Even though the East Rutherford Cavaliers scored an imposing 72 points on Friday, the Gaston Day Spartans still came out on top. Gaston Day wrapped up 2023 with a 87-72 win over East Rutherford. Given Gaston Day's advantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 109th, while East Rutherford is ranked 272nd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Gaston Day's win was the result of several impressive offensive performances. One of the most notable came from Deshawn Coulter, who scored 25 points. The contest was Coulter's third in a row with at least ten points. Another player making a difference was Kurt Hunter, who scored 18 points.
East Rutherford lost despite a true team effort on the offense, the best among them being Jj Arrowood, who dropped a double-double on 14 points and 18 rebounds. Those 18 rebounds set a new season-high mark for him. Dacen "pop" Petty was another key contributor, scoring 18 points along with seven assists and six rebounds.
Even though they lost, East Rutherford were working as a unit and finished the game with 21 assists. That's the most assists they've managed all season.
Gaston Day's win bumped their record up to 11-7. As for East Rutherford, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 6-5.
Gaston Day will look to defend their home court on Friday against Metrolina Christian Academy at 6:00 p.m. Hopefully Metrolina Christian Academy focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up six on Tuesday. East Rutherford and Crest will face off at 7:30 p.m. on January 2nd without much rest after finishing up games yesterday. Crest will be looking to extend their current five-game winning streak.
