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Julian Sexton scored early and often on Thursday evening for the Morristown West freshmen against Morristown East.

Sexton had eight points in the first quarter and finished with 23 points as the Trojans got revenge on an earlier season defeat, taking down East 65-55.

The game was a precursor to Friday night’s Morristown West-Morristown East games at Morristown West.

Along with Sexton for West, Jayden Howard finished with 11 points while Will DesGrosseilliers added 10 points. Other scorers for West were TJ Walthall with seven points, Malachi Monroe with six points, Jacob Walker with five points and Chad Dalton with four points.

For Morristown East, Jaxson Archer led the way with 16 points while Nick Dougherty added 10 points. Other scorers for the ‘Canes were Parker Dale with eight, Nate Ball with eight, Eli Davis with eight and Austin Slover with five points.

It was back-and-forth to start the game as the two teams traded the lead six times before West scored the final six points to take a 17-13 advantage. Sexton scored four of those six points with Monroe knocking in the other two.

In the second, the two teams traded the lead again to start before West rallied off 10 straight points to lead 27-18. DesGrosseilliers and Walthall each scored four during the run with the other two coming from Walker. East finally broke their cold spell with a 3-pointer by Slover, but West scored the final six points of the half and led 34-21.

East tried to cut into the lead to start the third as Archer made a free throw and Dougherty scored, but Howard completed a 3-point play to push the lead back to 13. East responded with six points to get the lead down to seven, but West answered again with five points. Sexton then took things over with back-to-back 3-pointers and the lead was 50-33. East scored late to cut the lead, but it was 51-36 heading to the fourth.

However, the ‘Canes would not go down without a fight. Using a full-court press, East scored eight of the first 10 points of the fourth to make it 53-44. After Sexton scored to break the drought, the ‘Canes rallied off eight straight as Archer scored five and Dougherty nailed a 3-pointer that made the score 55-52.

Needing a basket, West found Dalton for a bucket as he was fouled. Dalton missed the free throw but Howard got the offensive rebound and put it back in while being fouled. His ensuing free throw made it 60-52.

From there, East could only cut the lead to seven as West made their free throws to hold onto the victory.