DiEdwardo Nets 10 in Par Hills Loss to Chatham

A strong second quarter was not enough for the Parsippany Hills boys basketball team as the Vikings fell to Chatham 59-36 Tuesday at home.

The Vikings celebrated the careers of their three seniors, Christian DiDonna, Nick Pallessi and Sal Poccia in front of family, friends and a raucous student section.

Although, the team will not end this season with a winning record, head coach Mark Gibson knows that the lessons and work ethic those seniors imparted on the team will last into future seasons.

“Through the whole season we rode their [the seniors] backs,” Gibson said. “We have a young team and they made them work hard, in practice, in games, all season.”

Par Hills started quick with two clutch jump shots from Mike DiEdwardo. While Chatham and Par-Hills exchanged equal ball possession time in the first, turnovers plagued both sides.

Colin Brown, Joe Timmes and Jonathan Berntsen added buckets in the first quarter to bring the Chatham  Cougars up 12-6 heading into the second quarter.

“We played a team that was better than us tonight,” Gibson said.

In the second quarter, Par Hills came out more offensively charged. Viking Manny Dance tacked on two quick jump shots to cut the deficit to five.  Chatham’s Brendan Damodaran forced some quickly converted turnovers, but Dance and the rest of the Vikings were quick to answer.

DiDonna and DiEdwardo helped the Vikings pull to within 19-16 at halftime.

But the Par Hills second-quarter run was countered by Chatham's surge in the third quarter that put the game out of reach.

“We are a young team but our game plan was to play hard and I think we did that in the first half,” Gibson said.

Timmes and Berntsen lit up the scoreboard in the third quarter, combining for 13 of the team’s 22 points. Berntsen finished with 21 points.

Despite the loss, the night was a success in honoring the Vikings' seniors.

“The seniors have worked hard and have done a great job with our sophomores,” Gibson said. “It’s all I could ask for and more.”