Basketball News: Victories Leading Up to Thanksgiving Break

By Lenny Dale, Emerson School Athletic Director and Physical Education Teacher

Emerson ‘Gobbles’ Up St. Paul Before Thanksgiving Break

The Eagles boys basketball teams went into the holiday break on a winning note, each handling the visitors from St Paul.
The JV team jumped out to a 12-2 lead after the first quarter, and then cruised to a 37-22 victory, with Nikash Bhagat leading all scorers with 12 points, and Lucas Nor close behind with 10.

The varsity team got off to a quick start, too, jumping out to a 5-0 lead early, but then saw St. Paul go on an 8-0 run, before going on a 17-5 run of their own to regain the lead and go into the half up 22-13. St Paul had a strong third quarter to get back within a point, but in the fourth Gabe Kellman, Nikhil Gunaratnam and Jaden Thomas combined to ‘squash’ St. Paul’s hopes: Gabe’s final 5 of his game high 18 points, plus his defense, and his court sense helping Nikhil get his final 6 of 10 points off open looks, and feeding Jaden to get his final 4 of 9 points from nice passes inside. St Paul actually got scoring from 7 players, compared to Emerson’s 5, but Gabe, Nikhil and Jaden were the top three in the game, providing inside, outside and full-court games that resulted in a 43-33 final score in the Eagles’ favor.