Balanced Attack Lifts Rams Past Owls in GMC Gold Action
| Wardlaw’s Luke Romeo shoots a three pointer in the 4th quarter versus Highland Park. |
NORTH EDISON, NJ–The Wardlaw-Hartridge Rams began the new year on a positive note with a 12 point victory over Highland Park on Friday evening. Â The victory puts the Rams just one win shy of its victory total for all of last season, and we’re just a couple weeks into the season. Â It shows how much this Rams team has improved. Â Does it mean that Wardlaw will win the GMC Gold or the GMCT this year? Â Probably not, but things are moving in the right direction.
Luke Romeo was one of three different Wardlaw players to score 12 points along with Mike Newman and Nick Palko while John Pohopin added 10 points. Â Romeo collected his points on four threes that came in the final 26 minutes of action including three of them that came within a four minute span to help give Wardlaw a 45-33 lead with less than six and a half minutes to play. Â Newman scored 6 of his 12 during an 8-4 spurt to end the first half and give Wardlaw a 28-20 lead at the intermission. Â Palko scored 8 of his 12 in the second half including 6 down the stretch to help put the game away.
Pohopin scored 6 of his 10 points in the first half on two threes including a trey at the start of the second quarter that gave Wardlaw an 18-8 lead. Â Will Jacob-Perez scored a game high 15 points for Highland Park as he caused problems for Wardlaw down low for much of the game. Â Jacob-Perez had a couple buckets down low during an 8-2 spurt by the Owls that closed the gap to 20-16 with under four minutes to play in the first half. Â Will Chen chipped in with 10 points including a three point play in the second half to keep the Owls within single digits. Â Noah Pointer and Nasir Boykins added 9 in defeat for HPHS. Â
For the game, Wardlaw had a 19-18 edge in field goals while Highland Park held a 4-1 edge in field goals made. Â However, the difference in the game was the three point shooting. Â The Rams netted 6 threes including four by Romeo and two by Pohopin to garner an 18-3 edge in points scored from beyond the arc. Â Wardlaw had a decent start to the game with a 10-6 lead over the first six minutes of the game. Â Then, the Rams got a basket at the 1:43 mark and then a three by Romeo with about 1:20 to go in the frame for a 15-6 lead before Highland Park ended the quarter on a layup from the left low block by Boykins off an inbounds by Chen to close the gap to 15-8.
The second started off with Pohopin nailing a three from the right wing with about a half minute gone by to give the Rams an 18-8 edge. Â However, Highland Park wouldn’t go quietly. Â Instead, the Owls scored 8 of the next 10 points including four from Jacob-Perez and four from Boykins. Â Leading by only four at 20-16 with 3:59 to go in the first half, Wardlaw didn’t panic as the Rams responded with 8 of the next 12 points including six on driving layups off the dribble by Newman to give the home team a 28-20 cushion at the intermission. Â Wardlaw then opened up the second half by scoring 6 of the first 10 points including a layup off a steal by Scott Hargrove for a 34-24 lead at the 4:15 mark of the third.
Once again though, Highland Park battled back with a 5-0 rally that included a layup by Jacob-Perez and a three point play by Chen to pull within single digits again at 34-29. Â Wardlaw would get the final five points of the period though including another layup off a steal, and then a three from the left wing by Romeo to take a 39-29 lead into the fourth. Romeo then picked up where he left off in the third with two threes in the first 1:36 of the final period to help give the Rams a 45-33 lead. Â Palko took over from there with 8 of his points down the stretch including a layup off a pick and roll with Newman to close out the scoring and give the Rams a 55-43 victory.
With the victory, Wardlaw, which lost both of its games in its first annual holiday tournament, improved to 3-2 on the young season including a 2-0 mark in the GMC Gold. Â Highland Park fell to 0-3 in the Gold Division, and 0-4 overall.