Schools
Boys' Basketball Pull a Win After Huge Second Half Against Audubon Tuesday
Collingswood didn't come through strong until the second half of Tuesday's game.
Going into Tuesday night’s contest, the Collingswood High School boys' basketball team boasted a 6-1 overall record. Their winning streak stood at four games—and one thing seemed certain: the Audubon Green Wave, and their unimpressive 3-6 record, would not be the force to stop them.
But it wasn’t until midway through the second quarter, though, that the Panthers actually began to take form.
The game ended with a final score of 73-58 in Collingswood's favor—but it got off to a much slower start. After the first quarter, the Panthers held a minuscule 20-15 lead, much to the credit of Audubon’s T.J. Tassi, who scored 11 points in opening period.
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“We didn’t really prep much at all,” said Collingswood’s senior center Julian Welsh-White, who scored eight points for the Panthers Tuesday. “We spent practice doing things that we need to work on, but we probably should have spent time thinking about Tassi. He’s a great scorer.”
“Great scorer” might be a slight understatement when describing Tassi. The senior guard netted a total of 30 points for the Green Wave Tuesday night, including four field goals from behind the three-point arc.
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“He’s absolutely a very good player,” said Collingswood head coach Joe McLoughlin. “He really knows how to fill it up. Our guys recognize good players, though, and I think they did a much better job on him in the second half."
Defensively, the Panthers—who spent the game in a 1-3-1 zone defense—did a better job of containing Tassi in the final two quarters. Tassi only managed to score 13 points in the second half, compared to the 17 he dropped in the first.
“We (the Panthers) just didn’t bring the defensive intensity that we needed to bring,” said McLoughlin. “They really got it going halfway through the first period, though—and then in the second quarter, they brought us into halftime with a 14-point lead.”
Leading the way for Collingswood scorers Tuesday were seniors Karon Walker and B.J. Jones. Walker scored 19 points for the Panthers, including two three-pointers. Jones dominated the much-smaller Audubon team with 16 points—two from the free throw line, and the other 14 all within the paint.
Guards Jermaine Feaster and Anthony Nguyen chipped in with seven and five points, respectively.
Up next for Collingswood is a trip to Pine Hill, where the 7-1 Panthers will take on the 8-3 Overbrook Rams this Thursday night.
