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Little Trojans Pull Away Late To Defeat Kennedy, 44-33 |
By Greg Machos
January 31, 2008NORTH EDISON, NJ—For the past several years, the Little Trojans of Bishop Ahr have been among the best in the Greater Middlesex Conference in terms of Freshmen teams with Final Four appearances in the Perth Amboy/GMC Freshmen Tournament in each of the past two seasons, and a top seed the year before that in the 2005 Frosh Tourney. Currently, that group of freshmen make up this year's varsity squad that has compiled a record of 12-2 up to this point in the season. BGA is hoping that this year's squad can at least repeat some of the success of the past several years. With players such as Zach Widdoss' younger brother, and Deshawn Kilgore, the Little Trojans have a team with some size and athletic ability, and they recently defeated McCarrick at home on January 26th by four points. A week earlier, the Little Eagles of Cardy Mac rallied to defeat Piscataway, 52-48 in South Amboy. So far this season, Ahr has compiled a record of 11-2 on the year. Meanwhile, the Little Mustangs of J.F. Kennedy have lost 9 of 14 games, but the first time they played BGA back on January 4th at JFK, the Little Trojans were forced to overtime before winning in the extra session, 67-56.
This game would be just as interesting, and was actually the most competitive game of the day between these two schools at any one of the three levels (Freshmen, JV, and Varsity). The first quarter saw a tightly played game as the two teams combined for 17 points with the Little Trojans jumping out to a 10-7 lead. Then, in the second period, BGA limited JFK to just a field goal, and a foul shot while scoring eight points to take an 18-10 lead into the intermission. Kilgore lead the charge for Ahr with four field goals in the first half for eight points while Widdoss and Morgan chipped in with 4 points each on two field goals. Then, at the start of the third quarter, Kennedy forward, Mike Bach scored on a layup inside on the right low block to pull the Little Mustangs to within six at 18-12 with about a minute gone by in the frame. However, BGA pushed its advantage to double digits with six unanswered points, including layups by Blakley, Owens, and Morgan for a 24-12 lead with 5:23 to go in the third. Just when you thought JFK was down for the count, the Little Mustangs showed intestinal fortitude with a 14-4 rally over the next 7:23 that spanned into the early portion of the fourth quarter, but also drew the ire of BGA freshmen coach, Rocky Prodoscimo, who was waiting for his team to get the car out of neutral, and fire up the offense. Forward, Stephen Roca, ignited the comeback with an offensive rebound, and putback off a missed three pointer by A.J. Pichalski to trim the deficit to just 24-14 at the 3:36 mark.
Over the next fifty seconds or so, the Little Mustangs continued to make inroads on the Ahr lead as diminutive guard, Jordan Toczynski, the younger brother of JFK varsity player, Jonathan Toczynski, netted a three pointer from the left corner off an assist by Daishon Robinson for a 24-17 Ahr lead, and then Toczynski pounced on a loose ball for a theft, and called for time at the 2:47 mark. Following the stoppage, J.F. Kennedy was unable to take advantage of the BGA miscue, but on the next Little Trojan possession, forward, Donnell Walden swiped a steal, and went in for a layup that closed the gap to five at 24-19 with 2:16 remaining in the third. Moments later, Prodoscimo called a thirty second timeout to try and reorganize his Little Trojan legions. However, after the brief break, the Little Mustangs went right back to work with another Walden steal that set up an opportunity. JFK took a shot that was off the mark, but Robinson got in amongst the trees, and grabbed an offensive rebound, and then kicked it back out to Walden near the top of the key for a jumper that was true, and suddenly Bishop Ahr was only leading by three with 1:15 left in the frame. Ahr would finally put an end to the 9-0 insurrection by the Little Mustangs as Blakely passed to Ster for a layup, and a 26-21 advantage heading into the fourth period. Picking up right where it left off at the end of the third, Ahr made it a seven point lead as Owens got the ball inside to Kilgore for a layup, and a 28-21 edge with a minute and twenty seconds gone by in the final period. On the next JFK sequence though, Robinson got two of those points by with a jumper from the wing with for a 28-23 Little Trojan lead with six and a half minutes to play. Then, Carlucci followed up a half minute later with his trifecta from the right corner to pull Kennedy to within two at 28-26 with six minutes remaining in regulation.
Unfortunately for JFK's first year freshmen coach, and former Mustang standout, Eliot Solop, and his mini-Mustangs, they couldn't get any closer. Unable to take advantage of some of the size it had down low, Kennedy was unable to tie the game while Ahr pulled away down the stretch. BGA scored four straight points for a 32-26 lead before Toczynski dished to Robinson on the left wing for a trey that cut the deficit in half to 32-29 with 4:20 left. However, Ahr then embarked on what would be a decisive 6-2 run over the next 3:19 for a 38-31 lead. Highlighting the burst was a Lynch inbounds to Blakely for a layup followed by a layup by Kilgore off a feed by Widdoss for the seven point advantage with just a little over a minute to go. Following a Kennedy timeout, Pichalski came up with a steal for a layup that closed the gap to 38-33, and briefly gave the Little Mustangs some life, but the Little Trojans then snuffed it out with the final six points including another Lynch inbounds to Kilgore for a layup as he was fouled, but the freshmen forward missed the bonus free throw, and the score stood at 40-33 with 34.3 seconds left. Then, on the missed bonus foul shot, Widdoss got position, grabbed the offensive board, and scored on the follow for a 42-33 lead as Solop and Kennedy called for time with 27.3 seconds to play. BGA then got the final two points of the contest for the 42-33 win. Breaking down the rest of the Ahr scoring Widdoss connected on 4 of 6 shots for 8 points while grabbing four second half rebounds, and dishing his fourth quarter assist. Morgan added 3 of 5 shooting, and a perfect 2 of 2 at the line for 8 points, 2 second half rebounds, and an assist.
Blakely got all four of his points over the final two periods by connecting on both his second half shots while grabbing a rebound, handing out two assists, and swiping three steals during the third and fourth periods. Rounding out the scoring was Ster (1 of 2 FGs for 2 points), Owens (a field goal and an assist for 2 points), and Zwedinger (1 of 2 FGs for 2 points). Lynch also played and didn't score, but came up with three key assists down the stretch to seal the win. Moving on to Kennedy's side of the scorebook, Robinson led the way with 8 points on 3 of 6 shooting from the floor including a three pointer, and also made 1 of 3 at the line while grabbing two second half offensive rebounds, and collecting 2 assists, and 2 steals over the final 16 minutes of the game. Pichalski chipped in for the losers with 6 points on three field goals on ten shot attmepts, while picking up two offensive rebounds, two steals, and a block over the final two periods. Toczynski scored a field goal in the first half, and got his key three in the third quarter for 5 points on 2 of 6 shooting to go along with three assists and two steals in the second half. Walden and Bach each had four points on the game while Walden picked up 3 rebounds, 3 steals, an assist, and a block over the final two periods. Bach added a rebound and assist in the same time frame. Carlucci and Roca rounded out the Little Mustangs scoring with three points apiece while Roca added three second half rebounds in the defeat. With the win, BGA improves to 12-2 on the season while Kennedy falls to 5-10.
Team |
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
Bishop Ahr (12-2) |
10 | 8 | 8 | 18 | 44 |
J.F. Kennedy (5-10) |
7 | 3 | 11 | 12 | 33 |
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