After throwing up monstrous scoring and rebounding numbers in his first six games with Plainfield, 6-10 North Carolina transfer NaJai Hines showed everyone in in the Cardinals' packed gym that he can also dominate a game when he's not packing the stat sheet.
More accurately, his formidable presence on the low block can allow someone else on the Plainfield team to dominate.
That someone at the start of this much-hyped Top 20 battle against No. 7 Union Catholic was sophomore point guard Micah Gordon, who knew a few things about taking command of a game well before Hines enrolled last month from South Garner High in Garner, N.C.
Gordon pumped in 15 points of his game-high 23 points in the opening quarter with an array of drives, pull-up jumpers and 3-pointers to propel his team to a 13-point lead on its way to a 65-37 victory in a Union County Conference-Watchung Division clash Thursday night at the Rico Parenti Gymnasium in Plainfield.
Hines scored four points and took down five rebounds in that scorching first quarter, but that was well off his 22.6-points-per-game pace he'd established through his first six games.
"Hines is a very impactful player. He brings a lot of attention to himself, but he's also a good passer," said Plainfield head coach Michael Gordon, the father of that talented point guard who came in averaging 16.7 points and already with 734 for his career.
"He (Hines) passes out of the double team really well, and he defends, he rebounds the ball at a high level. And he just opens up the floor for our other guys," he said.
Hines had done all that while also scoring and rebounding at a high rate in those initial games, but he had not yet gone up against a player anywhere near his size.
This time, he had two he saw eye-to-eye with in 6-10 senior Yaw Ansong and 6-9 senior FK Muntari. Hines finished with 10 points and 15 rebounds for his seventh straight double-double while Ansong and Muntari were limited to a combined 11 points, and just five in the first half as Plainfield established a 40-17 advantage.
That lead would expand in the third quarter to 56-25 behind he balanced play of Gordon, juniors Devin Thomas and Rashawn Williams, and seniors Hines and Kiian Kirkwood. A running clock was initiated with 3:11 left in that period, which certainly was an unexpected development between two of the state's to 10 teams.
Union Catholic (7-3) had come in with a three-game win streak and hot off a 56-50 win over No. 8 Elizabeth on Tuesday.
The only loss for Plainfield (12-1) came against Elizabeth, 59-57, on Dec. 19, but that was 13 days before Hines played his first game.