The Cherry Hill East Cougars stretched their win streak to five with a hard-fought eight point win over Shawnee on Tuesday, January 28th at the Dibart Gym. Senior, Ryan Greene (‘20), continued his impressive season with a 16 point showing and the Cougars once again finished the game with a dominating second half to seal off an Olympic conference victory.

Junior, Ryan Bloom (‘21), scored 8 points off the bench and made many hustle-plays down the stretch, while sophomores, Drew Greene (‘22) and E.J. Matthews (‘22), scored 12 and 8 points respectively. The young Cougars team was able to overcome adversity in the first half to pull out a victory over the 5-9 Shawnee Renegades.

In the first quarter, Shawnee came out firing. They hit two threes and converted an and-one while holding East to a Drew Greene floater as their only basket with two minutes remaining. Another Shawnee layup gave them more momentum, but Ryan Greene cut the lead to just 6 with a step back three to end the quarter and stop the bleeding.

The second quarter went better for the Cougars. East was still plagued with a turnover-bug, unable to capitalize on Shawnee’s missed shots, but outplayed Shawnee on the defensive end. A Matthews three and a Ryan Greene steal capped off with a layup in transition cut the Shawnee lead to two. Drew Greene also came alive, heading to the free throw line twice and rejecting Shawnee’s Andrew Ball (‘22) with an emphatic block. Shawnee led 14-11 at halftime.

The second half saw a trademark change in pace for the Cougars as coach Dave Allen reinvigorated the Cougars in the locker room. It started with a pair of threes from Bloom and a three from Matthews while Shawnee settled for layups. The Greene brothers began to hit their shots as well, with Drew Greene capping off the quarter with a pair of free throws to give East a 27-25 lead.

Down the stretch, the Cougars truly galvanized their play to carve out a solid lead. Bloom rose up to snag an offensive rebound over Shawnee senior, Justin Lubin (‘20), and dished a pass to Ryan Greene in the corner for three. A pair of backdoor passes from Ryan Greene to Drew Greene got the Tuesday-afternoon crowd on their feet as well, with a couple of Ryan Greene jumpshots expanding East’s lead. Shawnee tried to stay in the game, but could only watch as East made free throw after free throw. East won the fourth quarter by 6 points to close it out.

East plays at Eastern on Thursday, January 30th, hoping to expand their season-best winning streak to 6 games. Their week finishes out with a home game against Triton at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday.