by Alex Schwartz

Here's a quick rundown of some New Jersey hoops action for you:

- The top-seeded Blair Academy (NJ) Bucs defeated the Hun (NJ) Raiders to win the New Jersey Prep A state title. Hun won the Mid-Atlantic Prep League (MAPL) championship, but Blair exacted its revenge this evening, winning 53-51 in overtime. Hakeem Harris '10 scored the only basket of the second overtime for the Bucs, one of the top prep teams in the nation. (Info is from http://www.nj.com/)

- In the first semi-final game of the Mercer County Tournament, the lone non-Colonial Valley Conference (CVC) team in the tournament, The Pennington School (NJ), defeated Princeton High School (NJ) 53-48 to advance to the MCT finals. The Red Raiders, seeded third, are now 20-5, while the second-seeded Tigers fall to 16-5. Chandler Fraser-Pauls '11 and Anthony Gaffney '11 each had 16 points for the Red Raiders. Brian Dunlop ’09 had 19 points for PHS to lead all scorers. In the second semifinal, the top-seeded West Windsor-Plainsboro South (NJ) Pirates knocked off the Notre Dame (NJ) Irish 44-42. After trailing at the end of every quarter, the Pirates turned the heat on in the fourth quarter, led by Austin Witter '09 and Chris Johnson '09, WWP-South came away with the victory. Chris Carothers '09, who had 18 points, was the main man for ND on the night.

- Christian Brothers Academy (NJ) defeated Freehold Boro (NJ) and Neptune (NJ) knocked off Monmouth Regional (NJ), setting up the 2009 Shore Conference Tournament Championship. (Info is from http://www.nj.com/)

- The Pennington School and Rutgers Prep (NJ) will meet tomorrow at 6:00pm at Rutgers Prep for the New Jersey Prep B state championship. The Red Raiders defeated the Argonauts by 20+ in the team's first meeting, which was at Rutgers Prep, but Jordan Robinson '09, David McDaniel '09, and Co. went on a roll and defeated Pennington in its own gym by single-digits later in the season.

Note- http://www.nj.com/ and http://njhoops.rivals.com/default.asp used as sources for information