Rutgers Prep’s Nicholas Nsenkyire tries to get to the basket in a Skyland Conference crossover game at Montgomery on January 30, 2024. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)
Rutgers Prep had won 23 straight games against Somerset County Public schools in the regular season coming into Tuesday night’s huge Skyland Conference crossover game at Montgomery.
The last public school in the county to beat them was Montgomery, which did it twice in the 2019-20 season. And it looked like they might do it again.
Until it didn’t, and No. 1 Rutgers Prep topped No. 4 Montgomery 62-48 in Skillman in a game heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio.
The Cougars jumped out to an early eight point lead on some quick threes by Miggy Aguilar and a nice and-one by junior Boghdan Biekietov. That ballooned to 13 in the second quarter.
The Argonauts couldn’t put the ball in the ocean at that point. But you knew they wouldn’t miss all night. And they didn’t.
Slowly but surely, they chipped away, and got it to a 27-26 game at the break. So in the end, it was en even first half.
But the second half belonged to Prep, specifically junior Myles Parker and sophomore Jacob Canton. The two combined for 33 points in the game, 31 of them coming after halftime, 18 in the third quarter alone.
Prep built the lead to 17 in the third, and as many as 21 in the fourth. Monty got back to within 12 with a few minutes to go, but that was as close as they would get.
Parker led all scorers with 18, but the bigger news perhaps was Montgomery’s Steve Donahue, which Prep targeted on the perimeter all night. He got no good looks, and was constantly contested when he did get a shot off. He was held scoreless for just the second time in his varsity career.
The win putts Prep at 12-5 overall, undefeated in Skyland Conference play, and should give them the top seed in the Somerset County Tournament when it’s seeded next Monday night. The Argos have just one conference game left – Thursday at home against Hillsborough, which they beat last Tuesday, and the Raiders lost more ground losing to Franklin two days later.
As for Montgomery, they would have had the leg up for the top seed had they won Tuesday night. Instead, they will likely play for the two-seed when they host Hillsborough Saturday afternoon at 2:30.
Click below for postgame reaction with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Chris Tsakonas, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:
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