Quinn Burke Pours in 22 Points in Chatham’s Blowout Win Over New Providence in the Final Day of the Cougar Classic

In its final day of the 2024 Cougar Classic, center Quinn Burke drained a game-high 22 points and senior Will DesMarais followed with 16 points to help Chatham High School (N.J.) Boy’s basketball blow past New Providence (2-3), 77-47, Monday night at home.

Longtime Cougar head coach Todd Ervin sang Burke’s praises, saying that he has developed into a great all-around player, one that cannot be easily replaced when he is removed from the game.

After a brief conversation with the 6-foot-7 senior, Burke returned to form in the second half.

“Quinn is a tremendous player,” Ervin said. “He wasn’t making his shots in the first half, so we just talked about getting inside and scoring some hoops in there. He started to make some shots after that.

“He rebounds, passes, scores; he does a lot for us,” he added. “When we take him out, it’s hard to get that back. He was good last year, but not as good he is right now. The players around have gotten really good, too. So that helps.”

Happy with the way Chatham (6-0) is playing right now, Ervin is now looking to its next three challenging contests over the coming week, for a good indicator of just how talented they are after that.

“We’re playing well right now. That’s the way we want to play,” Ervin said. “We have a tough stretch coming up here, so we’ll see where we stand. We have Ridge Thursday, Madison Saturday, and Delbarton Monday.”

Burke chimed in with how well the Cougars are playing up until this point, and what they need to do to keep the Chatham train chugging along as it faces tougher competition in the future.

“I think things are going well,” Burke said. “We’re scoring a lot and holding teams pretty well. You can see that night in and night out, (that) we’re ending with 30 point-plus wins. But we’re getting off to slow starts. We need to fix that.”

The Cougars raced out to a 16-6 lead with several players scoring points in the first quarter.

Burke dropped in a basket to get Chatham going in the second quarter, but the Pioneers answered with five points of their own to draw the game to 18-11 early in the second period.

However, junior Marco Mannino added a bucket and DesMarais drilled a three-pointer to give the Cougars a 12-point advantage with 5:23 remaining in the first half.

After a little back and forth, Chatham preserved its 12-point lead (33-21) heading into the locker room.

Burke sank two free throws to put the Cougars ahead by a score of 39-25 with 5:47 to go in the third quarter.

Junior Sonny Arden scored five points to extend Chatham’s advantage to 45-30 with 4:01 left in the third period. Next, Burke nailed one from beyond the arc to put the Cougars up by 18 points with 3:42 remaining in the third quarter.

Chatham ended the third up by 22 points.

The Cougars started the fourth period on a 7-0 run across the first 1:23 of the quarter, to help them take a 63-37 advantage.

Chatham closed out the tilt with backups inserted into the game, as senior Carter Hilgendorff chipped in with five points to help the Cougars win going away.

Junior Michael MacAniff scored 10 points in the lopsided triumph.

Senior guard James Miller paced New Providence with 12 points.

Chatham travels to Ridge Thursday at 5:30 p.m.

— Jerry Del Priore