Wayne Valley basketball teams sweep West Milford

Wayne Valley basketball earned a clean sweep over West Milford in the first round of the Passaic County tournament last weekend. First, the Valley girls beat West Milford, 38-25. Next, the Valley boys defeated West Milford, 84-77. Both games were played back to back in Wayne on Saturday, thanks to Valley’s higher seed in both.

Stephanie LaGreca scored 14 points to lead Wayne Valley (No. 8) to the victory over West Milford (No. 9). Imani Thompson added 6 points for the winners. Kaitlyn Cook, Lexi Piotrowski and Alexa Simonetti had 5 apiece for the well-balanced Indians. Michaela McLeod had 9 points for West Milford.

With the win, Wayne Valley advances to Saturday's quarterfinals and will face top-seeded Paterson's Eastside High School, the 15-time champion.

On the boys side, sophomore guard Mark Howell scored 19 points, dished out seven assists and grabbed six rebounds to lead Wayne Valley (No. 5, 11-6) past West Milford (No. 12). Senior forward Joe Sayan came off the bench to add a career-high 17 points, draining five 3-pointers.

Senior Matt Widovic and junior A.J. Tedesco had 15 and 14 points, respectively. Junior Jared See and senior Charlie Pollack added 9 and 7 points, respectively. Widovic also had eight assists. See had five boards.

Senior center Bobby Klein and sophomore guard Josiah Basket each scored 15 points apiece. Brandon Licursi added 14 points. Chris Gomez chipped in with 10 for the Highlanders.

Wayne Valley beat Lakeland in a regular season game prior to the West Milford game, 82-57. Tedesco led the way with 23 points. Howell added 16. Widovic and See had 14 and 13 points, respectively. Pollack led the team with 10 rebounds. See grabbed eight boards.

Next up for Wayne Valley in the Passaic County tournament is a showdown with DePaul (No. 4) on Saturday at DePaul. The Spartans drew a bye in the first round.

Paterson's Eastside could be next for the Wayne Valley-DePaul winner. Eastside (10 County Championships) is aiming to tie Paterson's Kennedy with a county-high 11 titles.

Kennedy is No. 2, while Wayne Hills (14-4) is No. 3. The Patriots also drew a bye and will host Paterson Charter (No. 10) on Saturday. Paterson Charter knocked off Passaic Tech (No. 7) in a first-round upset.

Hills defeated Fair Lawn in a regular season game this week in overtime, 68-61. Junior Joey Belli made four 3-pointers on the way to 20 points to lead Wayne Hills. Junior Justin Wills added 14 points for Wayne Hills, while junior Patrick Gilmore added 11 points. Wayne Hills made 10 3-pointers as a team.