MONTCLAIR- It hasn’t’ exactly been an easy last six months for Montclair basketball as off-season transfers and in-season injuries have certainly created more challenges; however, the players that are there continue to persevere and end goal remains the same.
“We’re playing for March,” said coach Cecil Stinson. “Our guys have to understand that as long as we learn from these games that we will continue to get better.
“If we want to try and make a run in either the counties or states then we have to continue to keep working hard against what we know is a tough schedule.
“You can’t get there at tournament time and look like a deer in headlights because some of these guys have never been there before.”
Following a recent 5-game losing streak the Mounties (6-6, 2-2) have bounced back nicely of late posting three straight decisive victories, 68-48 over Central on Wednesday (Jan. 15), 68-51 over Millburn on Thursday at home, and then 61-38 at Columbia on Saturday afternoon.
The Mounties have been playing the past two weeks without senior guard Jahi Whitney, who is the team’s best player and leading scorer the past three seasons, who needs some more time before returning after absorbing a fractured toe.
Also on the shelf had been one of the team’s best defenders, senior swingman Jarius Davis, who suffered a pulled hamstring muscle in a Jan. 7th triple-overtime loss to Bloomfield.
Davis returned against Columbia in Saturday's game and contibuted a rebound, two assists, a block and steal off the bench as he was welcomed back by Montclair.
“Jahi and Jarius are specialists and we can’t replace them, but we have other talented guys who simply have to go out there and get the job done for us,” continued Stinson. “We want to push tempo and don’t believe in walking the ball upcourt.
“We want to run and then if we don’t have anything we get into our offense. I want us to play aggressive, but while also being smart, and I’m very confident in our guys when we’re playing our brand of ball and making shots; and I wouldn’t want to play us when we’re clicking like we’re capable of.”
The Mounties had it all clicking vs. Millburn in taking early control of Thursday’s Super Essex Conference-Colonial Division contest behind strong efforts from senior forward Martin Quiroz (20 points, 5 rebounds) and junior guards Mason Determann (16 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 block, 1 steal) and La’Mear Singletary (8 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists).
Solid role players such as senior guard Grayson Roper (8 points), sophomore forward Kody Nesbitt (6 points, 6 rebounds) and senior guards Lawson Richberg (5 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists) and Myles Nicholson (5 points) also contributed to one of the better all-around efforts this season by Montclair.
The Mounties were coming off their most balanced scoring effort of the season the day before in roaring past winless Central (0-9) behind 13 points from Nicholson, 12 points each from Nesbitt and Quiroz and 10 each by Singletary and Richberg.
The 6-foot-2 Quiroz, who like the injured Davis was a key member of the Mounties football team, and Singletary, the first-year varsity player with great jumping ability and strong inside moves for a player who is just 5-11, have been taking on most of the scoring burden the past few weeks, and will continue to be vital cogs even when the team soon welcomes Whitney back off the injury list
“I’ve told Martin, who is one of our more experienced guys, that he is someone we need to step up and he has responded,” said Stinson. “LMear spent his first two years with our freshman and JV teams and we knew that he can score and we talk to him about just being more aggressive and that we’re confident in him because we know what he is capable of.”
Meanwhile, the schedule, both in and out of the SEC, remains daunting. Top opponents within the Colonial Division, such as Irvington and Caldwell, are formidable obstacles, and there have been other contests out of the Colonial, such as against American Division member Payne Tech (narrow 44-41 Mounties loss) and solid out-of-area foes such as Bergen County’s Teaneck and Northern Highlands.
“I have reminded our guys that our schedule is not getting any easier,” said Stinson. “We scheduled these games for a reason.
“The most important thing is for us to keep our heads up, try and stay healthy and remember what the end goal is because we ultimately want to win games in our state section (North 1, Group 4).”
NOTES- The Mounties have had to withstand the transfer of four key members of last year’s ECT JV championship team and the previous year’s ECT freshmen champs who are now juniors at their respective new schools with 6-3 strongman Jayvon Rogers at Columbia, who has had a 37-point output vs. Millburn to his credit; 6-3 Tom Diomedi, a 2-year starter at Montclair, who now comes off the bench at St. Joe’s of Montvale, 6-6 Merrick Olkowski who provides size up front at St. Mary’s of Rutherford, and Bashir Lucas, who is a reserve guard at East Orange Campus…Montclair is off to ‘Camptown’ on Tuesday to face a strong division foe in Irvington at 4 o’clock...Singletary scored a game-high 22 points in the Mounties 68-31 win at Columbia on Saturday afternoon.
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