PLEASANTVILLE — Mainland Regional junior Cohen Cook managed to top even himself Monday night in the Mustangs’ 67-45 victory over the Pleasantville Greyhounds.
Cook made 14 field goals and finished the contest with a career-high 36 points, outscoring Pleasantville by himself at the halftime mark, in leading the Mustangs to victory.
Mainland improved to 15-2 on the season, bouncing back from a 43-42 loss to Haddonfield at the Paul VI Winter Classic on Saturday. Pleasantville fell to 8-10.
“This game was a great response after that loss for sure,” Mainland coach Dan Williams said. “Honestly, I’m not sure we saw it that way. Haddonfield is an outstanding team, super well coached and they have guys at every position that can make plays. In those games you want just to have guys go out and do your best.
“I thought we gave it our best and we left some plays on the table and they would probably say they did, too. It was a win for us knowing that we can go toe-to-toe with one of the best teams in South Jersey. That was a good measuring stick for us. In the game tonight, we wanted to get some things accomplished.”
The victory leaves Mainland one win short of its victory total from last year, when the Mustangs went on a late-season run to finish 16-11.
“I thought, defensively in the first half, we were really good; good as we’ve been all year,” Williams said. “I thought in the second half, we did a pretty poor job of defending. We didn’t keep guys in front of us and we didn’t rebound. We got away from some of the fundamentals of the game.”
Cook’s 14 field goals gives him exactly 100 on the season while his scoring average rose to 19.2 points per game. He beat his previous single-game high of 27, which he had at home against Oakcrest on Jan. 9.
Cook built his total without the benefit of making a 3-point basket, but added that his team doesn’t count on him to score from the outside anyway.
“I usually don’t make a lot of three-pointers,” Cook said. “Most of my points are layups, from the inside or the free throw line.”
Williams said Cook’s ability to consistently finish around the basket makes him a constant threat. That was evident especially in the first half when the forward managed to repeatedly get position against taller players to drive in the lane for baskets or get fouled in the process.
“Tonight, the thing that was working for Cook was getting to the rim,” Williams said. “Whether it’s pulling up for a jumper, hitting foul shots and stepping out occasionally for a 3-pointer, he can do it all.”
While Cook did most of the scoring on Monday, Williams said he often has a strong supporting cast with Tim Travagline and forwards Jamie Tyson and Mawali Osunniyi inside.
“[Cook] does benefit from having Tyson around and Osunnyi, guys you have to account for,” Williams said. “You can’t just leave them open or leave your man. They can put the ball in really well. Cohen knows if he draws a second guy coming out on him that he could just dump to one of those guys who are kicking out. Those are really good opportunities for us as well.”
Cook scored 26 points in three separate games last year as a sophomore: twice against Cedar Creek and the Mustangs’ upset of state power St. Augustine Prep on last Feb. 26.
It wasn’t all roses for Mainland in the rout of Pleasantville. Williams said he was not pleased with the way his team played the second half, appearing to lose focus after racing out to the huge lead against the Greyhounds.
Pleasantville managed to get Mainland’s lead under 20 several times and with a better shooting night may have made a more serious run. But the Mustangs played their part in preventing that from happening by constantly challenging shots while the guards disruptively slowed the Greyhounds’ offense most of the game.
Mainland scored the first 14 points of the game and Pleasantville would never get any closer. The Mustangs blanked the Greyhounds until a Pleasantville 3-pointer with 1:34 left in the first quarter.
Cook scored 22 of his 36 points in the first half, doubling Pleasantville’s team over the first 16 minutes. Mainland held a 36-11 lead at the break.
Pleasantville, though, started to right its ship, outscoring Mainland 17-12 to get the deficit to under 20, 48-29, by the end of the third quarter. Williams refused to let his team off the hook with the losing-focus excuse, saying that regardless of the situation, they need to be able to finish off opponents at this stage of the season.
“We’re starting to move closer to the playoffs now so I understand that, but I don’t want to allow it because you want to make sure this time of the year that you have to be dialed in all the time,” Williams said. “Some of that stems from getting a little too loose on the offensive end and we missed a few short ones to start the second half and we missed a bunch of perimeter shots.
“We were taking shots too quickly off of one pass, two passes and possessions, instead of making the clock our friend and making them have to work defensively. When you have Cook going for 36 tonight, that’s going to be tough to overcome for any team.”
The Mustangs, though, still had enough firepower to repel any thought of a Greyhound comeback. After Pleasantville cut the lead to 17, 53-36, at the 6:00 mark, Travagline put out the Greyhounds’ last chance with a layup, followed by a Cook basket and Travagline again with a steal and layup.
“Pleasantville will make it look that way at times because they’re really athletic and get up and down the floor,” Williams said. “They must have told their kids at halftime to just take it as strong as possible to the hole because that’s what they certainly did in the second half.”
Mainland will not take the court again until Friday when they travel to Mays Landing for a game against Oakcrest. That will leave them with four more regular season games before the Cape-Atlantic League tournament and the NJSIAA playoffs.
The Mustangs are atop the power point rankings with 469. The next-closest team is Moorestown with 377, giving Mainland a very good chance at the top seed in the sectionals.
By CLYDE HUGHES/Special to the Sentinel