NORTH EDISON, NJ–On Thursday afternoon, GMC Hoops traveled over to the Wardlaw-Hartridge school in Edison to see the Rams in action against South Plainfield in a scrimmage. Both the JV and Varsity played in this scrimmage. Each scrimmage went four quarters and South Plainfield won both. The Junior Tigers won by a margin of 53-25 while the Tigers won 45-32. Below are game notes from the two scrimmages. Note: I arrived late at the scrimmage, and only caught the last 10 minutes or so of the JV scrimmage.
JV Scrimmage
Third Quarter
Arrived with under two minutes remaining in the period, and South Painfield was already comfortably in front by the score of 41-15. The Junior Tigers then outscored Wardlaw 4-2 the rest of the way for a 45-17 lead heading into the fourth.
Fourth Quarter
Period ended in an 8-8 tie. South Plainfield opened the frame with the first four points before Wardlaw hit two threes including one with about 10 seconds left during an 8-4 run that made the final score a bit more respectable at 53-25.
Varsity Scrimmage
First Quarter
South Plainfield won the period by the score of 12-7 thanks to a 10-3 spurt to end the period. Jordan Hankerson scored all 6 of his points in the frame during the decisive run. John Pohopin scored 5 including a three pointer that closed the gap to 8-7 with under 1:45 left in the frame. Neither team scored until the 6:00 mark when Pohopin got a layup off a steal for Wardlaw. After SPHS tied the game with a bucket, Nick Palko gave Wardlaw its last lead of the quarter with two foul shots.
Second Quarter
The Tigers dominated the period by outscoring Wardlaw by a margin of 15-3. Hankerson highlighted the quarter again by scoring 7 of the final 9 points in the period as well as forcing two Wardlaw turnovers. Pohopin scored all three of the Rams points in the frame. At the half, Hankerson has at least 13 points for South Plainfield while Pohopin has 10 for Wardlaw.
Third Quarter
Wardlaw broke through with a 5-3 showing in the period by limiting South Plainfield to just one field goal, and getting five more points including the go ahead three by John Pohopin, who now has 15 pts.
Fourth Quarter
The Rams maintained the second half edge by a score of of 17-15 as they withstood a couple late scoring attempts by the Tigers. The score in the period was even at 12-12. There were a total of 6 ties in the period, and 7 in the second half. Nick Palko got the go ahead score with a jumper from the left elbow at the 1:01 mark. John Pohopin had 7 more points in the frame for 22 on the game.