Chatham cruises in Cougar Classic final

CHATHAM TWP—The trio of sophomore Jack Rooney and seniors Colin McKenna and Tristan LeMon guided the Chatham boys basketball team to a 72-39 victory over Hanover Park in the Cougar Classic final on Wednesday night.

From the opening tip off, it was all Chatham.

McKenna scored nine of his 17 points in the opening quarter to give the Cougars a 17-11 lead, which set the tone for the entire game.

“We all played well. McKenna really opened everything up down low for us,” Rooney said. “Tristan started to hit shots and when that’s going it’s really hard to stop us.”

The Cougars overwhelmed Hanover Park all game with their size and strength on defense. They rebounded the ball well with LeMon, McKenna and senior Stefan Goles, which gave their team multiple second-chance opportunities.

At the start of the third quarter, Chatham used an 11-0 run to pull away to a 44-22 lead. McKenna opened up the half with a layup, which was followed by a layup and a 3-pointer from LeMon. Hanover Park hit its first field goal with 3:07 left in the quarter.

“We’ve been playing well this year,” head coach Todd Ervin said. “We’ve been getting contributions from everyone and we are just trying to get better.”

Rooney led the Cougars with 20 points, scoring 13 of them in the second half. He was aggressive all game, driving to the basket and did a great job facilitating the offense.

“Jack’s been playing great this year,” Ervin said. “We have a great thing going right now and we just want to keep it up.”

LeMon finished with 16 points and Goles added six for a Chatham team that is on a mission.

“We don’t want to look to far ahead, but we definitely want some revenge,” Rooney said.

Staff Writer Dan Canova: 862-240-2878;dcanova@gannettnj.com