Coach Johnson’s first year as head coach of the boy’s basketball team was a success. Leading the team to an impressive 15-10 record, the Mountaineers won the Skyland Mountain Division, going 7-1 in conference play with the lone loss coming from a close matchup against Manville. The boys secured the division for the first time since 2017 with an exciting win over Warren Hills. Senior Connor Laverty on winning the division:“It felt great, it was one our goals going into the year so it was exciting to get to cross it off.”
The boys started the season strong with an impressive win against Manville. After that, the boys first true test was against Gill in their holiday tournament. After beating The Patrick School in the first round of the tournament, they advanced. They kept it close at half time, against a Top 20 team. However, Gill had a second half surge, leading them to a win. This gave the Mountaineers momentum despite the loss because of the close score against a very well rounded Gill team.
After that, the team went on a three game winning streak, which eventually came to an end when they went to Manville for the second time, losing in a close game, 56-52.
The next home stretch saw the boys beat a very tough Governor Livingston team, then moved on to face a very talented Pingry team. While the Mountaineers kept it close throughout much of the game, Pingry would end up winning by 6. This was another tough loss to a good opponent that gave them lots of momentum.
In what was the most impressive win of the season, the boys defeated a very tough opponent in South Plainfield 79-61. This gave the boys 45 power points in total. Connor Laverty led the way with 22 points and 10 rebounds in this impressive win.Connor has also led the way scoring this season, with a total of 353 points. led by and Senior Logan Marks added 241 points and Gabe Morales. Senior Matt Mariani said “The season was enjoyable and I felt that we showed all the hard work we put in the last four years paid off”
The boys secured the 7th seed for the playoffs, leading them to a home playoff game against Hanover Park. After an exciting 74-63 win, it propelled them to face the 2 seed, Newark Collegiate. After a close game the boys season came to end, losing 62-49. This was a very successful first season in the books for Coach Johnson and the boys basketball.
