NUTLEY, NJ – The Nutley High School boys’ varsity basketball team, under head coach Bob Harbison, had a red-hot start to the 2017-18 campaign.
The Raiders went 4-0 to begin the season with wins over Newark Arts, Weequahic, Montclair Kimberley Academy and Kearny, giving hope that they can make some noise come county and state tournament time.
Nutley lost its next four games before beating Livingston and Cedar Grove in back-to-back contests. They lost to Weequahic in their following game to move to a 6-5 overall record, 5-2 in the Super Essex Conference-Independence Division.
Indeed, the Raiders hope to find more consistency as the season progresses.
Still, the Raiders are on pace to improve from last year’s 9-17 record.
Junior guard Marty Higgins scored 29 points, including making a whopping nine 3-pointers, and senior guard Matt Schettino scored 27 points with six treys to spark the Raiders to an 83-51 home win over Livingston on Jan.12 in a division game. Senior guard Anthony Fabiano had 10 points and junior guard Jordan Swann had eight points for the Raiders. Junior guard Jason Nazurek scored four points and senior forward Andrew Olivo had three points.
Swann scored 29 points and Higgins had nine points in the 50-46 division win over Cedar Grove on Jan. 16. Acosta, Fabiano, and sophomore center Aiden Ozdemir each had four points for Nutley, which broke a 26-26 halftime tie.
Schettino scored 16 points and Acosta had 10 points in the 69-50 division loss to Weequahic on Jan. 23.
The Essex County Tournament seeding meeting was scheduled for Jan. 29. Last season, the 23rd-seeded Raiders upset 22nd-seeded Irvington, 68-64, in the second preliminary round before losing to 11th-seeded Verona in the first round.
The state tournament begins the week of Feb. 26.
About the Author
