Early on Tuesday, Angel Castellano got the message from his cousin Javien Olsen, that he wouldn’t be able to make it to Castellano’s game that afternoon. Olsen’s text came with another message for Harrison’s star guard.
“He told me he wasn’t going to be there, but he told me to drop 50 and I just had that in my head all day,” Castellano said. “He just had it in my head all day and he kept telling me to just score 50 and just to shoot the ball and just have confidence.”
Not only did Castellano hit his cousin’s goal, he went out and delivered a game that no one associated with Harrison will soon forget.
Facing University Academy Charter in the play-in round of the Hudson County Tournament, Castellano scored 60 points to give the Blue Tide an 81-50 victory.
Castellano smashed the previous school record of 48 points set by Brian McCauley in 1997. Castellano also set a new school record for 3-pointers in a game with 10 and his 60 points were the most by any player in New Jersey this season.
“It’s crazy just knowing that that happened, that people will be talking about that for years. It’s just surreal,” Castellano said. “I could have never imagined (scoring 60). I thought I could get 40, 45 points, but 60? That was crazy.”
“We spoke before the game and he looked different,” said head coach Jose Camano. “He looked locked in. He was very vocal, which he’s not (usually) a very vocal person. He was very vocal with me and he was ready to go.”
Castellano got off to a strong start, scoring 13 points in the first quarter, but despite that, the Blue Tide found themselves up by just three at 16-13.
From there, Castellano found an even higher level, scoring 23 of Harrison’s 29 second quarter points, making shots on both drives to the basket as well as from long range.
The senior capped off the period with a long 3-pointer right before the buzzer to give the Blue Tide a 24-point lead. Castellano had 36 points, just one from his own career high, leaving himself in disbelief.
“My assistant coach told me I had 36 and I kept saying there’s no way I had 36 because I didn’t believe it,” Castellano said. “But then I went to my cousin (Shilah Olsen) who is actually our scorekeeper, so when she told me and I was like, wow, that’s crazy.”
Castellano quickly set a new personal career-high as part of an 11-point third quarter. Then in the fourth, with his shot still falling, he added 13 more to put the finishing touches on a record setting night.
“It was all about the team, and the team realized, ‘okay, Angel has the hot hand, let’s feed Angel. Let’s feed Angel.’ And that’s what happened,” said Camano. “The team realized, okay, we’re in this game, angel. Angel got us to this point. Let’s keep getting him the ball.”
“I didn’t want to think about it too much,” Castellano said. “I felt like if I just thought about scoring, it wouldn’t come to me as easily.”
According to Castellano, who remains uncommitted for college, several coaches have reached out to him in the days that have followed his record-breaking performance.
The next evening Castellano scored 21 points as Harrison was eliminated from the Hudson County Tournament with a 60-41 loss at Snyder. On Saturday, he had 36 points in a win over Pompton Lakes, raising his season average to 25.2 points per game, which is among the top five in New Jersey.
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Jason Bernstein | Observer Sports Writer
Jason Bernstein joined The Observer as its sports writer in March 2022, following the retirement of Jim Hague. He has a wealth of sports-writing experience, including for NJ Advance Media (nj.com, The Jersey Journal, The Star-Ledger.)