Athletes of the Week

Gabby Jackson - Columbia girls basketball: Pretty soon we’ll have to name the award after her. The Cougars are on their longest winning streak of the season and have surged to 11-8, behind an all around effort from Action Jackson. In Columbia’s 3-0 week, she notched 44 points, 36 rebounds, nine steals, nine assists and three blocked shots.

Austin Little - Columbia boys basketball: The Cougar boys are sitting at 17-3 and headed to the county semifinals next weekend thanks to great all around play from an unusually deep roster and because of some last second heroics from Little. On Saturday against Montclair Kimberley Academy in the quarters of the county tournament, Little hit a buzzer beating three-pointer at the end of regulation to force overtime. Columbia wound up winning the game, Little scored 13 and had 31 points for the week.

Cougar Cuts:

The Columbia girls basketball team appears to have found its identity. They have won their last four games and after a dominant second half performance against Mt. St. Dominic in the ECT quarters, it’s fair to say that they have taken a step forward as a team.

You know what you’re getting from Action Jackson, the stat machine. She’s going to give the team whatever it needs to win that night. This team is clicking when Kyrsten Van Natta is nailing jump shots and using her athleticism to chase down rebounds, when Sam Webb is a presence underneath the basket and when they are playing good defense.

As they proved on Saturday, holding Mt. St. Dominic to eight second half points, they can be a downright dominant defense when they’re at their best. Starting off the state tourney on the road in two weeks and now in the county semifinals next week, they’ll need to be at their best going forward.

What can you say about the boys basketball team other than that they know how to win close games, and maybe having 13 seniors on the team is what’s willing some of these wins? Down nine points heading into the fourth quarter of Saturday’s ECT victory, they probably had no business winning that game. But Columbia has proven resilient in close games this year, going 7-1 in games decided by six points or fewer this season.

They get Irvington for a third time this season in the ECT semifinals on Saturday in West Orange. The first time, Irvington stunned Columbia. The last time, earlier this week, Columbia went to Irvington and beat them by 15. Expect a Cougar win, but somewhere in between the first and second performance.

Wednesday will be a big day for both fencing teams as they attempt to move into the final four stage of the state championships. The girls edged Wayne Hills by a point in the first round, while the boys continued on their dominant season, improving to 12-0 with a 20-7 win over Somerville in the opening round. Despite facing a good Millburn team next week, it doesn’t appear that the boys can be stopped. One would think the girls should be safe this round because of being at home.

Lastly, I’d like to take a second to appreciate how good of a season the wrestling team has put together. If they are able to beat MKA next week, they’ll improve to 16-6 this dual meet season, which is tremendous, given that Daryl Shabazz, one of their co-captains, left the team and they were littered with inexperience and injuries.

Andrew Adams did what Andrew Adams does and had a dominant year at 125, and is now second place on Columbia’s all-time wins list at 95. One of the keys this season for the Cougars has been the surprise performance of middleweight Obinna Nwanonyiri at 135. With only two years of wrestling experience, really just one full year at varsity, he’s a 20 plus match winner and looks like he’s poised to make some noise in the district tournament.

Speaking of the district wrestling tournament this weekend, expect the Cougars to be sending at least five wrestlers to the regional championships.

Three most important matches of the week:

1. District 10 wrestling tournament - Friday and Saturday at Millburn H.S.: After what has been a fantastic dual meet season, the Cougars have a chance to really put some icing on top with a solid performance at districts, which will likely be a last hurrah for many of the wrestlers.

2. Fencing on Wednesday - 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.: New Jersey Fencing Alliance will be playoff headquarters on Wednesday. A win propels the locals into the state semifinals.

3. County semis in basketball - boys in West Orange, girls at Essex County Comm. Col: The boys look poised to reach the finals for the first time since 2006. Irvington is flat out not as good as the Cougar boys. The girls will have to pull off a magic act to beat the top seeded Shabazz Bulldogs. They’ve lost their last five games against Shabazz, and despite Columbia playing better of late, the Bulldogs are one of the best teams in the nation.