On Friday, The Montclair Boys Basketball Team faced off against East Orange High School in the Quad 1 championship of the Jingle Bells Jubilee. The game ended in a tough 49-45 loss to a strong East Orange side. East Orange got off to a strong start immediately, going up 10-2 just a few minutes into the first quarter, and their momentum continued for the whole first half. East Orange made 3-pointer after 3-pointer, and Montclair struggled. They missed shot after shot, which is uncommon for this Montclair team. East Orange kept on dominating, and they ended up going into halftime up 35-13. It seemed like too tall of a task for Montclair to make a comeback, but you can never count Montclair out of any game. They needed a spark at halftime, something that could set off a comeback in an important championship game like this. The spark they needed is exactly what they got in the second half. The start of the half was a completely different game from the first half. Montclair played great on both sides of the ball, and East Orange did the opposite. Montclair continued to dominate through the rest of the half, with sophomore Tom Diomedi, junior Martin Quiros, and senior Ben Price, all making clutch 3-pointers. These major contributions significantly cut down the deficit. East Orange was outscored 16-8 in the third quarter, and Montclair continued its dominance in the fourth. This dominance led Montclair, with not much time left in the fourth, to only be down 47-42. The ball got into the hands of Ben Price, and he hit a long-range 3-pointer to make it a one-possession game. However, East Orange played good defense for the last couple minutes of the fourth, and after desperate fouls from Montclair, East Orange made both of their free throws. These clutch free throws extended their lead to 4 with only a few seconds left. Montclair desperately tried to make something happen, but they couldn’t. While it was a tough loss in a big game, it showed how Montclair is resilient. Montclair is now 3-3, and they will be looking to bounce back on January 4th against Newark Collegiate.