The Hillsborough Raiders with their trophy for winning the Prep Holiday Tournament at Oratory Prep in Summit last week. (Source: @tpalek on Twitter)
The end of calendar year 2022 for the Hillsborough boys’ basketball team ended perhaps even better than the 2022 portion of last season ended.
A year ago, in Tim Palek’s first season after coming over from Bernards, the Raiders started the season 2-10, but went 8-5 the rest of the way after finding their groove.
This year, there’s been less groove to find. Sure, they graduated some key players, but seven who were in the rotation a year ago are back, including their top two scorers: senior Ben Spitzer (12.8 ppg) and junior Zion Harrison (11.6 ppg). And Spitzer can shoot from long range, with 15 on the season, including four in a season-opening 55-53 loss to Ridge, their only defeat of the season so far.
Tuesday night, the Raiders (4-1) will entertain Montgomery (3-4) in a key game for both teams – for Hillsborough to keep its early-season momentum going, for Montgomery to get the ship righted before passing the point of no return.
The Cougars are led freshman Ethan Lin’s 13.1 points per game, and can go bombs away from beyond the arc. As a team, they’ve already hit 59 triples in seven games this season – a whopping 8.4 per game – and are led by senior Luke Smith with 20 threes, while Lin has 13, and senior J.T. Simborski has 10.
You can hear Tuesday night’s game live on Central Jersey Sports Radio, with pregame set for 6:45 pm and tip-off at 7 in Hillsborough. Mike Pavlichko and Justin Sontupe will have the call; click here to listen to the broadcast.
Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko talk with Hillsborough head coach Tim Palek ahead of Tuesday’s game against the Cougars:
Discover more from Central Jersey Sports Radio
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.