Boys Varsity Basketball vs Mid Atlantic Prep League Tournament – vs. The Hill School on 2/14/2026
“It was another game where we had to dig down for some toughness, against a really tough team,” Head Coach Joe Rulewich said. “Coach Eilberg coaches those guys to his identity and his personality and he’s tough. It was a great battle. Both teams had to respond at different times, it felt like we were giving punches and taking punches and it was just a great game. It really showed our spirit and our toughness in late-game situations. I’m really proud of this team and I feel like we’ve had a great mission going into this weekend which is to win three games in a row.”
Gabe Hornberger’s 3-pointer with 3:25 left in the fourth quarter cut the Peddie deficit to 55-52. Josiah Broko stole the inbound pass after the timeout and threw down a slam dunk to make it a 55-54 deficit. Ethan Nelson’s 3-pointer with 1:52 left gave Peddie a 57-55 lead.
The Hill School missed both free throws with 46.7 seconds left down 57-55. Sean Griffin was fouled with 21.9 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. He missed both free throws.
With 3.8 seconds left, The Hill School was fouled and was awarded three free throws. The first was made and the next two were missed. Josiah Broko grabbed the rebound for Peddie with 2.5 seconds left, up 57-56.
Jordan Moton went to the free throw line with 2.5 seconds left and made both free throws to extend the Peddie lead to 59-56.
Gabe Hornberger scored a team-high 20 points. Josiah Broko and Sean Griffin each added 16 points.
“It feels great, but the job’s not done,” Hornberger ’26 said. “We won two out of our three games, the Peddie support from students was great and really elevated us at the end of the game, so I’m really excited for tomorrow.”
“It was pretty exhilarating, but at the same time I was kind of nervous,” Broko ’28 added. “We made some big plays down the stretch. Coach told us that we’re going to beat Pennington, beat Hill and go beat Blair, so that was in our minds the whole game.”
The Falcons next face top-seeded Blair Academy in the 2025-2026 MAPL Boys Basketball Tournament Championship Game on Sunday, Feb. 15 at 3 p.m. at The Pennington School.