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Last Friday, R-S Central at East Rutherford took to the basketball court for their first of at least two meetings this season. While it was a split among the varsity games, both were entertaining.
Men: East Rutherford (6-6, 5-2) led the entire way against R-S Central(7-7, 3-4), but the Hilltoppers were never completely out of it.
R-S Central fell down 48-36 in the middle of the third quarter, the two teams would tie four times in the last ten minutes. The Hilltoppers gained a 22-10 run as Desmond Whitesides tied the game at 58 with a lane layup for R-S Central. However, Tyrese Carson drove baseline for a lay up and Trey Dawkins bullied his way in for a deuce to push the lead back to four for East. Central had 12 seconds left to try and tie the game, but Calvin Camp blocked a three-point attempt by Brian Hunt and Zyrion Wilkins attempt went off after the horn sounded.
Dawkins had 27 points and Camp with 13 in the 69-66 win. The Hilltoppers got a 18 points from Juwan Burnette, 14 from Chris Searcy and 17 from Hunt.
“I thought the game was hard fought on both sides, but East Rutherford has become a better basketball team in the last week,” East Rutherford coach Brad Levine said. “This is the first time all year that we have shown some consistency and toughness.”
Ladies: No doubt, East Rutherford coach Larry Ross wasn’t going to let Te’ja Twitty beat his club. So, the rest of the Lady Hilltoppers had to show why they have been on a roll lately. Twitty, who had been averaging 28-plus points a game earned 22 points on the night, but six of her teammates scored in the contest as they took a 68-53 win.
The lead changed hands five times and saw just as many ties in the first half. However, R-S Central took command just before half as Kyra Davis (21 points) drained a long two and then hit a right wing triple on the next possession. Central held a 37-24 lead at the break. East Rutherford’s Tamara Blanton hit a three and then a lane layup to cut things to 51-44, but that was as close as they got in the second half.
East Rutherford (5-9, 1-6) won’t be at home again until they host East Burke on Jan. 20. R-S Central (10-4, 6-1) will host Shelby on Jan. 16.
Kudos to Ethan Trull, Cole Baldwin, David Tran and Nathan Owens. Apparently, Forest City has their own ESPN as the four students put up their own announcer studio on the sideline of Friday‘s game at East. For those who didn’t see it, you just had to have been there.
NFL: Carolina did a formidable job of showing up in Seattle. However, Seattle turned two of Carolina’s turnovers into touchdowns. The Panthers ran the ball well, won time of possession, played defense about as well anybody could have tried to for three quarters. What more could one ask?
Carolina is not a dominant team, but they did showed that they were capable of making some noise. If the Panthers can get a little bit more experience in their young pass defenders and have maybe another X factor on offense than this could be a pretty good team next season.
Normally I don’t defend the Cowboys too much, but Dallas got jobbed. While I understand the rule for which a receiver must come down in control of the ball while on the ground, that isn’t what happened in this case. Dez Bryant made a catch for what could have been the potential go-ahead touchdown. However, when he hit the ground, the ball jarred loose of his left arm. The call was reversed denying the catch.
What I saw was that Bryant made the catch, then took two steps and was tripped by Sam Shields for the tackle. As Bryant reached out for the end zone, the ball jarred loose slightly when he hit the ground. Bryant had already made a football move, thus it should be a reception.
Indy kept everything Denver ‘s Peyton Manning threw underneath. Colts coach Chuck Pagano was not going to let Denver get anything deep. That’s why Indy moves on to the AFC Championship game.
This coming weekend, give me Seattle and New England in the Super Bowl. While Green Bay got a gutsy effort from Aaron Rodgers last week, I believe the Seahawks will put too much pressure on him and find a way to beat the Packers. Seattle 24-20.
Baltimore did come to play last week, but New England used some trickery to come back and win. I don’t like Indy’s chances in Foxboro at all. New England 28-17.
