Cherry Hill East boy’s basketball team was defeated last night at Eastern 51-46.
East was seeking revenge against an Eastern team that won in double overtime in their previous meeting.
Super-soph Chris Santo (’11), who was coming off a school record 55-point performance, led East the team with 21 points.Unlike the previous game against Eastern where East went down 13-0 in the first quarter, the Cougars kept the game close. Ben Gerstein (’10) hit an early three to put East up in the opening minutes while Santo added 6 points of his own.
However, Eastern senior Bobby Harris (’09), who just surpassed 1,000 career points, proved to be unstoppable. Harris hit two first quarter threes to help Eastern cap off a 5 point lead after the first quarter. Harris finished the game with 27 points and 9 steals.
East came out strong in the second half, scoring 20 points while limiting Eastern to 9. Stacey Upshaw (’11), who entered the game at the start of the second quarter, made an immediate impact, hitting two threes along with a spinning lay-up. East took the largest lead of the game midway through the second quarter, 25-13, and ended the half up 29-23.
Eastern returned after the half with a strong third quarter, outscoring East 15-9, and ending the quarter tied at 38.
Up 46-41 with less than two minutes left in the final quarter, East went into a possession offense, holding the ball for over 45 seconds until a late turnover led to a Bobby Harris dunk. The ensuing inbound pass was stolen by Harris followed by an East foul and two Eastern free throws.
After a Santo miss with less than 25 seconds left, Harris found teammate Shumeek Scott under the rim for an easy bucket to go up 47-46. Another East turnover led to a lay up for Josh Balshem to put Eastern up by 3.
After a timeout, down 49-46 with under 9 seconds left in the game, East’s Seth Friedman (’10) drove the length of the court and found Santo wide open outside the arch. The shot to tie the game bounced off the rim and into the hands of Eastern’s Harris.
An East foul concluded the game as Harris added two free throws to make the score 51-46.