Cole's Triple Double Propels Pioneers to Blowout Win

After the New Providence boys’ varsity basketball team demolished North Plainfield 70-45 last night, Pioneers’ coach Art Cattano compared center ’s shot-blocking prowess to Bill Russell’s.

With the state tournament less than a week away, the Pioneers have to hope Cole can also match the Celtic great’s penchant for bringing home championships.

Last night, Cole swatted 11 shots to go along with 14 points and 13 rebounds in the Pioneers’ destruction of North Plainfield on senior night in New Providence.

“He’s without a doubt one of the best shot-blockers I’ve ever seen, period,” Cattano said of Cole.

The Pioneers other senior starters also contributed, as Joey Meyers had 13 points, Justin Singer had 11 and Vinny Fuschetto added nine in the blowout.  Cattano also started senior PJ Vigilante over usual starting power forward Dave Barletta, as Barletta is a junior and thus has another year of eligibility. 

New Providence (17-6) hosts Governor Livingston on Thursday before shifting their focus to their state tournament first-round game against Weequahic next Tuesday.

“We’ve got one more [game],” Cattano said. “It’s going to be a good game for us. Good test, good rivalry, and [will] get [us] ready for the state tournament.”

The 25-point win allows the Pioneers to build some positive momentum moving forward after a recent rough stretch that started when they were .  The Pioneers followed that up with a tight win over 6-16 Caldwell and a 10-point loss to Somerville.

“We definitely haven’t been playing our best basketball lately,” Cole said.  “It was nice to come out here and execute well and play a game where we finished strong and played well the whole game.”

The Pioneers never trailed in the game, using a 16-5 run over the final 5:33 of the first quarter to turn a 4-4 tie into a 20-9 lead.

New Providence then made it a blowout in the second quarter, as Cole continued to swat shot after shot away.  One of these landed into the hands of Meyers, who raced to the other end for a score to make it 24-11 in the middle of the second.

“You can’t say enough about [Cole] blocking shots,” Cattano said. “He’s got over 100 this year. Every year he’s broken his own record. He gets a fast break going and he gets everybody’s energy up a little bit, so it makes a big difference when you have somebody that can do that.”

Later in the second, Meyers started a fast break with an outlet pass to Singer, who immediately fed Cole as the big man closed in on the hoop.  The center soared over the lone Canucks player, who had gotten back to defend, and finished with a two-handed stuff to make it 34-15 New Providence. 

Singer scored the first five points of the third quarter to stretch it to 41-15, and Meyers' floater with 2:13 left made it 50-21 for New Providence’s largest advantage of the game.

Cole, Meyers, Singer, Fuschetto, Vigilante and senior reserve Adam Iacovelli all had scored earlier in the game, leaving Billy Rokosky as the only senior who didn’t score. 

Cattano got him in during the fourth quarter, and Rokosky responded by hitting a late 3-pointer that got a rousing ovation from his teammates and the home crowd, and ended senior night on a high note for New Providence.

The Pioneers will host Governor Livingston tomorrow night at 7 p.m.