RAHWAY, NJ–On Tuesday night, the opening round of the playoffs in the 2011 Rahway Summer League took place at Rahway High School. The top five seeds: Roselle, Rahway, Union Catholic, Perth Amboy, and J.P. Stevens all had byes. In earlier action, eighth seeded A.L. Johnson defeated ninth seeded Dunellen to advance to the quarterfinals against top seeded Roselle at 8:30 PM on Thursday night.
Meanwhile, tenth seeded Woodbridge avenged an earlier loss in the summer by defeating seventh seeded South Plainfield, 43-40. The Tigers had a chance to tie the game, but Ray Perez three point attempt as time was running out hit off the rim. In the finale of the tripleheader, 11th seeded J.F. Kennedy of Iselin took on sixth seeded Edison. The Eagles got off to a fast start with eight of the first ten points, and led 15-10 with 8:21 to go in the first half, but the Mustangs rallied with a 38-18 surge over the next 27:42 to take a 48-33 lead late before winning 48-37.
Pawar Helps Kennedy Overcome Fast Start By Edison To Advance, 48-37
In the third opening round playoff game, the Mustangs of  John F. Kennedy in Iselin was facing off against the Eagles of Edison.  The  Eagles came in into the playoffs with a 4-5 record while Kennedy was 1-9.  For its efforts, Edison earned the highest seed of the preliminary round teams with the sixth seed while Kennedy was the lowest at eleven.
The winner of this game gets matched up against third seeded Union Catholic, which got a first round bye. Â The Mustangs played the Vikings last Thursday, and lost by four in overtime. Â Union Catholic also rallied late in regulation, and later defeated fifth seeded J.P. Stevens in overtime (50-47) several weeks ago. Â While Kennedy only won one game in the regular season, and was the lowest seed in this year’s playoffs, it is a much better team than that, and proved it in this matchup.
Trailing 15-10 with 8:21 to go in the first half, the Mustangs went on an 11-5 spurt to finish the half with a 21-20 lead at the intermission, and then broke the game open in the second half with a 27-13 surge for a 48-33 lead with just under 40 seconds remaining en route to a 48-37 victory.  Over a span of 27:42, JFK outscored Edison by a margin of 38-18 to overcome a slow start, and advance to the quarterfinals against Union Catholic on Thursday night.
For the game, Kennedy scored its 48 points on 15 field goals including four threes while making 14 of 19 from the foul line. Â Meanwhile, Edison had 15 field goals, but only one three point basket and 6 of 11 from the foul line. Â The Eagles held the edge in second chance points (3-1) and points off turnovers (15-9), but the Mustangs had the advantage in points from beyond the arc (12-3) and from the foul line (14-6). Â Edison had five players score in the game while Kennedy only had four, but JFK had three of its players score in double figures while EHS only had one.
Vik Pawar led the way for the Mustangs with 19 points on 6 field goals including three treys. Â He also was a perfect 4 of 4 from the foul line, and scored 12 points in the second half. Â Steve Alvarez chipped in for the winners with 14 points on 6 field goals and 2 of 3 from the line while Josh Kamenas added 12 points on two field goals and 8 of 11 from the foul line to go along with four offensive rebounds. Â Qassim Bass-Ali led Edison with 15 points on 5 field goals along with 5 of 9 from the foul line while Marcus Cudjoe, Kevin Luckenbach, and Jordan Westbrook each chipped in with 6 points.
The Eagles got off to a fast start in this one. Â After JFK’s Josh Kamenas opened the scoring with two free throws at the 19:30 mark, the Eagles scored eight straight points over a span of just 1:37 as Qassim Bass-Ali scored four points while Kevin Luckenbach and Jordan Westbrook added layups for the 8-2 lead with just under 17 minutes to go in the half. Â The Eagles got six of their eight points off of JFK turnovers. Â Cudjoe helped spearhead the spurt with two assists and two steals.
Following a Mustang timeout at the 16:52 mark, Kennedy began to battle back with its first field goal of the game at the 16:24 mark when Steve Alvarez flipped in a layup as he was fouled. Â Then Vik Pawar got on the board for the Mustangs with a floater that he banked in from the left side at the 14:22 mark for an 8-6 Edison lead. Â The Eagles went back up by four on its next possesion with a hook shot at the 14 minute mark, but Alvarez came right back down to flip in another layup with 13:45 to go in the half for a 10-8 Eagles lead.
Over the next 5:24, EHS tried to extend its lead with a 5-2 run for a 15-10 lead at the 8:21 mark, but the Mustangs rallied with an 11-5 spurt to finish the half, and take a 21-20 lead at the break. Â Pawar had five points during the run including two free throws at the 3:24 mark, and a three pointer at the 1:21 mark while Alvarez sparked the rally with a layup from the left side at the 7:16 mark, and capped it with two free throws at the 17 second mark for four points in the run. Â Kamenas drew the Mustangs within one by banking in a shot from the left side at the 5:35 mark.
Despite being outscored 11-0 in points scored off turnovers in the first half, Kennedy was able to grab the lead at the intermission with its foul line production. Â The Mustangs had only 6 field goals in the first half inicluding a three, but were 8 of 9 from the foul line. Â Edison had two more field goals in the first 20 minutes, but was only 3 of 6 from the charity stripe. Bass-Ali led all scorers with 9 points for EHS while Cudjoe chipped in with five. Â Kennedy got all of its scoring from Alvarez (8 points), Pawar (7 points), and Kamenas (6 points).
The second half saw the tables turned on Edison as Kennedy scored more points off turnovers 9-4, and enjoyed a 9-0 advantage in points scored from beyond the arc. Â In addition, the Mustangs were 6 of 10 from the charity stripe in the final 20 minutes while the Eagles were only 3 of 5. Â JFK scored the first five points of the second half as Pawar converted an Edison turnover when he took a pass from Alvarez in the left corner for a three at the 18:49 mark. Â A short time later, Kamenas rebounded an EHS miss, and threw an outlet pass to Alvarez, who drove in from the left side for a layup, and a 26-20 lead at the 18:27 mark.
After Edison got a score from Luckenbach at the 17:52 mark, Kennedy got a three point play from Kamenas to increase its lead to 29-22 with 17:31 to play. Â After a brief lull in the scoring, JFK scored four of the next six points including one of two free throws by Kamenas at the 16:09 mark, and then a three from the right side of the key by Pawar at the 14:10 mark for a 33-24 lead. Â Westbrook and Luckenbach scored on layups at the 13:54 and 12:20 marks respectively to pull the Eagles within five at 33-28, but they wouldn’t get any closer after that.
Over a span of 3:13, the Mustangs scored seven unanswered points including a layup by Alvarez at the 11:5 mark, a layup by Pawar at the 10:07 mark, and then a three pointer from the left corner by Kurt Lorentzen for his only points of the game, and a 40-28 lead with 8:46 remaining. Â Edison tried to climb back into the game with five of the next seven points over a span of six minutes including a putback by Westbrook at the 2:46 mark for a 42-33 JFK lead, but Kennedy put the game away with six unanswered points including four by Pawar to take a 48-33 lead with 39.6 seconds left.
Edison got a couple late scores to make things more respectable as the Mustangs won by the score of 48-37. Â With the win, Kennedy improved to 2-9 overall on the summer at Rahway while the Eagles finished up at 4-6.