By Greg Mattura – Record Sports Department
EAST RUTHERFORD – Dwight-Englewood is the proud owner of the inaugural North Jersey Interscholastic Conference Championship for boys basketball.
Standout junior forward Jordan McKoy and the Bulldogs won the title with a 63-50 victory Wednesday night over Cresskill that avenged an early-season loss.
McKoy had a game-high 30 points, as well as 10 rebounds at Becton, and junior guard Judah McIntyre added 18 points for Dwight-Englewood (21-6).
“It means a lot to us,” McKoy said, “especially against Cresskill, because we consider them one of our rivals.”
“We made our share of mistakes, more than we would have liked, but we played hard,” Dwight-Englewood coach Bob Rudolph said.
Cresskill received 19 points from senior guard Wellington Ventura and 18 from senior guard Harrison Lucibello. The Cougars spent the entire night battling from behind.
“They outworked us, they outhustled us, they outcoached us,” said Cresskill coach Dan Egorow. “They deserve it. They came out ready to compete.”
Cresskill (24-2) was without standout senior forward Luka Radovich, who was sick, but “he’ll be ready come Monday,” for the NJSIAA tournament, Egorow said. Cresskill needs a healthy Radovich to challenge for the North 1, Group 1 title.
Introducing an NJIC Championship in several sports over the past couple of years has been a boon for the more than three dozen schools in this small-school league. For basketball, the four division champions advanced to the semifinals of this Championship. The Girls Championship is Thursday.
“Wanting to crown a conference champion, which we did prior in football and wrestling, we followed that model of taking the four division winners and creating a semifinal and final for the championship of the overall conference,” said St. Mary athletic director Matt Stone. He added, “Everybody across the board has bought into creating conference champions, and offering it in as many sports as we can.”
LODI 61, ST. MARY 56
Senior forward Charlie Battice scored a game-high 20 points and Lodi (17-6) led after the first quarter, 21-4, in this third-place game. Senior forward Carlos Pepin scored seven to bring his program-record total to 1,250 career points.
Senior Colin Hyland scored a team-high 11 for St. Mary, which missed two shots in the final minutes that would have tied the score. Senior forward Marc Dadika scored 10 to bring his career total to 1,703. Entering the NJSIAA tournament, Dadika needs 46 points to surpass the St. Mary record of 1,748 held by Matt Stone.
