out a little flat in the first half, but we came back in the third, picked up our defense and didn't let many points by," Glatt said.

Meanwhile, it was the opposite for the Knights, whose defense has let them down recently, according to Tierney.

"There comes a time when youth is no excuse, and time's a wasting, so hopefully we step up. We have the athleticism, the talent and the quality. It's all there, but we need to find a way." Tierney said. "When we played Millburn on Saturday, we shot 99 percent from two and three points, but we lost by 17, which means the defense is in question. It's the start of a big week, and hopefully this isn't indicative of what is to come. We're keeping our heads up."

After struggling for a few weeks, the Minutemen appear to be hitting their stride at just the right time. Winners of three straight, Newark Academy faces unbeaten Millburn on Thursday before taking on Glen Ridge in the first round of the Essex County Tournament on Saturday.

"We had a rough last week and a half, but we've won our last three games, which we're excited about," Glatt said. "We have a big game on Thursday against Millburn, and then Glen Ridge on Saturday for the first round of the tournament."