Raiders take fourth straight, as Hillsborough tops visiting Ewing 57-44, behind 22-point day from Aaron Feath

Four ties, six lead changes.

That’s some good, back-and-forth basketball.

All of that came in the first half, though, as this Hillsborough boys’ basketball team clamped down on defense in the second half and got 22 points from sophomore Aaron Feath – ten of which came in the fourth quarter – en route to a 57-44 win over visiting Ewing Saturday afternoon.

The game followed a ceremony dedicating Ian Progin Court, named after the former longtime boys’ and girls’ basketball coach who passed away last spring after a battle with cancer.

Feath scored 12 in the first half, helping his team take the lead back just before halftime as the Raiders used a 9-2 run to take a 32-28 lead into the locker room.

After an 8-7 third quarter – in which ‘Boro held the Blue Devils without a field goal for nearly the first six minutes – the Raiders eventually built up a 12-point lead with under two minutes to go, helping to keep Ewing at bay.

Junior Kow Quagraine finished with 16 for Hillsborough, including two spectacular second half baskets, one where he made a nifty move on the baseline, and another where he took a no-look, behind the back bounce pass from just a foot away after a rebound for the finish.

The win was the fourth straight for the Raiders (11-4), who have no won eight of their last nine heading into Monday night’s Somerset County seeding meeting.

Though they’re just 2-2 in conference, those two losses came by a combined seven points, back-to-back in mid-December: a 51-49 loss at Gill St. Bernard’s, and a 62-57 loss to Franklin two nights later.

Ewing falls to 11-4 with the loss, but for the Raiders, it’s a big power point pickup of around 39 points (not factoring in OOWP) for the state playoffs.

Click below for postgame reaction from Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko with Hillsborough sophomore Aaron Feath and head coach Tim Palek, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen: