The Queen of Peace boys basketball made it a complete sweep in the BCSL American after defeating Englewood, 78-61 on Thursday. Five different Golden Griffins scored in double figures led by Javae Gilchrist with 21 points while Bilal Dixon had 19 points in the BCSL American win.
It was also a big night for Al-Don Muhammad who dropped in 15 points including his thousandth point in his high school career. Muhammad played his first two years at Good Counsel in Newark.
The win also gave the Golden Griffins an 18-0 record in the BCSL American and raised its record to 23-2 for the regular season before the start of the state tournament. Queen of Peace started to pull away in the second quarter and led 38-26 by halftime.
As the number one seed in Non-Public A North, the Golden Griffins starting this week are going to try to do something that eluded them from the Bergen County Jamboree, win a championship.
Other teams preparing for the state tournament saw St. Mary’s fall to DePaul in Wayne, 61-48. The Gaels started out well and led 16-11 after the first quarter. But St. Mary’s could not keep up with DePaul the rest of the way and they found themselves down 32-22 at halftime. Travis Taylor led the Gaels with 17 points while Doug Ford added 14 points.
St. Mary’s fell to 15-6 while North Arlington’s record dropped to 13-10 after being nipped by Leonia, 58-57 at home on Thursday night. Peter Santos had 18 points, but could not match Lions Chris Carillo who had 28 points.
The Gaels stayed in the hunt for a share of the BCSL National championship with a 54-34 win at home against Weehawken. Wood-Ridge, though, the team that St. Mary’s is trying to at least get a share of the league championship defeated North Arlington, 65-51.
For the Gaels they were in good shape by halftime with a 27-15 lead. St. Mary’s put the Indians away in the fourth quarter. Andrew Tedesco had a game-high 18 points to lead the Gaels. For Tedesco he knocked down four, three pointers. Doug Ford added 13 points that included three, three pointers for St. Mary’s.
And North Arlington did not help out the Gaels against Wood-Ridge. The Vikings found themselves behind the high-flying Blue Devils from the first quarter. North Arlington was behind 19-8 after the first quarter and could not catch up to Wood-Ridge the rest of the way. Santos again led the Vikings, this time with 14 points while Ryan Kenny and Joe Monahan added eight points each.
Lyndhurst got ready for the state tournament with a 76-64 victory over Harrison. The Golden Bears pulled away in the second quarter with a dominating period where they outscored the Blue Tide, 23-8. Jesse Estevez had a big night for Lyndhurst with 24 points while Louis Baroody and Anthony Dri added 17 and a dozen points for the Golden Bears in the BCSL National contest.
