Nottingham’s big three seniors led the Northstars in yet another dominant win this season as they defeated The King’s Christian School 90-56 in the second of the ESCIT tournament.
It has been the storyline so far all season, the big three J’s- Joseph, Johnson, and Jones. Cliff Joseph had a game high 24 points as Darell Johnson and Richie Jones added 21 apiece.
Tony Little finished with 17 points for the Knights. Teammates Brandyn Stanford and Darius Gary added 15 and 14, respectively.
Early foul trouble from big man Ku’Jan Johnson didn’t slow Nottingham down. Even with some size mismatches, they continued to do as they’ve done all season- play hardworking, aggressive basketball on both ends of the court regardless if the starters were playing or a Northstar off the bench.
“Same thing as every game, play defense and we will continue to get easy buckets,” said Cliff Joseph on the team’s win.
It was a game of two halves as the Knights were unable to keep up with Nottingham throughout the entire game. Just a two point game at halftime, Nottingham opened up a big third quarter to outscore King’s Christian 36-12 and make a once close game, a blowout.”To start out the game we didn’t have that much energy. At halftime our coach talked to us to bring the energy, and in the third quarter that’s what we did,” said Joseph.
With the big three, Richie Jones, Cliff Joseph, and Darell Johnson leading the way, Nottingham went on to win by 32. The Northstars advance to play the winner of the first game in the Frantz Massenet bracket, Conwell-Egan, in day two of the ESCIT tournament. The King’s Christian takes on Westampton Tech.