Timothy Christian’s Jalen Fleming scores 1,000th career point in opening night win
PISCATAWAY — For the second year in a row, a GMC player scored his 1,000th career point in the opening game of the season.
Unlike last year, when South River senior Laz Rodriguez accomplished the feat, Friday’s milestone was achieved by a junior, Timothy Christian’s Jalen Fleming.
The 6-foot-4 Plainfield native, who has played spectacularly in relative anonymity at the small Piscataway school for the past two years, needed 23 points and tallied 24 in the first half to send Timothy Christian, No. 10 in the MyCentralJersey.com area rankings, to a 66-41 victory over a J.F. Kennedy squad that was decimated by injuries before the season even started. Fleming finished with 26 points after only attempting three shots after halftime. Myles Dickerson, another junior, added 20 to the Tigers' attack.
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“I’d like to thank my parents and everybody who has been in a position to nurture me, grow me. It’s definitely been a hard struggle, but I love the work,” said Fleming, who can now focus all of his attention on what looms as a very promising campaign. “It’s been great. We obviously have high expectations for the season. I’m really looking forward to it.”
Timothy Christian jumped out to a 12-0 lead as Kennedy, playing without injured Marcus Bullock and Matt Cook, missed its first five shots and committed five turnovers before finally scoring nearly six minutes into the contest. Fleming struck for six points during that opening flurry and got to within a point of 1,000 with a pair of free throws with 43 seconds left before halftime.
He crossed the barrier with 20 seconds left in the half on a runout after a long pass from Chukwudi Raphael Mamah, who would have been the story had Fleming not added his name to the 1,000-point banner hanging on the walls of the gymnasium.
Mamah, a 6-foot-7 junior from Nigeria who enables Fleming and Dickerson to get out even quicker in transition, demonstrated a dominant inside presence and a versatile, though reluctant, offensive game.
Mamah posted 10 points, 15 rebounds and six blocked shots. His lone field goal try in the first quarter was a successful put back, but in the second he showed his ability to shoot from the arc, drive to the hoop and even handle the rock coast-to-coast for a layup.
“I feel blessed. I came here to the U.S., I’ve been dreaming of this for, like, two years,” Mamah said. “Now that I’m here, I’m grateful to be here to get an education and help my family.”
Timothy coach Dennis McNulty was obviously pleased with the effort of his team, given the pressure of opening night and scrutiny the program is now receiving.
“I’m thrilled. The athleticism speaks for itself, but they like each other, they play hard, they’re coachable,” McNulty offered. “The state of the program is certainly (good); the trajectory is up with this group, and this core, to be juniors, we’re excited.”
Sophomore Grant Lorentzen paced Kennedy with a career-high 15 points. The two contests between these schools last year were decided by a total of merely six points. Timothy Christian’s 25-point margin of victory over the depleted Mustangs may give some indication of how far this program has come.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ basketball: Timothy Christian beats J.F. Kennedy
