Johnny Chaname remembers the nerves he felt as a sophomore before his first varsity basketball game. He also remembers the words of encouragement he received from senior captain Anthony Pizzuti.
“When I first joined the varsity team, I told him that I was nervous because I was 15 years old, in my first varsity game. And I told him I’m nervous,” Chaname recalled. “And (Anthony) was like, ‘Just go out there and play. You made it this far for a reason and coach (Perrin Mosca) obviously wants you on the court, so he believes in you.’”
Since then Chaname has kept taking his game farther and farther and on Saturday, it took him to the top of the Lyndhurst scoring list.
Chaname became the school’s career scoring leader for boys basketball with a first half 3-pointer from the left wing in the Golden Bears NJSIAA North 2, Group 2 quarterfinal win over Hillside.
Chaname, who scored 25 points in the game, now has 1,350 for his career, ironically passing Pizzuti who set the record in 2024 with 1,341 points.
“Anthony was a great player and watching him play definitely helped me,” said Chaname. “It inspired me as well. Seeing him break the record, score a thousand points and he led our team in almost everything. So seeing that, it helped me. He also had leadership that helped me too.”
Both Pizzuti and Chaname enjoyed similar trajectories on the basketball court. They each showed potential in a supporting role as sophomores before blossoming into a starring role as juniors and somehow elevating their game even more as a senior.
Chaname, who averaged 5.0 points per game as a bench player his sophomore, found himself pressed into having to be a top scorer the next year following the graduation of Pizzuti and others. He responded by scoring 21.1 points per game to lead Lyndhurst to a 16-11 record.
As impressive as last season was, it has somehow paled in comparison to what he and the Bears have done so far. Despite a grueling schedule, Chaname is averaging 22.8 points and 5.4 assists per game for a 19-9 Lyndhurst team. Through the weekend, Chaname is second in the state in 3-pointers made with 102.
On top of that Chaname has made sure to be a leader to his younger teammates, continuing the lessons he received from Pizzuti as a sophomore and Shawn Bellenger last year. In particular, he has become very close with sophomore standouts Avery Cano and Filoteo Mosca, both of them are on pace to eventually overtake Chaname on the career scoring list.
“Freshman year when they first walked in, I saw that they’re good players and every day they would work their (butts) off during practice, after practice,” Chaname said. “Seeing them score as many points as they’re scoring right now, I can’t help but think about what they’re going to be doing next year and the year after that. It’s just great for Lyndhurst basketball.”
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Last week’s historic blizzard delayed the start of the NJSIAA boys and girls basketball tournaments by two days.
On the boys side, Lyndhurst remains the only team still alive as the Bears, seeded second in North 2, Group 2, steamrolled McNair, 94-48, in the first round on Thursday, then blew out Hillside, 85-68, in the quarterfinals. Next up for Lyndhurst was a Tuesday semifinal at home against third-seeded Ridgefield Park with the winner going to the sectional final on Friday.
Nutley, the 14th seed in North 2, Group 3, nearly delivered one of the biggest upsets of round 1 on Friday, but third-seeded Millburn rallied in the final minutes to escape with a 76-72 victory to end the Maroon Raiders’ season at 17-10. Also on Friday, the most successful North Arlington season in a decade ended with a 59-46 loss at Newark Global Studies in the first round of the North 2, Group 1 tournament.
In North 1, Group 4, Kearny, the 14th seed, was blown out by Union City in the first round. Two days later, Union City ended the season of another local squad, outlasting Bloomfield, 65-62, in overtime.
On the girls side, two teams remain, in Kearny and North Arlington.
The Kardinals, seeded fourth in North 1, Group 4, upended Clifton, 51-35, in the first round on Thursday. On Saturday, behind a Mariel Ruiz triple-double, made quick work of Livingston, scoring the game’s first 17 points en route to a 57-39 victory. Kearny (21-6) will now face its toughest challenge of the season on Tuesday when it travels to face a top-seeded West Orange team that is the reigning Essex County champions and ranked No. 8 in the state by NJ.com.
North Arlington won its North 2, Group 1 first round, defeating American History of Newark, 46-36 on Friday. The eighth-seeded Vikings will have to go on the road for the quarterfinals on Monday to face top-seeded Arts, ranked 20th in the state.
Harrison, making its first state tournament appearance in six years, traveled to top-seeded Caldwell and was blown out by a Chiefs team ranked No. 16 in the state in the first round of the North 2, Group 2 tournament. Also in North 2, Group 2, Lyndhurst was eliminated by second-seeded Bernards. Bloomfield met a similar fate in North 1, Group 4 as it was soundly defeated by third-seeded Ridgewood.
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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.)