Sophomore Jayden Harrison goes up for a score in the third quarter of Piscataway’s 84-69 victory over St. Joseph’s at Maglio Gymnasium in Metuchen on Thursday night.
Chiefs Put Away Falcons With Strong Finish
METUCHEN, NJ – The Piscataway Chiefs have been on a roll lately. A week ago, P-Way stormed past Old Bridge (80-54) in a GMC Red clash covered by GMC Hoops on the road. Since then, the Chiefs have won four more in a row going into their match-up versus St. Joseph’s. The Falcons gave the Chiefs all they could handle before a strong fourth quarter lifted P-Way past Joes.
Last Saturday, the Chiefs knocked off previously No. 2 ranked St. Thomas Aquinas (62-46). Piscataway then added wins of Snyder of Jersey City (62-48) in the New Year’s Jump-Off on Sunday, and Monroe on Tuesday (51-27) before taking on St. Joseph’s on Thursday. Trailing 46-32 at the half, St. Joes rallied with a 21-10 third quarter and added a free throw to open the fourth to pull within a bucket at 56-54.
However, the Falcons were unable to get any closer. Piscataway turned up the jets the rest of the way to pull away. The Chiefs got big plays from senior Vaughn Turner, junior Josh Lima, and sophomore Jayden Harrison to outscore the Falcons by a 28-15 margin over the final 6:30 of the game to come away with the double-digit win.
Harrison had a tremendous game off the bench as he filled in for junior Donald Nwaigwe. With Nwaigwe hampered with foul trouble, Harrison stepped up for the Chiefs. Harrison turned in a career-high 23 points along with 7 rebounds to lead five different P-Way players in double figures. Turner chipped in with a double-double of 17 points and 11 boards.
Lima chipped in with 12 including a huge four-point play in the final frame while grabbing four rebounds. Sophomore point guard, Landon Pernell also scored in double digits with 11 points and 6 assists. Nwaigwe managed to get 10 points before fouling out. Eight different players scored for the Chiefs, which tallied at least 22 points in three of the four quarters played.
The Falcons trailed 22-14 after the opening quarter and fell behind further as Piscataway scored 6 of the first 8 points of the second including a transition layup by Turner at the 6:46 mark for a 28-15 lead. Then, Harrison went to work in earnest as he scored 9 points including a steal for an and-1 layup and a traditional three-point play to give the Chiefs a 37-21 lead.
St. Joseph’s battled back with an 11-9 run over the remainder of the period including layups by Gian Gomez and Alijah Murphy, two free throws by Tyler DiGraci, and a three from Ryan Hilongos at the 2:39 mark to close the gap to 41-30. Gomez then drew a foul on a rebound in the defensive backcourt and made two from the charity stripe that narrowed the deficit to single digits.
Piscataway pushed its advantage back up to double digits by scoring the final five points of the first half. Turner drew a foul and made one of two from the line, Pernell followed up with two free throws of his own and then handed out an assist on a transition layup by Tyler West for his only points of the game, and a 46-32 Chiefs lead at the intermission.
St. Joe’s made it a game in the third with its best showing of the game. The Falcons outscored the Chiefs by a two-to-one margin. Jake Sockoloff opened the third with a putback. Brayden Danchak followed up with a pull-up jumper on the break, and Murphy scored on a putback. DiGraci then got his hands on a loose ball, and then fed Hilongos for a layup and an 8-0 rally that closed the gap to 46-40 as Piscataway called for time with 5:39 to play in the third.
The next two minutes saw Joes creep to within one at 47-46 on a traditional three-point play by Hilongos and a high arching trey by Danchak off a DiGraci kickout from the right low block for a 14-1 tear. P-Way would respond with two free throws from Pernell a three from Lima and a layup by Turner to raise the Chiefs’ lead back to six at 54-48 with 2:12 to go in the third.
The Falcons then finished the frame with 5 of the last 7 points including a drive for a layup in the closing seconds by Murphy to make it a one-possession game at 56-53 heading into the fourth. Joes then added a Sockoloff free throw to make it a two-point game with 7:40 to play, but would not get any closer. The Chiefs then scored the next four buckets on a putback by Turner and two free throws from Lima.
Danchak then connected on a pull-up jumper from the right side at the 5:12 mark for a 60-56 Piscataway lead. The Chiefs then essentially put the game away by scoring 12 of the next 14 points. Highlighting the pivotal run were two layups by Harrison, a putback by Turner, an unconventional four-point play by Lima, and a transition layup from Najay Best for a 72-58 lead with 2:51 to play.
Despite a solid effort by DiGraci, who scored 11 of his points and handed out an assist down the stretch, St. Joseph’s was unable to get any closer than a 72-63 at the 2:21 mark. P-Way got four points each from Harrison (two layups), Turner (FG and 2 of 2 FTs), and Pernell (4 of 4 FTs) to round out the 84-69 victory. P-Way became the first GMC public school in six years to beat both Aquinas and Joes in the same season.
J.P. Stevens was the last public school to do it with wins over Aquinas (57-46) on December 22 2018 and St. Joseph’s (49-42) on January 3, 2019. With the victory, the Chiefs have now won five straight and improved to 9-2 overall. P-Way is now 4-1 in the GMC Red and 5-1 in conference play. St. Joseph’s has now lost five in a row and dropped to 1-6 overall. The Falcons are now 1-3 in the GMC Red and in the conference.
Both teams return to action on Saturday with the Chiefs traveling to Staten Island to take on Tottenville in a non-conference game at 12:30 PM while the Falcons head up to Morris County to take on Delbarton in a non-conference clash at 7:00 PM.