Cliffside Park was not able to break out of their rough patch on Saturday as the team picked up their third straight loss. They took a 63-48 bruising from the Northern Highlands Highlanders. While losing is never fun, the Raiders can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' New Jersey basketball rankings (they are ranked 210th, while the Highlanders are ranked 41st).
Despite the defeat, Cliffside Park saw an underclassman step up: sophomore Thomas Calabrese posted 28 points along with six boards and five assists. The team also got some help courtesy of Jamil Gonzalez, who earned 13 points and five rebounds.
Northern Highlands' win was a true team effort, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Corey Begleiter, who went 5-for-10 to rack up 13 points in addition to five boards and five steals. The dominant performance gave Begleiter a new career-high in steals. Isaac Anderson was another key player, going 7-for-12 on his way to 17 points.
Cliffside Park's loss dropped their record down to 12-12. As for Northern Highlands, they are on a roll lately: they've won four of their last five matchups. That's provided a nice bump to their 18-8 record this season.
Cliffside Park will look to defend their home court on Monday against McNair Academic at 6:00 p.m. Cliffside Park is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 51.9 points per game this season. As for Northern Highlands, they will square off against Dwight Morrow at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Dwight Morrow knows how to get points on the board -- the team has finished with 55 points or more in their past 15 contests -- so hopefully Northern Highlands likes a good challenge.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
