Allentown High School senior forward Bekim Nikovic was the driving force behind his team's narrow 58-56 victory over Hopewell Valley on January 8.
ALLENTOWN -- Allentown High School senior forward Bekim Nikovic was the driving force behind his team's narrow 58-56 victory over Hopewell Valley on Jan. 8.
The 6-foot-3 Nikovic, who is arguably Allentown's best all-around player, terrorized Hopewell Valley all game, scoring a game-high 22 points en route to the much-needed win, which snapped a three-game losing streak for the Redbirds.
"We're coming off of playing three really tough games against good competition," Allentown coach Jay Graber told NJ Advance Media after the victory. "They played extremely well, and any win is a good win. We are just excited to win because Hopewell played great. I was happy that we were able to climb back for this win."
Based on his comments, it's clear that Graber was happy with how Nikovic and the rest of his team performed. However, he also made it clear that the entire team still had much work to do.
"It's really early in the season, so we take every game one at a time," said Graber. "We're going to be back in the gym tomorrow morning, and we're going to keep working for our next game on Monday."
Speaking of work, Nikovic certainly did plenty of it to secure the win over Hopewell Valley for his team. After the game, the talented senior said that he's been playing with confidence.
"Yesterday, the coach told me to just shoot," Nikovic told NJ Advance Media. "I've been shooting well lately so I was confident with myself. My teammates passed me the ball. They trust me, so I took the shots for them."
"This win means a lot to us," Nikovic said. "We've played hard teams these past three games, so this win will pick us up. In this game, we finally got together and we're playing like a team."
While Nikovic's strong individual performance greatly influenced the final score of the contest, the talented senior gave all the credit to the team as a whole.
"After this win, I feel like we could beat any team," said Nikovic. "Hopewell Valley was a great team, but everybody played as a team. It was definitely a team win. It wasn't just one person."
Rich Cuccagna may be reached at rcuccagna@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @RichCuccagna. Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.