The Piscataway Chiefs Boys Basketball Team lost their first game of the season at home against Saint Joe’s Metuchen in the Anthony gym on December 14th, 2023.  The final score was Piscataway 82, St. Joe’s 92.   Piscataway’s offense came alive in the second half, putting up 53 points compared to their 29 in the first half, but it was just not enough to catch up to St. Joe’s. Piscataway’s leading scorer was Logan Smith who put up 29 points. Unfortunately that was no match for St. Joe’s Jeremy Clayville who put up 49 points.

This is obviously a tough loss for the team in their first game of the season. Putting up 29 points in the first half hurt the team a lot and Chiefs shooting guard, 11th grader Nate Davis, who scored 11 points, agrees with this idea.

“I feel like we fought back in the second half. The first half really messed us up,” Davis said. “I feel like if we just turn up in the first half [more], I feel like the second half will go way better and we’ll win games.”

The Chiefs’ center, junior Jack Coombs, who had 8 rebounds, also thinks that the first half really hurt them a lot.

“Our second half was definitely better than our first. Coach said we made them turn the ball over 11 times in the second half and we had 5 turnovers in the second half. We had 14 in the first. So I think that was a big contributing factor to our loss.” Coombs said.

Landon Pernell, freshman point guard for the Piscataway JV Basketball team was watching the game. He has the same view.

“I would definitely say it was definitely a great game. It didn’t start well, Piscataway was obviously down by around 10 or 20 points. But then, they started kicking it up and it was definitely a close game towards the end.” Pernell said.

Piscataway currently sits at an 8-8 record on the season and their next game is at Monroe (11-4) on January 23rd, 2024. In their previous matchup against Monroe, Piscataway lost 56-45. However, they have cleaned up the issues with the inconsistent first half and that game will surely be exciting.