Entering Tuesday night, both Kentucky and Kentucky-bound point guard Isaiah Briscoe were undefeated.
It was at least theoretically possible that both the Wildcats and Roselle (N.J.) Catholic could finish the season unbeaten.
But while Kentucky routed Missouri at home, RC, the No. 2 high school team in the nation according to USA Today, lost at rival Linden, 75-61, for their second straight defeat at the New Jersey public school.
“This is a tough environment to play in, probably the toughest on our schedule — to play Linden at Linden,” Briscoe, who went for 19 points, four assists and three rebounds, told Jeremy Schneider of NJ Advance Media. “The same thing happened last year. It’s just different when it’s a home game (for them). One city, one school. You’ve got the whole city coming out here to play the No. 2 team in the country. Hostile.”
Otis Livingston and Quinton Dixon scored 15 points apiece for Linden.
“Give all the credit in the world to our kids, they really believed that they could beat them,” Linden coach Phil Colicchio said. “Today we went out and proved it.”
If there is a silver lining for Briscoe and RC (9-1), it’s that they no longer have to worry about going undefeated this season.
“Linden played very well and exposed some of the things we have been struggling with at times this year,” RC coach Dave Boff told SNY.tv. “Obviously, when you take the floor you want to win the game, but what we need to do now is watch the film and teach and get better. We need to get tougher defensively and we need to execute better offensively. We have to learn from what happened against them.”
RC still has several tough games left on the schedule. They play DeMatha Catholic on Saturday in the Hoophall Classic in Springfield, Mass., and also have remaining games with St. Benedict’s, St. Patrick’s (again), Linden (again), Monteverde (FL) Academy and Centerreach (N.Y.) Our Savior New American.
Photo: NJ.com
