CRESSKILL – Cougars junior Jagger Kushner said head coach Mike Doto told him to start driving the ball instead of settling for three’s and Kushner followed the plan, scoring 15 of his game-high 21 points in the second half to help Cresskill coast past Midland Park, 66-55.
Junior Jack Maltby added 13 points, while sophomore Luka Radovich chipped in with 12 points.
The game was tied at 30-30 with 6:40 remaining in the third quarter when the Cougars went on an 11-2 run, with Kushner supplying seven of those points, as Cresskill grabbed a 41-32 advantage. Maltby contributed six additional points to grow the lead to 49-38 at the end of the period.
KUSHNER SHINES
In the fourth, Kushner continued to light it up, tallying seven more points to balloon the lead to 60-39 with 4:43 left. Midland Park refused to go away quietly, however, as they came charging back with a 16-4 run to cut the lead to 64-55 with 1:10 remaining.
But that was as close as the Panthers would get. Panthers senior James Kennedy led Midland Park in scoring with 12 points while Zachary Van Kat netted 10 points.
“In the second half we came out and established ourselves on offense and ran a couple of plays that we executed,” said Doto. “And we got some nice looks at the basket. Jagger Kushner played a very nice game, not settling for threes. He took the ball to the basket and made some good passes.
“We got out and ran a little bit, hit some open men and didn’t turn the ball over that often in the third quarter, which is big. In the second half we only had seven turnovers, which is good for us because we have been averaging way too many turnovers. We had some even distribution in scoring and it wasn’t just relying on one guy. We moved the ball, got some open looks and [took] high percentage shots.”
