Wayne Hills boys basketball faced Wayne Valley for a third time on Saturday in the Passaic County quarterfinals, and suffered their 3rd straight loss to them. The game at Wayne Valley High School was very close, and ended with only a 4 point difference at 33-29. The other 2 prior games were also very close, with the scores being 32-30 and 56-53. 

Leading into the game the Hills players were confident in their abilities even having lost to Valley twice before. Though these losses only fueled the players to play better, they were more hungry than ever before. When asked about the game, senior Jared Mintz said “We are gonna win”. All the Hills players seemed to not be phased by the past losses and were very confident going into this match up.

Hills started out on top with a lead of 7-3 at the end of the first quarter, but by the end of the first half, Valley was able to level out the score to an even 13-13. Hills and Valley remained tied by the end of the 3rd quarter with a score of 22-22 and then with 2 minutes left in the game Valley was able to secure a 2 point lead which was able to bring them to victory. 

The leading scorers for Hills on Saturday were seniors James Adamo and Andre Macarenes with 7 points each. The leading scorer for Valley was senior Nick Ender with 8 points. Close behind Nick ender were seniors Krenar Shaqiri and Drake Flower who both had 7 points. When asked about the game Adamo commented “ I think I can speak for the rest of the team when I saw we gave it our all, if we play them again in states I hope to see a different outcome.”

Hills will play again at home on February 15th against Fairlawn.