Franklin and Gill St. Bernards wait for a rebound on a drive to the basket by Gill freshman Kieran Quinn in the second half of a 51-39 Knights home win on December 19, 2023. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)
The Gill St. Bernard’s boys’ basketball team wasn’t the same team that turned it over 24 times in its season opener and lost to Hillsborough for the first time in nearly a decade.
Likewise, after a first half that saw the 6th-ranked Knights trailing at home to 8th-ranked Franklin, 25-23, they weren’t the same team in the second half.
That’s all good thing.
The first half against the Warriors at least saw Gill taking better care of the basketball. In the second half, better ball movement and defensive rebounding paved the way to a 51-39 win.
It was a back-and-forth affair at the start, with nine lead changes and three ties in the first half alone. Franklin was on fire from the arc, hitting six triples, three coming from senior Cam Brown.
But he picked up a quick third foul in the second quarter, sending him to the bench for a spell, and that’s when Gill took over. Junior point guard Kobe Closeil – who’ll be running the show for the forseeable future with sophomore Dorsett Mulcahy, younger brother of former Rutgers standout Pail Mulcahy, also a GSB product, out with a back injury – had a seven point quarter, en route to a 12-point night.
Gill – now 1-1 overall and in the Skyland Delaware Division – took the lead in the third, and never looked back. Freshman Kieran Quinn – who looked anything but playing physical down low – finished with a team high n18 points, including two triples, while Cam Brown finished with a game-high 19 for Franklin (1-2, 1-1).
Click below for postgame reaction with Central Jersey Spots Radio’s Chris Tsakonas, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:
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