Strong Fourth Quarter Powers Indians Past Neighborhood Rival
| Carteret’s Victor Spencer puts up a three pointer late in the fourth quarter in the game against Rahway in the 2016 Eric LeGrand Classic. Rahway won, 56-47. |
UNION, NJ–Over the summer, Rahway and Carteret got entangled in a defensive struggle in one of the two semifinals of the 2015 Rahway Summer League. Carteret held a lead for much of the game until the hometown Indians rallied to come away with a 33-30 victory and a berth in the Championship Game against J.P. Stevens. A little less than six months later, the two schools went at it again in the third game of the day at the 2016 Eric LeGrand Classic at Kean University. Although there was more scoring, the result was the same as Rahway used a 20-9 showing in the fourth period to come away with a 56-47 win.
Trailing 38-36 after three periods, Rahway limited Carteret to just two field goals over the final eight minutes. One of those field goals was a three pointer from the left corner by the Ramblers Victor Spencer in the waning moments. Junior forward, Jemar Jordan led Carteret in defeat with 16 points while football standout, Angelo Golino added 7. Keyshawn Cummings led Rahway with a game high 17 points while three other players scored in double figures for the Indians including Edriece Patterson (15 points), Fred Womble (12 points), and Zion Pendleton (10 points). The Rahway quartet accounted for 54 of the Indians’ 57 points in the contest.
Each team outscored the other in two of the four periods. However, Rahway outscored Carteret by a combined 38-20 margin in the first and fourth periods while the Ramblers held a 27-18 advantage over the second and third periods. The two teams went back and forth for a bit over the first 6:31 of the game in a 10-10 tie. Then, Rahway took control by scoring 8 of the last 10 points of the first quarter for an 18-12 lead, and then added another score to open the second for a 20-12 lead before Carteret rallied. The Ramblers responded with a 7-2 spurt that included a basket by Jemar Jordan and was capped by a three pointer from the left wing by Kahir Raymond to narrow the deficit to 22-19 with 5:42 remaining in the first half.
Over the next 3:47 of the game, Rahway outscored Carteret by an 8-6 margin including a transition layup with under two minutes to go in the half for a 30-25 lead. Neither team scored over the last 1:55 as Rahway maintained its five point lead at the intermission. Jemar Jordan led Carteret with 8 points over the first two quarters while Humberto Jimenez and Angelo Golino each chipped in with 4. The third quarter began with the Ramblers scoring 4 of the first 6 points over the initial 2:44 to close the gap to 32-29. All four of Carteret’s points were scored by Jordan including a steal for a dunk at the 7:44 mark. Over the next 3:04, Carteret outscored Rahway by an 8-2 margin including a three by Golino at the 2:12 mark for a 37-34 lead. Rahway scored 2 of the last 3 points to close the gap to 38-36 heading into the fourth.
The Indians opened the fourth with scores at the 7:01 and 6:31 mark to take the lead for good at 40-38. Rahway added two more scores including a coast to coast layup at the 5:12 mark for a 44-38 advantage. Carteret gave way to another 6-2 Rahway run for a ten point advantage before sophomore Naafi Powell scored on a layup with 3:48 to play to close the gap to 50-42. Rahway added four more points to lead by a dozen before Jordan sank two free throws to narrow the deficit to 54-44 before the Ramblers called for time with 31.9 seconds remaining. Victor Spencer rounded out the scoring with a three at the 10.7 second mark to round out the final scoring. With the win, Rahway improved to 9-1 on the season including a 2-0 mark against non-conference opponents. Carteret dropped to 4-7 overall including an 0-4 mark against non-conference opponents. The Ramblers return to action with games against Elizabeth on Wednesday and J.F. Kennedy on Friday.