BY MIKE WHITE
Staff Writer

PLUMSTED - New Egypt High School basketball coach Jay Corby was looking for his seniors to step forward and lead a youthful Warriors club through its annual trip to the Rider University team camp.

Seniors Josh Howard, Rick Mackesy, Steve Dey and Dan Knott set the tone with inspired play as New Egypt posted a respectable 3-3 mark during the three-day event. Corby, who has been bringing his troops to Rider for the past five seasons, liked what he saw as far as intensity and hustle were concerned.

"We played hard for three days," Corby said. "There is a lot of good competition at this camp. It's a bit of a grind - the kids play a lot of hoops in just three days. But it gives us chance to see what we have, whose been doing off season work, and an opportunity to just play together as a team."

Corby was particularly impressed with Howard, who averaged a double-double through the six games.

"He plays hard and has really improved," Corby said. "He is a banger and isn't afraid to get out there and mix it up. He did a good job of working on the blocks and of controlling the boards. If we're going to have another successful year next season, he needs to be one of the guys we look to."

New Egypt posted victories over Morris Knolls and the B teams from both Mater Dei and St. John Vianney.

In the win over Mater Dei, New Egypt outscored its opponent 10-2 in the fourth quarter to earn the win. Solid defense down the stretch is what Corby keyed on.

"We did a good job of limiting second-shot attempts," Corby said. "We need to control the ball and the tempo in the fourth quarter of games. We did a fairly good job of that this past season."

New Egypt edged St. John Vianney by a single point as Dylan Rowley knocked down a free throw in the final second to win it.

Rowley took a feed on the block and was fouled going to the rim.

"It was the last game of the camp for us," Corby said. "It was a nice way to leave."

New Egypt suffered setbacks against Holmdel, Ewing and Hopewell Valley, a game New Egypt lost by just four points.

"There is no zone defense allowed at this camp," Corby said. "It gave us a chance to work on man defense. Of course, at times it caused matchup problems as well. But, overall, we did a solid job of defending."

Underclassmen Davion Clayton, Dylan Rowley, Cody Shields, Kevin Janowski, Dakota Havens and Dan Luetwyler all saw plenty of minutes.

"We don't have the one big scorer on this team," Corby said. "Last year, we had a couple of guys we could go to when we needed to score. This year's team will have to be more patient offensively and work for the open shot. We have talent, we're just young.