Friday, February 22, 2008

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

UNION CITY – Union Hill High School is one of oldest high schools in North Jersey, but at the end of the 2008-09 school year, the old place on Hudson Avenue in Union City will close its doors and combine with Emerson (UC) to form Union City High School and will begin playing sports as a combined unit starting in September. So as the Hillers took the court in Thursday night’s HCIAA-Coviello Division tournament semifinal, they had a little extra motivation (as if they needed it).

They were taking on Lincoln (Jersey City), the same team that beat the Hillers last year’s HCIAA-Coviello championship game. But not only were they looking for a measure of revenge, they were also playing with pride. It was the last time that Union Hills’ white home uniforms would ever be worn. With all of that weighing on their minds, the Hillers gave their fans a proper send-off.

Four Hillers scored in double-digits, led by 21 from Justin Sanchez as second-seeded Union Hills jumped out to an early lead and never looked back in a wire-to-wire 66-53 victory over Lincoln, the defending champion and No. 3 seed.

“We had to have this game and we weren’t letting anyone take it away from us,” said Union Hill’s Stephen Arxer. “We’ve had some history with Lincoln in the past year. We knew we had to stay calm and just worry about playing our game.”

Leading by two points just 2:58 into the game, Union Hill’s biggest inside presence, Jewry Hernandez, picked up his second foul and was forced to the bench for the rest of the first half. It could have been a crisis moment for the Hillers, but instead they turned it into an advantage. They had four guards on the court and spread the floor, forcing the Lions to chase them as they ran their offense. Union Hill closed out the quarter with a 10-2 run to take a 15-5 lead.

Lincoln got to within six points on a basket by Tymel Jackson. Arxer answered with two baskets in the final two minutes of the half, the latter a running one-hander that beat the buzzer to give Union Hill a 25-15 halftime lead.

“We didn’t have the leadership tonight that we needed,” said Lincoln head coach Troy Smith. “This year, we’re a much younger team and sometimes that shows. They were composed and they kept running through their offense. We did the opposite in taking the first good shot that we saw, which isn’t always the best option. I thought we played well in spurts, but we didn’t have the consistency that we needed to make a comeback.”

Union Hill kept the Lions at bay for the rest of the game, thanks in large part to the play of Jose Matta on both ends of the floor. A senior who is generally known for his energy and his defense made a contribution on the offensive side as well. He had three assists in the quarter and scored on a reverse lay-up as the Hillers bumped their lead to 45-29 by the end of the third quarter and the Lions never threatened again.

“Everyone stepped up for us tonight,” added Arxer. “When you get this far, everyone has to be playing well on both offense and defense. Once we got the lead in the first half, we had to keep doing what we were doing and keep them from getting close.”

Sanchez followed up his 31-point performance in Tuesday’s quarterfinal win over Hudson Catholic with a 21-point, five-rebound effort last night for Union Hill (17-7). Hernandez made up for lost time by scoring all 14 of his points in the second half. Arxer and Matta each played well and finished with the exact same stat line (11 points, six assists, four rebounds, and three steals).

Daquan Pettiford had team-highs of 13 points and eight rebounds for Lincoln (18-8). Jackson added 12 points, seven rebounds, three steals, and two assists. Center Matik Jones chipped in with 10 points and five rebounds.

In its final season as an independent high school, Union Hill will look to end one of North Jersey’s longest running droughts. The Hillers have not won a Hudson County title since 1956. To win their first title in 52 years, they will need to beat the biggest surprise in the county, red-hot St. Peter’s Prep.

The Marauders needed to win their last game of the regular season just to get into the HCIAA-Coviello tournament as the eighth and final seed, but they have used the underdog role to their benefit scoring upset wins over top-seeded Bayonne on Tuesday and fifth-seeded Emerson last night.

“We’re one step away from a goal we set for ourselves at the beginning of the year,” said Union Hill head coach Carlos Cueto. “I thought we played good defense and we distributed the ball well. Most of our baskets came off of assists (18 assists on 25 field goals) and that is a sign of us running through our offense. Getting to the (HCIAA-Coviello) final is an accomplishment, but we’ve been there before. We know it’s going to be a tough game, but we’ll be ready. I’m just happy that we were able to walk off the court here at Union Hill for the last time as winners. Now we have to get it out of our minds and get ready for Saturday.”

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