FHHS Boys Basketball Stuffs Thomas Edison, 79-63

Forest Hills High School boys varsity basketball team overcame a sluggish start and an energized crowd at Thomas Edison High School to defeat the Inventors 79-63 Tuesday night. 

The visiting Rangers took control early in the second half with a flurry of points coming off a full court press against the Inventors, and improved their record to 5-3. The home team (1-7) played well throughout, and valiantly kept closing the gap, but the Rangers kept pace and ultimately pulled away.

Hero: Nicholas Padgett hit a trio of three-pointers midway through the 3rd quarter during a scoring spree that saw the Rangers stretch their lead to 15. He drained four from long-range in the second half and ended the game with 16 points.

Antoine Tutt helped the Rangers stay with Edison early with some fast break assists and Arif Mehmetaj hit the boards and was a force in rebounding throughout the game.

Turning Point: Forest Hills ran a full court press to open the second half, and it proved effective against Edison, which only trailed by 8 at the break.  Though Edison junior Cavon Baker scored 3 of his game-high 22 on a drive to the bucket and foul, the Rangers, who had gotten to the line early, built on their lead by stretching the Edison defense and allowing Padgett to spot up for his three-pointers. 

These buckets went unanswered, and Forest Hills lead 53-38 with 2 minutes left in the quarter.  Their lead was never threatened after that.

Bottom Line: Forest Hills tenacity and energy in the second half made this victory possible, as Edison was keeping pace.  The game was closer than the 36-28 halftime score might indicate, but by the 4th quarter, Forest Hills' pressure and offensive execution won the day. 

The win brought the Rangers to 5-3, good enough for fourth place in their division, two games ahead of Martin Van Buren (3-5).

Quotable: "We had a better second half.  We didnt  have any intensity in the first half at all," Rangers head coach Ben Chobhaphand reflected. "We've got to get back to winning, and we finally have all our guys out of injury and playing together."

Chobhaphand talked about the benefit and success of the full court press.

"We wanted to stay out of foul trouble — which we did a good job of — and after some tough losses last week we just wanted to finish off better than we started."

Who’s Next? Forest Hills continues its four-game stint away from home against Flushing High School on Friday, Jan. 14 at 5 p.m.

Box Score:

Teams

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Final

Edison

12

16

18

17

63

Forest Hills

15

21

22

21

79