West Leads Raiders Past Guvs; Spurts Ending First Half and Game Key to Victory
| Piscataway Tech’s Kyle Wider elevates for jumper in the second half against South Amboy. |
SOUTH AMBOY, NJ–Coming off a much needed win over Perth Amboy Tech to get back into the chase for first place in the GMC Gold, Piscataway Tech didn’t have much time to rest before taking on South Amboy late Saturday morning. Â Early on it showed as the Governors jumped out to a 12-6 first quarter lead, and led 14-8 with 2:45 remaining in the second. Â Piscataway Tech responded though with a 9-2 run to end the first half for a 17-16 lead, and then after both teams went back and forth for the first 11 minutes of the second half, the Raiders put the game away with a 10-2 finish for a 43-35 victory.
Letrell West, who had a team high 19 points in the victory over Perth Amboy Tech on Friday night, led the way again for the Raiders with 18 points. Â Aziz Austin chipped in with 7 points including five in the fourth quarter while Ali Austin added 5 points including a buzzer beating halfcourt shot to end the opening half. Â Kyle Wider also contributed with 6 points for the winners. Â Ryan O’Leary led South Amboy in a losing cause with 14 points and 7 boards while Tim Kales chipped in with 9 points and 7 rebounds. Â Kehare Ford added 8 points and 13 rebounds for the Guvs as well. Â Five different players scored for South Amboy while 6 different players got into the books for the P-Way Tech.
The difference was that five of those Piscataway Tech players that scored had 5 points or more while only three had at least five for South Amboy. Â The Raiders also had a 12-6 edge in points scored from the beyond the arc as well as a 9-5 advantage in points from the charity stripe. Â The Guvs held a slight 12-11 edge in two point field goals made. Â After being outscored in the first period, P-Way Tech outscored South Amboy in each of the final three periods, and by a combined margin of 37-23. Â The Governors, who entered the game with wins in 8 of their last 11, had plenty of spirit thanks in part to their first year head coach, John Zammit, who displayed plenty of energy throughout.
South Amboy jumped out to a six point first quarter lead, and led by eight with under three minutes to play in the first half, but Piscataway Tech turned things around by scoring 9 of the last 11 points including two free throws by Aziz Austin, two layups by West, and the buzzer beating halfcourt shot by Ali Austin for three, and a 17-16 lead at the intermission. Â West led all scorers with 9 points while Kehare Ford led South Amboy with 6 points. Â O’Leary and Kales chipped in with 4 each. Â The third quarter started out with the Raiders scoring the first four points including a layup by West at the 7:06 mark for a 21-16 lead. Â O’Leary got South Amboy going again with a trey from the left wing, but West responded with another score to put P-Way Tech up 23-19 with 4:17 to go in the third.
Over the next 1:46 though, South Amboy would rally by scoring 5 of the next 7 points including a layup by Riley Rone and a three from well beyond the right side of the key by O’Leary to close the gap to 25-24 at the 2:31 mark of the third. Â The Raiders responded by scoring five unanswered points before Tim Kales pulled the Guvs within four again at 30-26 with a bucket late in the period. Â South Amboy then picked up right where it left off at the end of the third by scoring the first five points of the fourth including a layup by Kehare Ford to take a 31-30 lead with 5:47 remaining in the game. Â Piscataway Tech wrestled the lead back at 33-31 on a three from the left side of the key by Aziz Austin with 5:11 to play, but Kales tied things right back up at 33-33 when he drew a foul and made both free throws at the 5:04 mark. Â P-Way Tech controlled things the rest of the way.
The Raiders ended the game by scoring 9 of the last 11 points. Â Piscataway Tech started the run with back to back layups off steals by Aziz and Ali Austin for a 37-33 lead. Â Then, after a South Amboy score closed the gap to two again with 2:20 to play, the Raiders sealed the 43-35 victory by getting a pair of free throws down the stretch from Letrell West and Kyle Wider. Â With the victory, Piscataway Tech improved to 12-4 overall on the season including a 10-2 mark in the GMC Gold. Â The Raiders went 3-0 on the week. All three games were covered by GMC Hoops, and P-Way Tech now has 6 points towards the GMC Hoops Trophy. Meanwhile, South Amboy fell back to .500 at 9-9 overall with the loss. Â The Guvs are now 6-6 in divisional play.