Paterson Charter School,Paterson,NJ…… In a full day of Championships, the Playaz sponsored Jingle Bells Jubilee crowned a 8th grade champion, a Freshman champ, a Junior Varsity champ and the all important Highschool Varsity Champs!  They even had a 7th grade champ the day before!

                                Jingle Bells Championship:     TEANECK  74    HACKENSACK  63

          There is a New #1 in the Hoop Journal Top 20 as Teaneck took hold of that title for now with a convincing 74-63 victory over then #1 Hackensack and won the Jingle Bells Jubilee Championship for the third year in a row! Teaneck brought the pressure early and truth be told Hackensack did not handle it very well! Missed shots and chippies by the Comets gave Teaneck the momentum to push out to a big lead as they started the game on a 19-4 run! Teaneck’s formula is for Senior Joel Hernandez to bring it to you early and for Senior Shakir Lindsey to finish it late! And it worked as Teaneck, behind Hernandez built a 42-19 halftime lead and Lindsey’s ball handling! Hackensack got it’s bearings in the 2nd half and began to slowly creep back in it behind the play of Junior Rashard Figures and Senior Chris Myers! Figures drives to the basket and Myers big “triple” gave the Comets some life! Senior Keon Lewis hit a banker three and made a steal and layup to draw Hackensack to a 65-60 deficit with 1:55 left in the game But a Hernandez lay and Lindsey bucket along with a Hackensack technical foul stemmed the tide and gave Teaneck the win! Hernandez,(right) who was game M.V.P. led Teaneck with 29 points and 12 rebounds(8 offensive) and Lindsey(left), who was Tournament M.V.P. added 18 points and 6 dimes! Senior Marcus Fulmore chipped in 12 points! Hackensack was led by Figures with 20 points and 7 rebounds, Myers with 15 points and 5 dimes and Senior Jaimik Moore with 13, but  the Comets did not help themselves by shooting only 19 for 32 from the foul line! Expect these two teams to meet at least another two times this season!!

                                        3rd Place Game:    NEWARK TECH  57               IRVINGTON  55

Senior Dwayne Murrill’s “triple” at the buzzer lifted Newark Tech to a 3rd place finish and a 57-55 win over Irvington! Newark Tech led 41-31 entering the 4th quarter, but Irvington made a furious comeback and down one with 14 seconds left ran a perfect inbounds play for Junior Shakur Juiston who converted a layup and for a moment seemed to have won the game! But Newark Tech rushed the ball up the court and it the ball ended in the hands of Murrill who got a clean look and knocked it down at the buzzer! Murrill finished with 18 points, while Senior Rakwan Kelly added 11! Juiston finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds and Senior Al-Jahaad Bradford also scored 14 points for Irvington!

                              5th Place Game:       PISCATAWAY TECH   65              KENNEDY  64

In another buzzer beater game Senior Turell McClendon(picture) hit a layup at the buzzer to give Piscataway Tech an improbable 65-64 win over Kennedy! The Knight’s held a 63-60 lead with 1:10 left as Freshman Alphonso Gee hit two free throws,but McClendon scored on a three point play to tie the game at 63! After Senior Hassan Townes hit a free throw to put Kennedy up 64-63, it set the stage for McClendon’s heroics! Piscataway Tech was led by Sophomore Aziz Austin with 24 points, while McClendon finished with 21! Freshman Alphonso Gee led Kennedy with 26 points and 6 dimes, while Townes scored 15 points and had 7 dimes himself!

    Junior Varsity “CHIP”:      PASSAIC COUNTY TECH   52            NEWARK TECH   47

           Sophomore Jeremy Gray scored 16 points to lead Passaic County Tech to the Jingle Bells Jubilee Junior Varsity Championship over Newark Tech 52-47! P.C.T. also got strong contributions from Freshman’s Kareem Scott and Yohanly Ortiz! Gray was the M.V.P. of the contest!

                                    Freshman “CHIP”:     DEPAUL  41             MANCHESTER  34

DePaul Freshman team won the Jingle Bells Jubilee, beating Manchester 41-34! Robert Robinson scored 11 points, with  5 rebounds and 3 assists to lead DePaul! He was voted the game M.V.P.! DePaul took the lead late in the 4th and held on! Manchester got a strong performance from Alex Morales who scored 12 points!

                     8th Grade Jingle Bells Jubilee”CHIP”:     PLAYAZ  55             JERSEY CITY BOYS CLUB  53

In a game that highlighted some of the ballers of the future a lot of talent was on display in the Playaz 8th grade team Championship over the Jersey City Boys Club! The Playaz have a special one in guard Jamir Harris(left) who was the M.V.P. of the game in scoring 27 points! And he was not alone as the Playaz got big contributions from all their guys,  Nadir Pineda, Isaiah Robinson, Marcus McClary, Leandre Washington, Carter Warren, Elijah Mitchell, Tyson Etienne and Dallas Hoffman!  The game went down to the wire as Jersey City was no slouches and came to play! J.C. was led by R.J. Cole with 16 points,including some late “triples”! Joey Krumph finished with 13 and J.C. has some talent in Chase Lewis, Kahmoni Foster, Tysheem Burno and Jason Lee 

                       7th Grade Jingle Bells Jubilee”CHIP”:    PLAYAZ  7TH    57         RING CITY  47

       The Playaz 7th grade team won the Jingle Bells Jubilee”Chip” by beating Ring City 57-47! The Playaz got 22 points from Tyson Etienne to lead the win as he was named M.V.P.!    

Englewood Cliffs, N.J…….. The Bergen Holiday Festival played at Dwight-Englewood Highschool four games were played, including the Semifinals game which resulted in Dwight-Englewood playing River Dell in the finals! 

                                                                             DWIGHT-ENGLEWOOD  61      WESTWOOD 57

Senior Austin James(right) scored 22 points,including 3″triples” to lead Dwight-Englewood to the finals of the Bergen Holiday Festival by defeating Westwood 61-57! Senior Keion Osbourne(right) and Senior Robert Zeller gave James all the support he needed! Osbourne scored 15 points and grabbed 8 rebounds and Zeller added 14 points and dished out 5 assists for the Bulldogs! D-E maintained the lead throughout the contest, opening up a 44-32 margin entering the 4th quarter! The Cardinals would not go away easily as they cut the lead down a few times in the final quarter behind the play of Junior forward EJ Bermudez! But free throws late by James and Zeller iced it! Bermudez was impressive and had polished moves in the paint! He finished with 26 points and was a problem the whole night for Dwight-Englewood!

                                                                                      RIVER DELL  37               BERGENFIELD  35

                      Junior Troy Bendian’s drop step layup, which were his only points of the game proved to be the game winner as River Dell which trailed the entire game came away with a 37-35 win over Bergenfield! The Bears held the lead in the low scoring contest all the way until the final seconds! Down 35-31 Senior C.J. Doornheim hit a “triple” 39.8 seconds to cut the lead to 35-34! Bergenfield then turned the ball over and it set the stage for Bendian’s game winner! Doornheim(right) led the scoring for River Dell with 12 points! Bergenfield was led by Senior Aessan Evans with 10 points and 10 rebounds!

                                                             ELMWOOD PARK  66        BERGEN TECH  44

Senior Andre Frasier(middle) scored 25 points, Senior Nick Smith(right) scored 21 points and 5 steals and Junior Veshawn Polite(left) had a double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds as the trio proved to be much too much for Bergen Tech in their 66-44 win! Tech stayed in the game in the 1st half, but Elmwood Park out scored Tech 20 to 6 in the 3rd to turn a 35-32 into a 55-38 lead at the end of the 3rd! They never looked back!

                                                                       ENGLEWOOD  61                 BOGOTA  57

Englewood came from behind to defeat Bogota 61-57 as Senior Anthony Vincent(right) scored 17 points including the game-tying field goal that sent Englewood on their way to the win! Junior Leon White hit 3″triples” enroute to 12 points and Sophomore Sidney Dawkin’s bucket bucket gave Englewood the lead for good! The Maroon Raiders came back due to their dominance on the backboards, particularly from Junior Justin Iton and Junior Julius Wingate! Iton grabbed 10 rebounds and Wingate(left) snatched 12 to go with 11 points! The sidebar to this contest is the fact that Englewood’s Coach Ozzie Osbourne played at Bogota and for Coach Jay Mahoney and it’s always very emotional for Osbourne as he has said on many occassions that Mahoney saved his life as a youth!