High School Boys Basketball:
Eastern Shuts Down Lenape

Tuesday, January 5, 1999

By Steve Robbins
SJSports Student Correspondent

As if things couldn't get worse for the Indians. The Eastern Vikings beat the Lenape Indians, 51-39 Tuesday night in a game that was filled with missed opportunities and mental errors. Both coaches for the respected schools were visibly frustrated and upset about the overall sloppy play of the game. The Indians, who've had their share of sloppy play this season due to inexperience and lack of height, fell to 1-4.

The game opened out mind-numbingly slow for Lenape, as Eastern put on a defensive clinic in the first quarter. Eastern allowed the Indians to score just 2 points, due in part to junior guard, Adam Taliaferro's stifling defense. Chris Hall, Lenape's star senior forward, sat most of the quarter for disciplinary reasons, which also contributed to their lack of success on offense. Eastern, however, couldn't capitalize off of their great defense and scored only 9 points in the opening quarter.

Both teams got their offensive juices flowing in the second quarter. Lenape received a jolt from Hall, who scored 7 points in the game, got on the court and smart, heady play from their tandem of sophomore guards, Andrew Gentile and Vince Ossario, scored 13 and 8 points, respectively. For almost every Lenape basket, however, Eastern answered back with more great play from Taliaferro, who scored 14 in the game along with 7 assists. At halftime, the game was relatively close with the score being 24-20, Eastern in the lead.

Eastern started the second half with a full-court-press and received many fast break chances from Lenape turnovers. Eastern also got a tremendous push from senior forward, Evan Cardamone, who scored three unanswered three-pointers in a row in a span of one minute. Cardamone looked extremely comfortable from beyond the arc, scoring 12 of his 20 points from three-point land.

Ossario and Hall kept Lenape in the game in the fourth, despite a fifteen point deficit at one point. Ossario sunk a three-pointer to cut the lead to five with three-and-a-half minutes to go in the game. Taliaferro scored two straight baskets off of Lenape turnovers to put the game away.

Photos by Art Redd