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If East Rutherford basketball wants to claim another conference title, this past Friday, they took a big first step.
This past week, they whipped Burns and then dumped Freedom both on the road. Travis Waldroup-Rodriguez put up 26 and 21 points in back-to-back games.
Although, the story is that East Rutherford came back from a 12-point early hole, to lead by 10 at the break against Freedom, who is among the front runners in the SMAC again this year. From there, the Cavaliers had no problems notching the victory.
Now comes the biggest game of the year so far as they host Shelby this Friday (January 18). Shelby is (14-2, 4-0) and East Rutherford sits (11-3, 5-0), but hasn’t lost a home game all year.
R-S Central boys (9-8, 2-3) also split this week after pulling past Patton and then it was Shelby pulling away from them to end the week with a loss. They go on the road to face Burns this Friday (Jan 18), then host East Rutherford on the following Friday. Reshaun Whitesides has to be Central’s player of the week by averaging 19 points and seven boards during last week’s two games.
Chase (9-4, 2-2) doesn’t play until Freedom comes to town on Friday (Jan 18), but they will also host East Rutherford on the January 22. The Trojans haven’t lost a home game all year at the time of this column behind the play of Shad Blanton and Steven Holland.
Thomas Jefferson (5-7, 1-4) hosted Hendy on Tuesday and then will welcome Owen on Friday and ahead in the last 1A conference playoff spot at the moment.
On the girls side, R-S Central (10-7, 4-1) continues to stay in second place after getting an ugly win against Patton and then easily beating Shelby during the week.
East Rutherford (9-8, 3-2) split this past week after downing Burns and then were dropped at conference leader, Freedom.
In the first weekend of the NFL playoffs, I predicted all four outcomes correctly. This past week, I went one 1-3 on predictions, two of the three losses were very close games. I guess there is only one thing to do, try and make up for it this weekend, so here goes nothing.
The AFC Championship game present New England and Baltimore in Foxboro. Baltimore overcame the odds, beating No.1 seed Denver on the road in overtime. The strange part is that they were less than 40 seconds away from going home until game tying touchdown sent thing into extra time. Then a more shocking throw by Peyton Manning was intercepted, setting up a Baltimore field goal in overtime to win it, 38-35.
New England hasn’t run into any problem scoring and Baltimore has averaged a stunning 31 points in two playoff games so far. Thinking back, Indy is about the only team that even remotely resembles New England’s offense, which Baltimore defeated two week ago.
Still, New England has too many weapons, the home field advantage and I believe will show up at crunch time. Farewell, Ray Lewis, you had a great career as a Raven. New England gets to the Super Bowl…38-27.
Over in the NFC, Atlanta will host the San Francisco 49ers. The last time these two faced in the playoffs, it was back in Atlanta’s run to the Super Bowl in 1998 season.
Atlanta rallied in the final seconds this past week in beating Seattle (the team I thought would win it all)
after the Falcons held a 20-point lead at halftime.
San Francisco, like Atlanta in a couple of game this season has looked unbeatable, but there is no telling how each will play until they kickoff. Basically, is it Atlanta’s offense or San Francisco’s defense that wins the war. That is the burning question in my mind and I am going with history to repeat itself again in an Atlanta field goal to get to the Super Bowl. Just like in 1999 against Minnesota, so yes, I am taking Atlanta 34-31.
