Police save woman from jumping off Victory Bridge
A Perth Amboy police sergeant and two Sayreville police officers saved a woman from jumping off the Victory Bridge in Perth Amboy earlier this month.
SCOTCH PLAINS – The Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School boys basketball team already faced a deficit four seconds into Saturday’s Union County Conference interdivision game against visiting Union Catholic.
Vikings’ guard AJ Altobelli lifted a pass to Yaw Ansong, and the 7-foot junior promptly finished with a dunk to the delight of a sizable afternoon crowd.
That began a 70-62 Union Catholic triumph, though the Raiders made a push late to cut the deficit to 67-60 with 49 seconds to play, Still, the defending Non-Public B state champion Vikings won their third straight.
While Ansong’s dunk opened the game, senior Elijah Peters capped the period with his own slam to give the visitors a 22-9 lead after eight minutes. Peters, an offseason transfer from J.P. Stevens, also scored his 1,000th career point with 7:11 left in the fourth quarter.
“I just really wanted to win,” said Peters about his transfer. “I liked my time at JP and I did what I had to do while I was there. But I wanted to play with people that could make me better. I’ve been playing with AJ (Altobelli) since we were kids. You can kind of see that on the court. We have a little bit of a chemistry and then my chemistry with all the other players.”
He finished with 20 points.
“I didn’t come into high school thinking about scoring 1,000 points, it just kind of came,” added Peters. “I just wish we could have closed the game out better.”
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Union Catholic (8-5) led 32-19 at halftime and junior guard Luke Schorr’s buzzer-beating 3- pointer gave the Vikings a 51-34 lead after three quarters. He had 17 points.
Scotch Plains-Fanwood (10-6) managed to pull closer in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Vikings 28-19. Senior Jaden Carpien scored 18 of his game-high 22 points in the second half – 10 in the fourth quarter.
“I don’t know if we were rushing our shots (early in the game), but you know they just weren’t going in,” said SPF coach Steve Siracusa. “We had some nice open looks, but you know sometimes you shoot well and sometimes you don’t. But we didn’t shoot our best.”
Scotch Plains-Fanwood had strong ball movement in the first half with some open looks, but shots didn’t fall and the Vikings took advantage.
“Overall, I’m very proud of our players and how hard they played. We were way undersized – our center is 6-2 and theirs is 7-foot,” the Raiders coach said. “But I thought we did pretty well defensively down low. We just gave up some turnovers which led to a lot of fast breaks.”
The fast-paced game is where UC is most dangerous.
While Peters had to sit a mandatory 21- day transfer period since he is a senior, Schorr was eligible immediately. Coach Jim Reagan said his starting 5 will be a regular one for the rest of the season.
The Vikings are 6-1 since an 0-3 experience against elite prep schools in Florida at the Miami Holiday Invitational. UC is 6-1 since the trip with a 58-47 loss to Elizabeth.
“We really like our team I think we have really good pieces; we have a nucleus back from the state championship team and some real nice additions like Eli Peters and Luke Schorr,” said Reagan. “I think once we really start playing in game situations together for a couple weeks, I think we’ll be in really good shape.
“Every season starts from zero and that’s something we had to really remind the guys; it doesn’t pick up where we left off and we have to build it back again,” said Reagan. “