Hillsborough junior Jayden Green lets go of a three-pointer against Montgomery on January 3, 2022 in Hillsborough. He scored 15 Thursday night to lead the Raiders past Gill St. Bernard’s. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)
In the shuffling that happened in the off-season with the Skyland Conference basketball divisions, Bridgewater-Raritan moved down to the Raritan, while Hillsborough moved from the Raritan to the Delaware.
Ranked seventh in the preseason Bellamy & Son Paving Top Ten, the Raiders made their case to move up even higher.
Never leading in the game until midway through the fourth quarter – except for an early lead on the first basket – Hillsborough chipped away, chipped away, and chipped away some more, en route to a 49-48 home win over the visiting fifth-ranked Knights.
The win was Hillsborough’s first over Gill St. Bernard’s in nearly a decade, with 15 straight losses in between. Their last win over Gill came in the 2014 Somerset County Tournament Final, a 53-52 victory. Ian Progin was the head coach, and James Smith was the hero with a late bucket to give the Raiders the win.
Thursday night featured more dramatics: With 30-seconds left coming out of a time out, down by one, Hillsborough went ahead by one with six seconds left on a Phillip Unangst bucket.
They got a steal on the inbound with Gill out of time outs, but Boro missed both free throws. Gill got the rebound, drove the floor, and got a look at a floater in the paint, which missed, securing the win for Hillsborough.
Jayden Green led the Raiders with 15 points, while Phillip Unangst chipped in 14 and Nick Losch added 13.
Click below to hear Hillsborough head coach Tim Palek talk about the Raiders’ opening night win over Gill St. Bernard’s with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko: