East Orange Campus junior James Roberts controls the ball as Orange junior Amadou Traore defends.
EAST ORANGE, NJ — The East Orange Campus High School boys basketball team, under head coach Gabe Baltimore, defeated Memorial, of West New York, and Paterson Eastside to advance to the semifinals of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association’s North Jersey, Section 1, Group 4 state tournament.
The fifth-seeded Jaguars defeated No. 12 seed Memorial 66-58 in the first round on Feb. 26 at EOCHS.
Junior guard James Roberts scored 23 points with eight rebounds and two assists; junior guard Elijah Caldwell had 16 points with two three-pointers, four steals, two rebounds and two assists; sophomore guard Je’zi Lewis had 12 points, four rebounds and two assists; junior guard William Dyer posted six points and six assists; senior guard Bashir Lucas scored three points with three rebounds, two assists and two steals; senior forward Da’von Canzater added two points, four rebounds and three blocks; and senior guard Tayshon Brown contributed two points, two rebounds and two steals.
The Jaguars defeated fourth-seeded Paterson Eastside 59-47 in the quarterfinals on Feb. 28 at Eastside.
Roberts scored 20 points with 10 rebounds, four assists and two steals; Caldwell had 14 points with three rebounds, two assists and two steals; junior guard Stageon King scored nine points with five steals, three assists and two rebounds; Dyer scored nine points with five steals and two assists; Lucas had five points with three rebounds and two steals; and Lewis added two points and two rebounds.
EOCHS won both meetings against Paterson Eastside this season. They defeated Eastside 54-41 in the Jingle Bells Jubilee first round on Dec. 28 at Paterson Steam Academy.
The Jaguars, who extended their winning streak to four games and improved to 16-12 on the season, were scheduled to visit top-seeded Montclair in the semifinals on March 3. The other semifinal pitted No. 3 seed Union City at No. 2 seed Hackensack. The final is March 6 at the higher-seeded school.
The Jaguars finished runners-up in the North 1, Group 4 state sectional tournament in each of the past two seasons.
Photo by Steve Ellmore
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