Cougars win last game of regular season

In the final game of the regular season yesterday, the Cougars defeated Paul VI in a close game, 56-53. The Cougars have ended the regular season on a good note, winning their last 5 games and 8 out of their last 9.

The game started out poorly for the Cougars who were down 18-11 at the end of the first quarter. In a stark contrast from their previous game against Medford Tech the Cougars did not shoot the ball very well and allowed Paul VI to get off some good shots.

As a whole, East did not play great in this game, but still trimmed the lead to 4 by the half. Chris Santo was very quiet in the first half on his way to a very mundane 14 points (at least for him).

The Cougars turned it on in the third quarter as they made up the deficit and took a three point lead and their shooting improved as they made many of their 11 threes on the day.

The fourth quarter was extremely tense as the lead seemed to sway back and forth. With under two minutes left, the Cougars switched to a tight defense and were able to force a couple of Paul VI turnovers. The Cougars were down four when Marc Schlessel hit a three to put the Cougars down by one with about 1:45 left. After a Paul VI miss, Schlessel was fouled in the act of shooting and he nailed both of his free throws to give the Cougars a one point lead. After another Paul VI failed possession, the Cougars wasted some time on the clock and Seth Friedman hit two more free throws to give the Cougars a three point lead with about 30 seconds left.

Paul VI missed yet another opportunity to score and fouled the Cougars when they got the ball back. The front end of a one-and-one was missed by East with 3 seconds left and Paul VI heaved up a half-court shot for the tie. The shot fell short and the Cougars entered the playoffs with a victory.

The Cougars end the regular season with a record of 18-7. The playoffs start on Tuesday at Southern Regional. It should be a great game. Nate and I will be doing a live Twitter feed for all of those who cannot make the game. This is the link for the feed: http://twitter.com/EastsideOnline

Stats

Friedman-13 points 9 assists

Gerstein-6 points

Santo-14 points 12 rebounds

Schlessel-14 points 4-7 from 3

Gurkin-9 points

Player of the Game: Schlessel for scoring 5 straight points to give East the lead for good late in the fourth quarter.

School single game assists record broken as Cougars shoot the lights out

WOW. The Cougars destroyed a solid Medford Tech team today 94-63. In the process, Seth Friedman set a school single game assists record of 20 assists as he closes in on the school's single season assist record.

After Tech scoring right with the Cougars at the beginning of the first quarter, the Cougars led by 14 at the end of the quarter 33-19. If you need a summary of this quarter let's just say I had to ask statistician Dillon Rosenblatt if the Cougars missed a shot. Marc Schlessel ended the quarter with 14 points and Ben Gerstein had 12.


The amazing shooting continued into the second quarter. The Cougars ended the half with a 54-28 lead. Schlessel had 22 points and 5 rebounds. Santo had 14 and 6. Friedman was well on his way to the school record with 12 assists at the half. The Cougars shot an astounding 12-17 from beyond the arc in the first half and 9-13 from two point range.


The game ended up as a complete blow-out as the Cougars cruised to a victory. Friedman recorded his 20th assist with about a minute left in the game as Andrew Nahum scored a three point basket.


Stats
Schlessel-33 points 11 reb 12-15 overall 9-12 from 3
Santo-24 points 19 reb
Gerstein-12 points on 4 threes 4 steals
Friedman-7 points 20 assists
Jake Gurkin-7 points
17-28 from 3 as a team on three pointers
31-59 53% overall shooting


Player(s) of the Game: Friedman and Schlessel. Even though Friedman set the school assists record in a single game, Schlessel shot brilliantly and helped East build the lead. 9-12 from the 3 is ridiculous. Friedman ascended to a new level in breaking the single-game record, which was previously held by Adam Schwartz who had 19 assists in 1991.

Cougars Defeat Paulsboro 67-58

In a very tight game with a misleading final score, the Cougars defeated Paulsboro 67-58 just two days after defeating rival Cherry Hill West. But both of us saw a very strong Cougar effort against Paulsboro.

While this game was close throughout, it seemed as though East had the upper hand throughout. Even though these two teams are in different conferences and are not rivals, play became intense in the second half after Ben Gerstein seemed to effectively annoy one of Paulsboro's best players and the player proceeded to slam a dunk of the back rim and send the ball flying through the air. Many seemingly "touch" fouls were called on both teams in the backcourt to the annoyance of fans of both teams.

As usual, Chris Santo played tremendously. Although his day shooting-wise did not start off on a great note, he played beautifully as the game progressed and ended up with 40 points. The Cougars started off slowly as a team, down 18-11 at the end of the first quarter. They got the deficit down to one at the half with a score of 31-30 in favor of Paulsboro.

East gained a 49-43 lead by the end of the third quarter due to the offensive explosion by Santo who had 33 points by the end of the quarter. The fourth quarter was very close as the COugars could not put away Paulsboro until the very end of the game. With about three minutes left, the game was tied at 56. Then, a Santo two-point field goal and a foul shot brought the lead up to three. A Gurkin layup made the Cougar lead five right before Paulsboro scored on their next possession to cut the lead to three. Then as the Cougars tried to freeze the ball to let the clock run out in the final minute, Marc Schlessel was fouled and hit both of his free throws, effectively giving East the win with less than 30 seconds left.

An amazing statistic from the game was that the Cougars ended up with three players in double figures in rebounds in Santo, Jake Gurkin and Marc Schlessel. Although it seemed at times as though Paulsboro's tall freshman center was getting rebounds at ease, the Cougars truly held their own on the boards.

Stats

Santo 40 points and 13 rebounds

Friedman 12 assists

Schlessel-9 points and 11 rebounds

Gerstein 10 points

Gurkin 14 rebounds

Player of the Game: Santo. His explosive scoring allowed the Cougars to win.

NOTE: the playoffs are only one week away. The Cougars open up at Southern Regional High School next Tuesday night. Even though it is a long drive away, we hope everyone can make it.

East defeats Pennsauken in game's final seconds

The Cougars pulled out a win in a closely contested 77-75 game at Pennsauken. Although neither Nate nor I could make it to the game, it sounds like a great one. In a season in which the Cougars have not always closed out games as well as they would like, not only did the Cougars finish this one strong, but they came from behind at the end.

In a game that was very close from start to finish, the Cougars found themselves down with about 1:30 left in the game, but still ended up winning. Unfazed by their earlier difficult loss to Pennsauken at East by way of a Pennsauken buzzer-beating three the Cougars played tough during the stretch. Santo provided the East scoring in the final minute en route to his 40 points on the day. East won this game with 3 seconds left as Santo hit 2 free throws to put the Cougars up by two. On the ensuing Pennsauken possession, the Cougars stole the ball to seal the victory.

Here are the stats on the game:

Santo-40 points 13 rebounds 15-25 on two point field goal attempts

Friedman-5 points 11 assists

Gerstein 2 points

Gurkin 11 points 7 rebounds

Schlessel-10 points 3 three pointers

Zaken-9 points

Player of the Game: Santo. Not only did he score a ton of points, but he was also extremely clutch in this close game.

Cougars drop to 13-7 on the season after 53-45 loss to Washington Township

The Cougars had another close game with a division opponent today, and for the second time this season, East fell to Washington Township. Honestly, not a lot can be said about the game as far as how both teams played. Neither team truly outplayed the other; in fact for most of the game, the difference between both teams was two points, with East and Twp. trading the lead numerous times throughout the game. The quarter by quarter scores truly shows just how even a match this game was. After one quarter, the game was tied 14-14. At half, the Cougars were up 4. After the third quarter, Twp. led by two. And after a few questionable officiating calls, Twp. ending up winning by eight, even though the majority of the fourth quarter was a 2-3 point game.

Here is East's stat line for the game:

Chris Santo- 33 points, 12/14 from the free throw line, 12 rebounds

Marc Sclessel- 5 points, 6 rebounds

Jake Gurkin- 2 points, 8 rebounds

Ben Gerstein- 4 assists

Seth Friedman- 5 points, 8 assists

In my mind (and I would bet that almost everyone at the game feels the way I do), the story of this game was the officiating crew. To be fair, the officials affected the outcome of the game for both teams way more than officials should. Numerous calls were missed and unnecessary calls were made. It was just a poor showing for the officiating crew today. Being that I am a reporter, it is my job to write without bias in my articles. But because I am a diehard East basketball fan, I am going to speak as a fan instead of a reporter for this one occasion. And because most, if not all, of the readers of this blog are East fans, I hope this is not a problem for anyone.

Here are the calls (or lack of calls) that stood out as bad officiating in my mind:

-Some of the calls the officiating crew made and failed to make during the game were absolutely ridiculous. Twice

during the game (and I am going to leave opposing players' names out of this post), a Twp. player hung on the rim for a significant amount of time. I will admit that I am not an expert when it comes to rules in basketball, but I do know that hanging on the rim is not allowed and doing so should result in a technical foul call. Both times the Twp. player hung on the rim, no technical foul was called at all. I wonder if a foul would even have been called if the player had broken the basket after hanging on the rim.

-After a missed shot in the first half, a Twp. player stormed up the court and absolutely smacked Chris Santo in the shoulder for no apparent reason. Santo had rebounded the ball and began dribbling up court when the player, apparently out of anger, pulled his arm above his head a made a full swing at Santo's arm. No foul was called.

-Later on, a Twp. player basically headlocked Marc Schlessel. Schlessel was in position to rebound the ball, and out of nowhere, the Twp. player brought Schlessel to the ground. No foul was called.

-Finally, at the end of the game, East was down three with seconds to go in the game. A Twp. player rebounded the ball, and Chris Santo tried to either grab the ball from the Twp. player or foul him to stop the clock. Santo was called for a flagrant foul (or possibly intentional foul), giving Twp. two foul shots and possession, putting the game out of reach for the Cougars. Everyone in the crowd was shocked with the call- there was definitely a foul on the play, but there is no way that the foul was worthy of a flagrant foul call, as Santo was clearly trying to steal the ball from the Twp. rebounder.

*On a positive note, before the game Chris Santo received a commemorative basketball for breaking the all- time scoring record at East. Congratulations once again to Chris for his record!

Game today versus Capital Prep cancelled

The Cougars next game is tomorrow versus Washington Twp. at home.

Cougars set to travel to Southern Regional for first round of playoffs

Yesterday, Saturday February 13, the NJSIAA (New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association) released the official boys basketball playoff brackets. Originally, it appeared as if the Cougars would be the 9 seed and play Oakcrest, but the official bracket turned out differently.

The Cougars are the 10 seed and will travel to 7th seeded Southern Regional on March 2nd. East's first round matchup definitely bodes well for the team, as Southern traveled to East earlier in the season to take on the Cougars. In the game, East won 78-61.

If East wins their first round matchup, the Cougars will take on either 2nd seed Shawnee or 15th seed Cherry Hill West. The bracket can be viewed in its entirety and the link below:

http://www.bracketmaker.com/tmenu.cfm?tid=350559&tclass=South%2C%20Group%20IV

The girls' basketball team earned the 9 seed in the playoffs. Their bracket can be viewed at the link below as well:

http://www.bracketmaker.com/tmenu.cfm?tid=348237&tclass=South%2C%20Group%20IV

East defeats Ocean City, 54-46, in the 10th annual Olympic-Cape Challenge

The Cougars win versus Ocean City today pushed East's regular season record to 13-6. East has been playing very well as of late, as the Cougars are 6-1 in their last 7 games.

Because the game was all the way at St. Augustine, I nor Max could attend the game, so I can not comment on the gritty details of the game. But a few players who I talked to told me that East had control for pretty much the entire game, and that the game was not nearly as close as the final score indicates. At half, the Cougars were up 15. After 3 quarters, East was up 18. In the fourth quarter, Ocean City outscored East by 10, pushing the final score to an 8 point difference. But the reason why Ocean City's appears to have dominated the final quarter is due to a combination of a couple things: the Cougars holding the ball trying to waste the clock and not converting all of their free throw opportunities.

As has been the norm since last year, Chris Santo poured in another 20+ point performance, as he scored a game high 27 points in addition to his 9 rebounds. Santo has scored at least 20 points in 17 out of the Cougars' 19 games this season.

Sophomore Marc Schlessel hit 3 three pointers, en route to his 11 points, and fellow 10th grader Jake Gurkin contributed 10 points.

Guard Ben Gerstein had 4 points, and point guard Seth Friedman had 2 points alongside 12 assists, pushing his season assist total to 212. Friedman is currently averaging an impressive 11.16 assists per game.

East's next game is this Monday, February 15 against Capital Prep Charter. The game is at Cherry Hill East.

East Manhandles Woodrow Wilson as Santo Breaks School Points Record

Even though the Cougars won big today 81-29, the big news on the night was Chris Santo ('11) breaking the school's all-time points record in the first half and creating a new school record of 1,595 points after he finished with 31 today in the game which was moved up because of the impending bad weather.

Unfortunately, few were on hand to witness the historic event based on the game's location, the moved up time and the weather. Luckily for everyone, we have much more Santo basketball to see. This is what is truly amazing about him breaking this historic record. Not including the seniors, we will all have more than 40 opportunities to see him play and lead East. Santo's career points will only keep on increasing as he continues through his high school career with lots of time still remaining. Although breaking records is usually reserved for the end of careers, Santo has much more time left to not only break more records, but to set a completely new standard for Cherry Hill East basketball.

Now, on the game tonight, Santo added 15 rebounds to his 31 points. Seth Friedman ('10) scored 9 points, had six rebounds, 5 steals and 13 assists and Edou Zaken ('11) added in 12 of his own points.

As a team, the Cougars received scoring from various other players including Marc Schlessel ('12), Jake Gurkin ('12), Jake Fischer ('12), Andrew Nahum ('10) and Ben Gerstein ('10). Almost everyone contributed in this blowout.

Player of the Game:Santo in honor of his illustrious career and game. Usually setting school records is for the end of careers. For Santo, this is just the beginning.

Important News/Updates

-According to the Courier Post, East forward Chris Santo currently has the highest points per game average in South Jersey with 28.8 (489 points in 17 games this season).

-The Cougar's next game is on Tuesday, February 9 versus Woodrow Wilson. The Philadelphia Inquirer has the location of the game at East, but I will post the exact location when I find out for sure.

-After talking to a few players, the Cougars have apparently earned the 9th seed in the playoffs, which would mean East would travel to Mays Landing to take on Oakrest in the first round of the playoffs. This not an official matchup, however. It is just an educated estimate as to who the Cougars will play after comparing all of the records of Group 4 teams. The official playoff pairings are set to be realeased on February 12th, so I will update everyone with the official playoff matchup when it is released.

Cougars Edge Eastern, 55-52

This time, the shot hit the front rim. After losing two heartbreakers in close games in these past few weeks, the Cougars finally won the close one. After Pennsauken's disheartening buzzer-beater to beat the Cougars and Cherokee seeming to make every shot in the final minutes of the game on Tuesday, Eastern's final game-tying shot missed out today to let the Cougars escape with a three point victory over rival Eastern.

In a season in which the Cougars have only two games in which they have won by less than eight (both against Eastern), this game followed the similar trend of the Cougars outplaying the other team most of the game but losing the lead at the end. Today, the Cougars played superbly in the first half as Chris Santo ('11) dominated on his way to 23 of East's 38 first-half points and a seven-point Cougar lead. In the first half, the Cougar lead reached 11 after a Santo offensive board and layup.

After half-time, the Cougars play went downhill. The team's shooting went ice cold, scoring only 10 points in the 3rd quarter and seven in the fourth. Eastern cut the lead to 40-39 before a Marc Schlessel ('12) three and a Jake Gurkin ('12) three and layup brought the lead back to seven. Just as the Cougars were about to head back to the bench at the end of the quarter, Eastern hit a last-second three to cut the lead to four. This was going to be a close one.

The Cougars opened the fourth with a Seth Friedman ('10) three, his only points in the game in addition to 14 assists. One of the Cougars problems in this game was that they sometimes suffered lapses on the boards. Despite Santo ending up with 21 rebounds, in the fourth quarter the Cougars failed to get the clutch defensive rebound. When Eastern was down seven with about six minutes left, the Cougars gave Eastern three or four opportunities at a basket due to Eastern offensive rebounds. Although Eastern failed to capitalize, most teams will in that situation.

On the offensive side, the Cougars worked the ball around to let the clock dwindle. After a Cougar intentional foul and Eastern basket with under four minutes remaining, Eastern cut the lead to five. Then three. This game was up for grabs. Then Santo re-emerged on the scoring front and hit a layup to extend the lead to five. On the ensuing possession, Eastern hit an ugly jump-shot to make the lead three. Then after a Cougar turnover, Eastern hit a layup to cut the lead to one.

Another Santo layup extended the lead to three. Eastern failed to score on their next possession. They then proceeded to foul Friedman multiple times until they sent him to the line with 10 seconds left in the game for a one and one. Friedman missed the front end of the one and one so Eastern got the rebound and the ball. East fouled with 1.5 seconds left to force Eastern to have to quickly force a three. Then, the final shot hit the front rim for Eastern and the Cougars pulled their record to 11-6.

Player of the Game: Santo. With his 27 points and 21 rebounds in addition to his clutch rebounds at the end, Santo came through when it mattered most for the Cougars. In addition to his great play today, Santo is only nine points away from breaking the school record of 1,572 points set by Frank Williams in the 1985-1986 season. The Cougars next game will be Saturday at East against Capital Prep Charter.

Cougars lose heartbreaker to Cherokee, 63-62

Instead of the normal post-game write up, I thought I would just post some of my feelings on the game. I am sure there will be an interesting write up in the paper tomorrow that will chronicle exactly what happened, but for those who weren't able to attend the game I will provide a brief synopsis.

This game was honestly probably the most exciting regular season contest I have ever attended. It was up there with the Williamstown playoff basketball game last year- it was that type of atmosphere in the DiBart.

In the first half, the Cougars absolutely dominated, and I mean DOMINATED. Santo finished the first half with 28 points against arguably the best team in South Jersey. To score 28 points in a game versus Cherokee is terrific, but to do it all in one half, is unbelievable. At one point in the first half- and I do not have the exact number- Santo probably made ten field goals in a row. It was a remarkable display, and Santo finished the contest with 37 points on 14/17 shooting, 9/11 from the FT line, 13 rebounds, and five steals.

Seth Friedman continued his stellar play at point guard. He scored 9 points (on 3-3 three point shooting) and dished out 13 assists, including one phenomenal no look pass to Santo in the first half. On the pass, Friedman was driving to the basket, and while in mid air, made an adjustment, literally threw the ball over his shoulder while looking the other way to a wide open Santo, who scored the basket on a layup. Marc Schlessel hit some big three pointers and finished with 12 points. One of his three pointers put the Cougars up by 1 point late in the fourth quarter after Ben Gerstein made an amazing heads up play. Cherokee in-bounded the ball and Gerstein snuck behind Cherokee's point guard Willis Nicholson and stole the ball from him. That possession is when Schlessel hit the big three to put the Cougars up one. Jake Gurkin also played well. He only scored 4 points but he had some big rebounds on defense and did a good job in-bounding the ball against a tough Cherokee press.

After Cherokee's phenomenal senior point guard Willis Nicholson hit a three at the buzzer before half, the Cougars entered half time with a 7 point lead. Just so I do give credit where it is due, Nicholson's performance was on par with Santos today. Nicholson, who is widely regarded as the best point guard in South Jersey, showed why he has earned that reputation, as he hit 5 three pointers, shot 15/19 from the field, and scored 35 points.

To sum up the second half, Cherokee quickly made a comeback and after the third quarter, Cherokee led by two. The Cougars kept it up though and with 27 seconds left in the game, the Cougars were down one point and had the ball. The team called time out, and when play resumed, Friedman killed some clock at the top of the key, before driving to the basket with about 15 seconds remaining. Friedman tried to put up a shot but it was blocked by a Cherokee player. East fouled with 6.5 seconds remaining. The Cherokee player who went to the FT line missed both, and Santo rebounded the ball in traffic. All of a sudden, Santo fell to the floor and lost the ball. It looked as if Santo was fouled on the play, but it is difficult to know for sure from where I was sitting. Cherokee recovered the ball and that was the game.

This game was literally a heartbreaker, and everyone supporting East undoubtedly felt drained after the game. Perhaps my co-sports editor Mike Davis put it best when he whispered to me during the latter stages of the game, "I feel more nervous now than I did for my Bar Mitzvah." Quite frankly, I don't think he was exaggerating because I felt similar nerves. The entire fourth quarter my stomach was in knots.

But as hard as it may be for everyone who was at the game, forget the loss. A lot of good came out of this game. The Cougars lost by 1 point to arguably the best team in South Jersey. East controlled the entire first half, and after losing a 7 point lead, East made comeback after comeback, taking the lead numerous times in the second half. It is evident that the Cougars can keep up with any team in South Jersey, and should feel confident against any team they face going forward. If they can come this close to beating the best team in SJ-and they probably should have won- they can beat anyone.