Last Friday, December 15th the Montclair Varsity basketball team opened up their season vs University High School. This game was played at Essex County College in Newark, New Jersey. Montclair was looking to start their season on the right foot under their second year coach Stinson. Montclair did so by jumping out to an 8 point lead in the first quarter. They finished the first quarter up 18 - 10. There was a slow start to the second quarter for both teams with turnovers coming for both. This was until the new senior transfer Ben Price gave the Mounties energy with a steal to a dunk, and returning senior Noah Hutchinson finished the half with a 3 point play. Montclair finished the half up 30-17 with many positive things coming from the first half.
The third quarter began back and forth with both teams scoring a lot. Montclair got into foul trouble though with Ben Price having 3 fouls in the third quarter. Montclair maintained an eleven point lead until Junior Jahi Whitney made it fourteen with an and one layup with under a minute left in the third. The Mounties gained even more momentum going into the fourth quarter when Junior Martin Quiros hit a buzzer beater 3-pointer to give them a 54-36 lead heading into the 4th. Montclair started the 4th quarter strong with a 3-pointer from sophomore Tom Diomedi. This led to a Noah Hutchinson mid range jumper which extended the lead to 21. From here then it was all Montclair and they were able to finish the game up 76 - 49. This was a great start for the team who has very high hopes entering the season.