The boys’ basketball team went up against Mahwah this Thursday in a late season rematch. Mahwah came into this game after a huge win against Ramsey putting River Dell one game back from first in the league with one league game left for each team. Mahwah, 13-11, was led by Junior Brian Appiah who just reached his 600th point in 47 games. The Hawks came into the game 12-8 winning the majority of their last 10 games. Needing this win against Mahwah and a loss for Ramsey to split the league title made this senior night a big game.
The Hawks started all five seniors for the first time all year and two of those seniors got their first start.
Mahwah played a zone defense to start the game and continued to sit in it throughout. The first quarter was back and forth with each team trading points. Mahwah scored with 2 seconds left on the clock, to bring the game within four to end the quarter as River Dell had a slight 15-11 lead. Mahwah slowly fought back with quick scoring spurts though. The game remained close and was tied for a large portion of the second quarter until they went into halftime knotted at 28.
The second half started just like the first, with a low scoring, slow-paced third quarter. With Mahwah still sitting back in their zone, neither team could get a consistent offense going. Mahwah took a slight lead going into the fourth up 41-39.
But that lead could not be sustained.
Offensively River Dell was much more dominant in the fourth quarter, scoring 34 points in those 8 minutes and only holding Mahwah to 24. With 5.9 seconds left in the game, seniors, Sean Golden , Liam Hickey and Phil Doornheim all came off the court in the 73-65 win for River Dell.
For Mahwah Brian Appiah and Tyson Van Pelt led the scoring with 18 and 15 points while River Dell’s Sean Golden had 24 points. Liam Hickey also had 18 points with many keeping the team in the game early. Sadly, Ramsey destroyed Indian Hills by over 40 points securing them the league title with River Dell in a close second.
