Rodney Harris Notches 100th Career Win as Rams Head Coach
SOUTH RIVER, NJ–It was a very festive night at South River High School. After their beloved Rams struggled through two difficult losses where they were outscored by a margin of 60 points, South River’s fans had a lot to cheer about with the team’s first victory of the season over its arch rival, Spotswood.
Derrick Whitaker, GMC Hoops Freshman of the Year in 2015-16, built off a 23 point performance in an 84-60 loss to Timothy Christian on Saturday with an explosive 31 point effort to lead his Rams to a 79-48 rout of the neighborhood nemesis Chargers. The victory gave eighth year head coach, Rodney Harris his 100th career victory at the school.
Leading only by four at 36-32 at the intermission, South River took a page from what Timothy Christian did to it on Saturday, and put together a 43-16 onslaught in the second half to roll past Spotswood. Joey Nigro chipped in with 14 points and 8 assists while Mike DeSantis added 13 points. Matthew Pietryzk cleaned up on the boards with 10 rebounds along with a dunk that brought the house down.
As a team, South River collected 35 rebounds, 24 assists, 15 steals, and 6 blocks. Matt Vento and Abdul Nieskens led Spotswood in a losing cause with 10 points each while Justin Dekovics chipped in with 9 and J.T. Vento added 8. Prior to today’s win, Spotswood had defeated South River by an average margin of 84-58 over the last three years including a 78-62 win last season. The last time the Rams beat the Chargers was on December 22, 2004 (won 63-48). Current Spotswood assistant coach, Mike DelAversano was the head coach of the Rams back then.
With the win, South River improved to 1-2 overall and 1-1 in Blue Division play while Spotswood, which lost to Carteret on opening day, dropped to 0-2 both overall and in divisional play. Both teams will be back in action on Wednesday night with the Rams visiting Metuchen at 5:30 PM while Spotswood will host Bishop Ahr in a revival of another rivalry at 6:00 PM.