Jelani Awai missed school Friday with the stomach flu.

Early on in Saturday’s Hunterdon/Warren/Sussex tournament matinee, the atmosphere inside the gym at Hackettstown High School may have seemed susceptible to a nap for the junior guard to recover.

Instead, Awai came off the bench and provided a spark for the Tigers, dropping 16 points on the way to a 60-43 win over Voorhees.

“I think we had a good game plan, so we really stuck to it,” Awai said. “I just wanted to help the guys out there because I haven’t been playing well lately, so I just wanted to get off to a good start.”

Awai scored eight of his points in the first quarter alone, all coming during a 10-0 run that Hackettstown (12-7) used to close out the period while building up its lead into double digits.  

“We kind of fed off it,” Tigers coach Mike McDonagh said. “That was when we started making that little run.”

No. 5 Hackettstown advanced to next Saturday’s quarterfinals when they’ll travel to Phillipsburg to take on the fourth-seeded Stateliners.

MORE: Tough schedule paying off for Hackettstown

The Vikings were able to cut into the lead, making it an eight-point deficit by the end of the third quarter and then getting within seven on an and-one from Blair Felts (12 points) with 3:54 left in the game.

But that’s when Awai showed up again, scoring six points during another 10-0 run from the Tigers to put the game out of reach.

“We had a few opportunities in the fourth, we just didn’t knock down some shots,” Voorhees coach Jeff Franz said. “I thought we did a good job in the half court defensively, but they got rebounds and kicked it out for a three, I think it happened a couple times. Our defensive rebounding hurt us and their offensive rebounding definitely helped them.”

Some strong inside play from forwards Jack Quinoa (eight points), Matt Arcona (eight points), Ben Ward and Eddie O’Melia contributed to the stingy effort in the paint.

“We knew they were a big team size-wise so we had to push the ball, which we did early,” Arcona said. “When we penetrate, that’s when we’re at our best because we can kick out, play inside out or go inside with Jack. We have great shooters with (Robert) Begley, (Brandon) Rojas, Jelani and (Tyler) Akers.”

Awai went eight-for-nine from the charity stripe as he reached double-digit scoring for the sixth time this season and bumped up his average to 6.9 points per game.

“I just tried to get everyone going to help the team win,” he said.

This marked the third time in the last four years that Hackettstown and Voorhees have met in the second round of the Hunterdon/Warren/Sussex tournament. All three have gone in the Tigers’ favor, but not without a challenge.

“It’s typical Voorhees — every team we play them … we’re up a little bit and then they fight back and it’s not as easy,” McDonagh said. “They’re a good team, they’re well coached. We lucked out.”

Greg Joyce may be reached at gjoyce@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @GJoyce9. Find Lehigh Valley high school sports on Facebook.

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