The Cherry Hill High School East Boys Varsity Basketball team started off the 2024-25 season strong with a dominant win against the King’s Christian School. With the Cougars defeating the Knights 79-42 on Tuesday, December 17, East was led by standout performances from some of the team’s new additions such as Chris Abreu (‘27), who transferred this year from Paul VI, and Jameson Young (‘28), who scored 23 and 22 points, respectively.
Starting off strong, East led 18-2 after the first quarter, and never looked back. Taking a 34-11 into the halftime break, the Cougars were feeling confident. Along with the new additions, many returning Cougars chipped in as key contributors in the victory. Starting center, Noahm Marciano (‘26) and forward Chris Delgado (‘26), both scored eight points. Meanwhile, guard Jacob Jones (‘25) chalked up four points. The team shot well on the night, making eight three-pointers, including five by Young, and went 11 of 12 from the foul line.
Jesse Serata (‘25), a forward who has been in the boys basketball program for all four of his years at East, got some key minutes in the game and scored two points. He also helped out the team on the defensive end, snatching up many loose balls and getting tough rebounds.
“I played well, but it is less about me and more about my teammates. Our team has a lot of trust in each other right now which is a key factor in how teams win,” said Serata.
He went on to talk about the strong bonds that the team made with each other in the offseason.
“Our team chemistry is great since we’ve been playing together since the summer. We stayed together, we stayed strong, and everybody on the team likes each other. I think our team is looking really good for this year,” Serata commented.
Coach David Allen, who is now in his 14th year as a head coach, loved the intensity that the team showed throughout the game.
“We played hard from the start of the game…We had good defensive intensity by picking up the full court press, taking [King’s Christian] off of their gameplan,” said Coach Allen.
However, this is not yet the climax of the Cougars’ season.
“We need to improve both our zone offense and zone defense. There were a few times where I felt we were trying too hard to make a great pass when we could have settled for making an easy pass and taking what we were given. That will help to limit our turnovers, which is a big key for us,” Coach Allen said.
Looking to the future, Allen just wants to keep the team’s mindset on the next game.
“The outcome of the season all depends on how we finish out games. If we can be a good fourth quarter team, we can compete, but we need to finish as our conference games are always so tough,” Coach Allen concluded.