HAMILTON — Javion Cesar-Jones may not be 100 percent fit yet, but when he is the opponents of the Thrive Charter boys basketball team need to look out.

The senior forward took a big step forward in his return from a respiratory illness on Monday evening in helping his team hoist the championship trophy from the ESCIT Holiday Tournament.

Cesar-Jones, who is typically one of the five starters for second-year coach Khalid Lewis, came off the bench as he gets his legs and lungs back under him and scored nine of his 11 points in the fourth quarter as the Titans held off Mercer County rival Ewing, 61-54, at the Iron Palace.

“Coach told me he wanted me to come in and take over the game and be player of the game,” Cesar-Jones said. “I told him I got him. He wanted me to keep running the play and every time turn the corner. I kept turning the corner and it helped.”

With the game tied at 38-all, Thrive (5-1) went on an 11-1 run to seize control. Cesar-Jones had a pair of layups by attacking the rim during the spurt. Once the Blue Devils (5-1) scored to break the run, Cesar-Jones answered right back with another bucket to push the lead back to 10.

“I want to give him credit for trusting me,” Lewis said. “It’s tough, man, because he’s one of our better players and he sat out the whole third quarter. That’s not normal from him. He’s one of our star players, but coming off sickness and injury, he locked in and pulled through for us.”

The plan is for Cesar-Jones to return to the starting lineup sooner rather than later, but if Lewis decides that he needs his senior to be a sixth man then Cesar-Jones is up for it.

“I’m cool with it because when I get on the court I’m still a leader,” he said. “I have no problem if I’m the sixth man for the rest of the season. I wouldn’t care at all.”

The Titans flexed some of the depth they’ll need to navigate a rugged schedule in hopes of repeating as Group I state champion.

Sean Turner, a transfer from Hamilton West, added 10 points to join Cesar-Jones in double figures. That made for 21 total points from the bench.

“That’s one of our biggest attributes,” Lewis said. “Once we take one out, we got another one rolling in. We’re a scary team.”

Tyler Hammond paced all scorers with 19 points and Marjon Skillman added 10 for Thrive.

Terrance Traylor tallied 18 for Ewing, but was shut out in the fourth quarter as the Titans made their move. Shawn Robertson chipped in 11 and Hyshyon ‘Woo’ Cannon had eight late points in his season debut.

While this may have only been a holiday-week tournament, it had a playoff atmosphere with the Iron Palace stands packed to the last row. It got chippy (would you expect anything less between two Mercer County rivals?) with technical fouls assessed to both teams.

In that sense it was a good test of what is to come for both teams.

Ewing will try and defend its CVC Tournament title against tough challengers like Trenton and Lawrence and is expected to be a contender in Group III.

Thrive has upcoming games against Roselle Catholic, Trenton, Gill St. Bernard’s and Elizabeth.

“It’s going to help a lot,” Lewis said. “Being in these moments before, you have to take care of the ball and be strong with the ball at the end of the game, we’ll run into that a lot this season. Games like this prepare us for moments like that.”

The mentality won’t change.

“We feel disrespected. They keep putting top 20 and we’re not in the top 20,” Cesar-Jones said. “Every game we got to kill, kill, kill.”

EWING (54)

Traylor 6-5-18, Thomas 1-0-2, J. Upshur 3-0-7, Robertson 5-1-11, M. Uphsur 2-1-4, Stephenson 1-0-2, Jas. Carter 0-0-0, Cannon 3-0-8. Totals: 21-7-54.

THRIVE CHARTER (61)

Hammond 5-5-19, Ross 1-0-2, Paige 1-0-2, Skillman 3-3-10, Young 3-1-7, Bryson 0-0-0, Hobbs 0-0-0, Cesar-Jones 5-1-11, Turner 4-2-10. Totals: 22-11-61.

Ewing (5-1) 12 12 12 18 — 54

Thrive Charter (5-1) 7 18 13 23 — 61

3-point goals: Traylor, J. Uphsur, Cannon 2 (E). Hammond 3 (TC).