Timothy Christian Downs Eastern Christian, 82-59

Sophomore Myles Dickerson goes up for a score late in the fourth quarter in Timothy Christian’s 82-59 victory over Eastern Christian of Hawthorne in the opening round of the 2023 NJSIAA Non-Public B North State Tournament on Wednesday night in Piscataway. Dickerson poured in a career high 33 points to lead the Tigers to their first state tourney win in 11 years.

Tigers Win State Tournament Game for 1st Time in over a Decade

PISCATAWAY, NJ – When the 8th seeded Tigers of Timothy Christian took the floor to take on 9th seeded Eastern Christian from Hawthorne in Bergen County on Wednesday afternoon, they were looking not only to advance, but most importantly win a state tournament game for the first time in over a decade.  The last time TCS won in the state tournament was in the first round of the 2012 Non-Public B South State Tourney when the then 2nd seeded Tigers defeated 15th seeded Mater Dei (63-52).

After a bit of a back and forth with an Eagles squad that competes in the North Jersey Interscholastic Conference, Timothy Christian took control with a 15-9 spurt to finish the opening quarter for a 23-16 lead, and then outscored the visitors by a 24-12 margin in the second for a 47-28 halftime lead.  The Tigers led by as many as 26 points in the fourth quarter before closing out an 82-59 victory in the opening round of the 2023 NJSIAA Non-Public B North State Tourney in Piscataway.

Sophomore Myles Dickerson continued his torrid play by pouring in a career high of 33 points on 14 total field goals including three treys and another two from the foul line.  Dickerson also collected 4 rebounds and 2 assists.  Classmate, Jalen Fleming overcame a bit of a slow start offensively to add a double-double of 19 points and 17 rebounds along with 7 assists.  Fleming now has 977 points for his career.  

Senior guard Joel Sierra also chipped in with 12 points on four field goals and another 4 of 5 from the line while also picking up 5 steals and 2 assists, and providing plenty of emotion, intensity, and passion to the Tigers’ cause.  Junior guard, and baseball standout, Dylan Spivey also contributed with 8 points, 5 rebounds, an assist, and a steal.  Senior Jett Phillips knocked down two threes for his 6 points while also handing out two assists and swiping a steal.

Three year varsity player, Brandon Johnson, rounded out the TCS scoring with 4 points, a rebound, and a block while Jonathan Walker (a rebound) also saw some action, but didn’t score.  Leading the way in defeat for the Eagles of Eastern Christian were the tandem of Lucas Genuario and Jean Italien, who both scored 20 points.  Genuario, a junior forward, who now has scored over 800 points in his career, recorded a double-double of 20 points and 14 rebounds along with 3 assists and 3 steals.

Italien, a four year varsity player for the Eagles finished his career with 769 points.  Carter Fowlkes added 7 points while David Kim (4 points), Caleb Troast (3 points), Lukas Faasse (3 points), and Luke Connolly (2 points) rounded out the scoring for Eastern Christian.  The Eagles had 7 different players score in the contest versus only 6 for TCS, but three of those Tiger players scored in double figures, and combined to account for 64 of the team’s 82 points.

Timothy Christian outscored Eastern Christian in three of the four periods.  In all three of those quarters, the Tigers scored at least 20 points.  As a team, TCS made 34 total field goals including 6 from long distance, and converted 8 of 12 attempts from the charity stripe.  The Tigers also collected 33 rebounds, 14 assists, 8 steals, and 2 blocks.  Timothy Christian began to separate itself from Eastern Christian at about the midpoint of the first quarter.

The Tigers scored four straight points including a layup by Dickerson for a 12-7 lead at the 3:21 mark of the first.  TCS then outscored EC by a margin of 11-9 the rest of the frame as Dickerson was heating up quick with a three pointer and a pull-up jumper to help the Tigers take a 7 point advantage into the second.  Timothy Christian increased its advantage to double digits as it opened the 2nd quarter with an 11-6 spurt including a putback by Sierra to take a 34-22 lead at the 4:18 mark of the frame.

Fleming started getting more active in the contest in the final half of the second with a couple of outbacks as the Tigers scored 14 of the last 20 points of the opening half for a commanding 19 point lead at the intermission.  Although Eastern Christian showed some fight at the start of the second half with a 9-7 rally that closed the gap to 54-37, Johnson got into the act with a jumper from the left side at the 5:04 mark of the third.

Spivey, who scored 6 of his 8 points in the second half got two of his buckets over the remainder of the third on drives to the hoop to help the Tigers maintain a double digit lead of 62-45 heading into the final period.  Then, at the outset of the final stanza, Timothy Christian put the game away with a 12-4 spurt over a span of 4:03 to take a 74-49 advantage with just under four minutes to play.  Highlighting the run was a three from the right side by Phillips, another layup from Spivey, and a baseline drive from the right side for a score by Johnson.

Fleming and Dickerson then wrapped up the victory with and ones down the stretch.  With the win, Timothy Christian has now won 10 of its last 15 games after starting the season at 4-7, and improved to 14-12 overall.  The reward for its first state playoff victory in 11 years is a quarterfinal matchup against top seeded and three time defending GMCT Champion, St. Thomas Aquinas at St. Joseph’s Maglio Gymnasium on Friday afternoon at 5:00 PM.  Although Aquinas is the home team, its gym is unavailable for the contest.

Meanwhile, Eastern Christian completes its season at 14-10.  The Eagles had a bit of a roller coaster year as well.  After starting the season at 6-3, the Eagles lost 5 of 6 games to put them at 7-8 on January 28th.  Then, Eastern Christian put together a clutch winning streak as it won 7 of 8 entering into Wednesday night’s contest.