By Tyler Shute
CCC Journalism Program
BLACKWOOD – The Camden County men’s basketball team extended its win streak to four by defeating Sussex County Community College 82-42 at home Nov. 26.
James Cooper attempts a free throw after being fouled at the 3-point line Nov. 26. By Tyler Shute, CCC Journalism Program
“I always like playing against Sussex. They are very well coached and play really hard. It’s a good win for us,” Coach Lou Abbattista said about the win.
Abbattista felt the team executed the game plan very well.
“We thought we could up the tempo a bit, play a little faster and change up the defenses a lot. We held them to only 42 points so it was a pretty good defensive effort,” he said.
CCC came out to a rough start going down 6-2 within the first 3 minutes of the game, which led to a timeout called by Abbattista. Following the timeout the team got off to a 15-2 run.
“I just told guys to follow the game plan. We have a very young team that sometimes doesn’t always understand what we are trying to do and then we have to make sure that the coaching staff reminds them what they have to do,” Abbattista said about the game-changing timeout.
“I thought sharing the ball was important. I thought we started sharing the ball more and making extra passes, which I thought was incredible,” said Abbattista.
“It feels real good, making the extra pass, playing defense 35 seconds at a time and just following what Coach Lou told us to do,” said Shakoor Woodson about the team’s win.
Woodson led the team in scoring with 19 points.
“Playing defense and getting my shot going, taking the open shot, just rolling with the punches and keep taking what the defense gives me,” Woodson said about his success.
The bench led by Qaadir Nock added 46 of the team’s 82 points. Nock had 13 of them.
“It feels good. We actually came out there and we had fun. We played hard and got the W,” Nock said about the team’s win. “I just played my game with a lot of confidence.”
After winning four games in a row and improving its record to 4-1, the team feels it is heading in the right direction.
“I think we have a long way to go but I’m really, really excited about some of our young guys. Some of our guys are really starting to get better,” said Abbattista.
“I think we are coming together as a team now. We got confidence in each other,” said Nock.
“It’s a 4-game winning streak and I think we’re playing real good basketball,” said Woodson.
For more information about upcoming games, visit http://www.camdenccathletics.com/basketball.html.