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McCaskey 51 Cedar Crest 49: Wrap
 

McCaskey 51 Cedar Crest 49: Wrap

Written by: Dell Jackson on January 13, 2023

 

McCaskey 51 Cedar Crest 49
Jan. 12, 2023

McCaskey came away from the “Cage” with a win. You might say they “stole” the game, almost literally. The Falcons had a 12 point lead at the half only to see the Tornado cause Crest to turnover the ball multiple times (11 in the second half) leading to many break away layups. McCaskey took its first lead of the second half with a bit over 3 minutes left in the game. Bottom line is that McCaskey won a tight game on the road to take over the second slot in Section 1.

McCaskey got off to a great start – 7-3 to start the game. (Eric Centeno jumper, Jonathon Byrd 3 ball, Centeno follow). Strangely the Tornado would would score its last basket on a layup by Markell Caine with over 4 minutes left in the period. Crest would run off the last 11 points J’Veon Reyes-Vega led the charge with a jumper, a three-ball and super sweet Euro step to avoid a charge. Crest finished the period with a drive by Owen Chernich, 6’ jn. , 16-9 after the first.

Crest outscored McCaskey 14-9 in the second stanza. Neither team could string together major runs, although Crest had two stretches where they had 4-0 runs, which were enough to give them a nice cushion at the half. Aiden Schomp, 6’6” jn, scored on a follow, and Chernich hit a jumper for the Falcons:  30-18 at the break.

McCaskey turned up the heat on the defensive end in the 3rd and 4th periods. The Tornado started the third on a 9-3 run to pull themselves closer to the Falcons (33-27 around the 5 minute mark). McCaskey cut the lead to 1 late in the third, but Crest scored the last 4 points of the quarter (Layup by Danny Speaks, 6’ soph., and a follow by Fernando Marquez, 6’2” jn.) 41-36 after 3.

Cedar Crest would be limited to 8 points in the last period. McCaskey harassed the Falcon guards and pushed the Falcons offensive way out on the floor. Make no mistake, the Tornado is led by Jonathon Byrd. Byrd was so tough on the defensive end and his teammates followed suit. The pressure and traps took their toll, not only leading to steals but causing the Falcons to call several timeouts to get out of trouble. A big three-ball by De’Shaun McFadden cut the Crest lead to 44-41 at the 6 minute mark. Enter Mr. Byrd- a foul shot, a layup off his steal and another layup tied the game at 46. Schomp would hit a foul shot to give Crest its last lead at 47-46. Caine would score a nice twisty layup off a – take a guess? – Byrd assist. Centeno would calmly sink 2 fouls shots at the 57 second mark: 50-47 McCaskey.  Game over, right? Well maybe… Schomp got inside and made the bucket but missed on the foul shot: 50-49 McCaskey with 31 ticks left. Caine topped off his evening by making a foul shot at the 23 second mark: 51-49. Crest had possession of the ball with 11 seconds to go off of a missed foul shot. The Falcons ran the ball up the floor, but Crest’s Coach Tommy Smith didn’t like what he saw and called his last timeout with 4.8 seconds left. Crest got a nice drive by Marquez only to watch it fall off the rim, but Schomp was there for a follow only to see his shot fall off the basket as well.

Points:
McCaskey: Markelle Caine 13, Jonathan Byrd 12, De’Shaun McFadden 12, Eric Centeno 10
Cedar Crest: J’Veon Reyes-Vega 13, Fernando Marquez 9, Owen Chernich 9

Unofficial Stats:
Rebounds
McCaskey 26, Cedar Crest 20

Turnovers
Cedar Crest 16, McCaskey 15

Blocks: Crest 3

Sidelines…A good crowd at Crest… McCaskey fans traveled well….Not a lot of fouls shots taken (9 by Crest and 11 by McCaskey) which is typical for a Section 1 game…We had a few requests for LLhoops t-shirts …. still waiting on the pict via twitter….Both coaches took some time to talk with us before the game…Sat with LNP’s Mike Gross tonight. Check his write up in LNP online and in print…..McCaskey is 8-6 overall and 4-1 in Section 1 play…Crest is 6-6 and 3-2 in the LL. …Crest travels to Wilson this weekend…McCaskey plays John Bartram on Sat and Unionville next Tues. – both at home….It’s pretty special to see high school players get excited after a game. The Tornado locker room was loud and proud after the game. Even more special was the players congratulating Player of the Game – Markell Caine after his interview. Really really good stuff!

POG: Markell Caine, McCaskey

IF SOMEONE COULD PLEASE SEND US McCaskey’s HEIGHTS- PLEASE? Only 2 LL teams don’t have their heights on llhoops.com. McCaskey and CV. 🙂

~Dell Jackson

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