East opens season with 61-36 win against Timber Creek

Coming into the first game against Timber Creek, nobody knew what to expect from this year's Cougars basketball team. Chris Santo was gone, John Valore retired, and David Allen (former CHW basketball coach) was taking over as head coach of the Cougars. That night, the Cougar Countrymen were in full swing, going with a "red-out" in order to support the team. All questions were pretty much answered as the Cougars took it to Timber Creek, blowing them out 61-36.

Starting for the Cougars would be Jesse Gold, Marc Schlessel, Jake Gurkin, Gary Hettinger, and Hank Davis.

The game started out with a bang, with the Cougars opening the scoring with a 10-2 run 3:29 into the first quarter, prompting the Timber Creek coach to call a timeout. The Cougars never looked back, closing out the quarter with an 18-6 lead, and in full control of the game. The Cougars run-and-gun offense really couldn't be contained by Timber Creek, as the result of Jesse Gold's superior passing skills, and the abilities of Gary Hettinger, Jake Gurkin, and Marc Schlessel to get down the court to receive Gold's passes for easy layups.

The second quarter wasn't much different then the first, as the Cougars outscored Timber Creek 16-11, taking a 34-17 lead into the half. Combining for 18 of the Cougars 34 points at half were seniors Marc Schlessel and Jake Gurkin. With David Allen as the new coach, many of the Cougars supporters were also able to see some substitutions, with Brett Roseman, Jake Silpe, and Austin Wetzler coming off the bench to give the starters some well deserved rest.

The third and fourth quarters resulted in the Cougars expanding their lead, with the Cougars leading 42-19 after the third quarter, and finishing off the beatdown with a 61-36 victory. There were many high points in the game, with some very promising play from freshman Jake Silpe and sophomore Gary Hettinger, who finished with 12 points.

With East starting off the 2011-2012 season with a win against Timber Creek, they hope to move to 2-0 when the Cougars take on cross-town rivals Cherry Hill West Monday night at 7:00 pm at West, where David Allen will coach his first game ever against the Lions.

Final Stats:

Hank Davis : 1 point
Jesse Gold : 3 points
Jake Gurkin : 14 points
Brett Roseman : 6 points
Marc Schlessel : 18 points
Gary Hettinger : 12 points
Austin Wetzler : 7 points