Chatham Boy’s Hoops’ Second Half Energy Washes Away Delbarton Green Wave

Chatham High School’s (N.J.) boys basketball team shook off a sluggish first half and surged after the break, powering past rival Delbarton for a 70–62 home victory on Tuesday night.

“We were still in it (in the first half), we just make better decisions and not turn the ball over,” head coach Todd Ervin said of the reasons for the victory. “We didn’t turn it over in the second half nearly as much. We did shoot better. A lot of our turnovers led to them getting easy shots. Once we cut that out, we were better.”

The Cougars (11-4) fell behind, 20-16, to the Green Wave in the first quarter, 20-16.

But Chatham opened up the second period with a 6-2 run to tie the contest at 22-22 with 5:51 left in the quarter.

After that, both teams traded blows until Delbarton (12-5) went ahead 33-32 on sophomore Stephen Kmetz’s three-point play with a little over a minute remaining in the half.

From there, the Green Wave scored two more baskets to go into the locker room up by five points (37-32).

Cougar junior Jalen Forehan-Kelly nailed a three-pointer to open the second half, but the Green Wave answered with a bucket of its own to make it a four-point tilt.

Senior Ryan Leach dropped in two buckets to slice the deficit to 41-39 with 5:47 remaining in the third period.

But Delbarton scored five consecutive points to surge ahead 46-39 just 20 seconds later.

However, senior Michael MacAniff drained eight straight points to overtake Green Wave by a point (47-46) with 2:35 to go in the third quarter.

MacAniff said an energy upswing in the second half helped pace Chatham to victory.

“I think our second half energy was definitely great,” MacAniff said. “We were down by five at the half, but we came out really strong. Everybody was making plays, every was contributing. We really played well in the second half.”

Kmetz sank two free throws, however, to put Delbarton ahead, 48-47 with less than two minutes left in the period.

But MacAniff made good on one of two from the charity stripe, as did Leach, to make it 49-48 Chatham by the quarter’s end.

The Green Wave scored four points to retake the lead at 52-49 early in the fourth period. But Leach came up clutch and MacAniff drilled one from beyond the arc to give the Cougars a 54-52 advantage with 6:12 to go in the game.

Delbarton knotted the contest at 54 all. But Chatham senior Marco Mannino and Forehan-Kelly made it a five-point (59-54) affair with 5:23 remaining in contest.

The Green Wave cut it to 59-57 with 4:41 left in the tilt. But MacAniff dropped in another bucket to push the Cougars’ lead to 61-57 with a little over four minutes to play.

While Delbarton converted one of two from the free throw line, senior Sonny Arden drained a back-breaking three-pointer to swell Chatham’s advantage to 64-58 with 2:46 left in the game.

But squads traded baskets and then Adren drop in a free throw to give the Cougars a seven-point lead with a little over thirty ticks remaining in the contest.

From there, Chatham locked up the game by making its free throws down the stretch.

MacAniff poured in a team-high 21 points, while Leach chipped in 15 points and Forehan-Kelly added 11 points for the Cougars.

Kmetz led the Green Wave with 21 points.

Chatham hosts Governor Livingston Saturday at 7:00 p.m.