Sports
Back Home, Fant, Gilbert Lead Madison Blowout
Dodgers roll Hanover Park, 76-42, in tune-up for Chatham tournament game.
The boys basketball team clearly relished a return to their home court for the first time since December, dispatching Hanover Park, 76-42, Thursday afternoon in a tune-up before hosting rival Chatham this weekend in the opening round of the Morris County Tournament.
While snow and ice wiped out Tuesday and Wednesday practices following a loss to Pequannock, the Dodgers seemed to have little trouble getting started, then ripped off a 25-4 run in the third quarter to put the game out of reach.
“We were talking at halftime about how that next run will really settle the game and we got that next run,” Madison head coach Bill Librera said. “It’s a testament to our guys that they can do that. They haven’t been on the court in two days and it looks like they’ve been practicing full-tilt.”
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Leading the way in the third quarter were senior point guard Aaron Fant and junior forward Matt Gilbert, who together hit on three three-pointers, and a combined 27 points in the second half.
“I was dragging a little bit in the first half and I needed to pick it up a little bit,” said Fant, who scored a team-high 21 points to go along with three rebounds and four assists. “It’s hard to get into a rhythm [after not practicing for two consecutive days]. We’re used to playing two or three games a week, and just not having a game in a little while kind of takes you out of your rhythm.”
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Gilbert would finish with 18 points, five rebounds, four blocks and four steals.
Senior guard Jake Meister came out scorching hot and drained four first-half three-pointers in the game's first eight minutes to help the Dodgers on an 8-2 run to close out the quarter.
Meister would score 14 points in the first half on the way to 18 for the game.
“We wanted to start off strong just so we could prove to ourselves that we’re better than how we played against Pequannock,” Meister said. “We knew everyone would come to play today.
Foul trouble put Meister on the bench for much of the second quarter, but Gilbert would pick up the slack, netting seven of his nine first-half points in the quarter, including multiple trips to the foul line.
“We had a tough loss against Pequannock and we wanted to come out and rebound,” said senior captain Matt McHale, who finished with four points, four rebounds, four assits and one steal. “We wanted to get back on the winning track.
“This is our first home game in nine or 10 games so it’s a big win,” he said. “We shot well and played great defense. Our press was working really well and we started to get things going from there.”
Librera is confident the long stretch on the road has his team battle-tested going into Saturday's 5 p.m. date against Chatham.
“These kids are athletes and they want to compete,” he said. “We would play 20 away games if we had to. We did a lot of our scheduling so that we would be a better product in February. And it’s February now, so it’s time to do it.”
And it would appear that Librera’s team is on the same page.
“We all know that we’re a good team, we just have to prove it against a good team,” Meister said. “And we all love playing Chatham.”
Team
1
2
3
4
Final
Madison (10-3)
20
17
21
18
76
Hanover Park (7-7)
15
14
7
6
42
Madison Team Stats
Rebounds
Assists
Blocks
Steals
32
27
13
10
Madison Player Stats
Player
2pt
3pt
FT
Total Points
Rebounds
Assists
Blocks
Steals
Mike Clemente
0
0
1
1
1
0
0
0
Matthew Gilbert
4
2
4
18
5
3
4
4
Mike Haughey
0
0
4
4
2
4
0
0
Scott Jouan
0
0
0
0
0
1
3
0
Jake Meister
2
4
2
18
3
7
3
2
Aaron Fant
7
2
1
21
3
4
0
1
Justin Goodwin
0
0
0
0
4
2
1
0
Eddie McAndrew
2
0
2
6
4
0
1
0
Martin Horn
2
0
0
4
6
1
1
1
Matt McHale
2
0
0
4
4
4
0
1
Dilan Kluge
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
Cooper Schorr
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
Total:
19
8
14
76
32
27
13
10
