Last Thursday, The Montclair Boys Varsity Basketball Team suffered a 72-58 defeat against a strong Newark Collegiate Academy team. The game started off slow with both teams playing strong defense and struggling on offense, and Newark led Montclair 13-7 at the end of the first quarter. The second quarter continued to be slow on offense for Montclair as Newark continued to strengthen their lead. Montclair had trouble shooting from the field and wasn’t able to handle Newark’s physicality on defense. The score at the end of the half was 33-24 in favor of Newark. At the beginning of the second half, Newark continued to play well on both sides of the ball while Montclair struggled to stop their attack. Montclair did have a slight offensive boost starting the second half, but it was not enough to outweigh the Newark offense. By the end of the third quarter, Newark led Montclair 57-39, and Montclair trailed by 18 going into the fourth quarter. Montclair fought hard and scored a game-high 18 points in this quarter but unfortunately were not able to leave with the win. While it was a rough loss, there are definitely positives to take away. Montclair wasn’t expected to win this game against a 9-1 Newark Collegiate Academy squad, but they put up a great fight and finished strong. With this loss, Montclair moved to 4-4 on the season, and they will look to bounce back against 6-2 Belleville.