The boy's varsity basketball team defeated the Hawks of River Dell 64-48 to record a big early season victory on Tuesday night. Jimmy Deer lead the Thunderbirds with 16 points and Mike Pepitone was a force on both offense and defense, tallying 14 points in the winning effort.
With the game tied 17-17 midway through the second quarter, Mahwah went on a 9-0 run to close the half and held a 26-17 lead heading into the break. Mahwah seemed to wear down River Dell with their fast paced offense and had many easy scoring opportunities off of fast breaks.
"We wanted to push the tempo against them," said forward Mike Pepitone. "We know we can out run everyone we play against."
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In the second half, Mahwah did not let River Dell back into the game. After the Hawks closed the gap to seven points, Walker, Larson and Deer hit back to back threes to give the Thunderbirds a 34-21 lead.
Mahwah focused on playing tough defense and forcing turnovers. They outscored their opponent 20-9 in the third quarter and had a comfortable 20 point lead heading into the fourth.
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"Our defense really came up big today. We knew we had to step it up to beat these guys," said Pepitone.
Brian Long of River Dell stole an errant pass and scored on an acrobatic layup to give the Hawks an early 10-3 lead before Mahwah took control of the game.
River Dell was lead in scoring by Brian McGoey, Tim Barnes, and Kyle King who each chipped in 10 points in the defeat.
The Thunderbirds next game will be on Thursday December 23rd at 4pm against Ridgewood High School.
