Glen Ridge High School senior Michael Cifelli drives around a Hoboken player in the sectional semifinals.
GLEN RIDGE, NJ — The top-seeded Glen Ridge High School boys basketball team won three straight games to advance to the championship game of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association’s North Jersey, Section 2, Group 1, tournament.
Senior Carter Koenig had 24 points, six rebounds and five assists, and senior Bryan Moussako had 16 points, five assists and three rebounds in the 70-33 win over No. 16 seed Newark Lab in the first round on Tuesday, March 1. Senior Michael Cifelli had 14 points and three rebounds; senior Andrew Snyder had 4 points and six rebounds; senior Justin Fields had 4 points; senior Ryan O’Neil had seven rebounds; junior Gabe Springer had 3 points and sophomore Dylan O’Neil added 2 points.
Moussako scored 12 points with four rebounds and two assists, and Koenig had 9 points, 10 rebounds and four assists in the 40-33 home win over No. 8 seed Weehawken in the quarterfinal round on Thursday, March 3. Ryan O’Neil had 9 points and eight rebounds; and Cifelli had 8 points and nine rebounds. Snyder had 2 points with four rebounds and three assists.
Cifelli had 15 points and Koenig had 14 to lead the Ridgers to a 51-38 win over No. 4 seed Hoboken in the semifinals on Saturday, March 5, at GRHS. Moussako had 9 points, Snyder had 8 and Ryan O’Neil had 5. GRHS defeated Hoboken, 47-43, at home in the third game of the season on Dec. 23.
The Ridgers, who improved to 19-7 overall on the season under second-year head coach Rich Kennedy, were scheduled to host No. 2 seed Newark West Side in the championship game on Tuesday, March 8. It’s the first time they reached the sectional final since making it in two straight seasons in 2017 and 2018. In 2017, they lost to University on a last-second putback in the final. GRHS lost to Bloomfield Tech in the 2018 sectional final.
This season GRHS won the Super Essex Conference–Independence Division title and West Side won the SEC–Liberty Division title. West Side is 18-7 overall on the season.
Kennedy is a 1994 GRHS graduate who was a two-year captain for the boys basketball team, leading the Ridgers to conference titles in his junior and senior seasons. He is a member of the GRHS Athletic Hall of Fame. Kennedy was an assistant coach for the GRHS boys basketball team for 18 years prior to becoming the head coach.
Photos Courtesy of Chris Troyano
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