Saturday was a good day to be cheering for Verona High School basketball teams. The girls were first up, and they defeated Shabazz 45-32. The boys followed in the afternoon, and earned a 54-48 win over West Essex.
Nick Gonzalez, who had scored 23 points in Verona’s 50-43 win over Weequahic on Thursday, was once again on fire for the boys team, putting up 22 points in a game that included four three-pointers. His scoring pushed Verona to an early lead against West Essex and put the Hillbillies up 32-18 at the half. The Knights were on their home turf, however, and drew on that energy for a second-half rally that pulled them within striking distance of a win. West Essex’ Chris Corbo, who is only in his first year on varsity, also had 22 points. on the day.
Andrew Emanuilidis, who is only on his second varsity year for Verona, was the Hillbillies’ second highest scorer, with 14. He was also strong from outside, putting up three-three-pointers. Kyle Malanga added six points to the maroon-and-white tally.
The boys are now 10-6 on the season. They host Millburn on Thursday.
In the girls win, Desiree Meyer kept working on her career three-pointer total, adding four more to the tally as she led Verona with 18 points. The rest of the scoring was evenly spread across the squad with six points apiece from Kylee Gallagher, Brianna Horton, Cayla Okafor and Lauren Kobernick. It was the best outing for Kobernick, a freshman who already has 45 points to her credit, since the Holiday Classic game against Cedar Grove.
Zahniyah McKnight and Taniya McLaurin led the scoring for Shabazz, with 14 and 10 points apiece respectively.
The win improves the Lady Hillbillies’ record to 12-2. They travel to Caldwell on Tuesday for a 4 p.m. game.
Boys game photos copyright Kathleen Seubert. Used by permission.
