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Senior guard Robert Foster is one of the experienced players for Payne Tech as third-seeded Lions prepare to make a first-ever appearance in Saturday's (Feb. 15th ) semifinals of Essex County Tournament facing second-seeded Arts 3 p.m. at West Orange preceding second semifinal pitting the top-seeded Seton Hall Prep Pirates vs. fourth-seeded and defending 2024 ECT champion, St. Benedict's Gray Bees. (SC photo)

Plenty Of Memories For Payne Tech Coach
As His Lions Eye A First-Ever ECT Final 4

By Steve Tober
For sidelinechatter.com

There will be more than just bragging rights in their Brick City neighborhood on the line when third-seeded Payne Tech faces second-seeded Arts, 3 p.m., Saturday, at West Orange, in the semifinals of the 78th Essex County Tournament.

It will also be quite the Trip Down Memory Lane for the Lions’ head coach Brad Howard, who is a 1981 graduate of Arts.

“I wear my alumni status on my sleeve,” said Payne Tech hoops mentor who was the starting point guard for coach Joe Palestina’s 1980-81 Arts Jaguars. “It is the oldest performing arts high school in the country (opening in 1931). (Arts coach) Prophet (Kates) went to school there a couple of years after my daughter and I coached girls basketball there for 10 years.

“(Payne Tech senior guard) Robert Foster and (Arts senior forward) Shelton Colwell are buds - although once the game starts, they will be competitors just like Magic Johnson and Isiah Thomas back in the day when they battled like heck out there on the court.

“We know they’re a tough team that scraps and gets after ’50-50’ balls, and it’s going to be a battle out there.

“It's Payne Tech’s first ECT Final 4 and we’re extremely excited about being there, that’s for sure!”

Arts (12-10, 4-4), which is appearing in just its third semifinal, lost to Seton Hall Prep, 46-32, in the 2023 final, its only ECT championship game in a brief history (16 games from the first round on) competing past the preliminary round in the first 77 years of the countywide hoops extravaganza.

Top-seeded SHP (17-4, 7-1), bouncing back nicely this season following a rare sub-.500 campaign last winter, will take on fourth-seeded and defending champion St. Benedict’s (12-11, 2-6) at 5 p.m. in Saturday’s Final 4 nightcap.

Payne Tech (16-5, 6-3) has not lost since senior guard Jamir Westry became eligible 12 games ago after having to sit out the first three weeks of the season in accordance with NJIAA transfer rules after coming back home to the Newark Vo-Tech school after one year at College Achieve Asbury Park.

It’s not as if Westry, a 5-foot-10 energizer, is not already totally ingrained in the Payne Tech and Newark hoops scene since he grew up in the Brick City alongside lifetime friend Foster playing Pop Warner football and ‘Biddy’ basketball in the Newark and Union area since they were 6 years old.

Now, with Westry (22.8 ppg), Foster (13 ppg) and talented sophomore De’an Armstrong (10.6 ppg) forming one of Essex County’s top 3-headed backcourts, and 6-5 ‘double-double’ machine Gerald Edwell (17.9 ppg, 14 rpg) ruling the backboards, the Lions are one surging team entering the final days of the Super Essex Conference-American Division regular season and with the state cutoff fast approaching (also on Saturday, Feb. 15) before they embark in their quest to try and win a North 2, Group 3 state sectional title.

First up, however, is the ECT Final 4, which is a special venue for the coach and players.

“SEC basketball puts the spotlight on some of the best teams in the state,” said Howard. “And, while we all want to impress in the state tournament, the county chip is coveted by us and to now be in the position to go out and win two more games to earn a county championship is a huge goal for us.

“And, we have a veteran team that is self-motivated for this challenge. I don’t have to give any Knute Rockne type speeches. They’re just up for it authentically and experience-wise.

“They’re all tremendous students in the classroom with a 3.5 or higher gpa (grade point average) and they’re great character kids as well.

“They are all fully aware of the challenges that remain in this great tournament and beyond and they’re ready to put forth a great effort on Saturday against a strong opponent they are quite familiar with.”

Arts defeated a Westry-less Payne Tech team in the 2024-2025 season opener, 59-51, back on Dec. 12, at Arts, a game where the two teams were tied, 44-all entering the fourth quarter.

 

 

 

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