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Bishop
Ahr Pulls Away From Middlesex In Fourth For Close Win, 57-51 |
By Greg Machos
December 22, 2008NORTH EDISON, NJ—On Monday night, the calendar may have read late December, and the first week of the 2008-09 season, but the atmosphere was one of early to mid February. The reason for that was because the Middlesex Blue Jays had stopped into down to try and make an early season statement against the Trojans of Bishop Ahr. There might be many out there that feel Ahr is going to be down this season, but don't let the fact that BGA lost its entire starting five from last year fool you.
For example, if you thought last year's senior class was impressive by winning the Blue Division as freshmen, you be even more surprised to find out that this year's senior class did better the following year by going all the way to the 2006 Perth Amboy/GMC Freshmen Tournament Championship game before losing to J.P. Stevens, 60-36. The seniors at JPS that played in that game are the starting five for this year's third ranked Hawks including Kenny Bland, Myles Reuben, Nick Pol, Tahir Swinton, and Herb Smith.
On top of that, this year's senior class has had players that have competed in the last two East Brunswick/GMC JV Championships, which were both BGA losses to St. Joseph's (2007) and Cardinal McCarrick (2008). And, we're still just getting started because this year's junior class was on a JV team that went 20-3 while last year's sophomore class went 20-4, and reached the Final Four of the Perth Amboy/GMC Freshmen Tournament for the third consecutive year.
Middlesex, on the other hand, is a rejuvenated program under the direction of fourth year head coach, Brian Feath, who has this team going places. The first two campaigns, the Blue Jays continued to struggle in mediocrity with records of 11-13 and 7-14 respectively. However, last year, the Jays finally started to do more than just turn the corner, they qualified for the state tournament for the first time since the 2001-02 season with an 18-7 record.
During the off-season, Middlesex High School continued to make major strides with appearances in the Linden Team Camp, the 2008 Elizabeth Summer League, and the 2008 Kean Ironman Challenge. In the Elizabeth Summer League, the Blue Jays won the regular season title of the Monday/Wednesday Division, and defeated St. Joseph's of Metuchen convincingly. In the Kean Ironman Challenge, Middlesex took Scotch Plains to overtime before losing. On opening day while Ahr was busy getting ready for this contest since the Trojans game against Highland Park was cancelled like everyone else's the previous night by a winter storm, Middlesex routed Metuchen by a score of 83-49 as Mike Colacci netted 22 points.
Hoping to emulate what Ahr did last year when it went into South Amboy, and knocked off Cardinal McCarrick, 72-68 on the second Saturday of the season, Middlesex, which was ranked eighth in the pre-season area top ten by the Home News-Tribune while this site has the Jays ranked 8th in the GMC, gave Ahr a good fight as expected, but it ended up being the Trojans making the big early season statement for the second year in a row. Over the last 14:04 of the game, Ahr made 13 of 17 shots from the line for 76.5 percent while Middlesex was just 8 of 15 at the charity stripe for 53.3 percent, and the Trojans outscored the Jays 22-15 over the first seven minutes or so of the fourth before Mike Perone hit a three pointer with about 40 seconds left to round out the final 57-51 score.
For the game, the Trojans made 17 field goals including five three pointers, and netted 18 free throws while Middlesex made 16 field goals including 6 threes, and made 13 free throws overall. The game was very even over the first three periods with Ahr only winning the first while the other two finished tied. Ahr then got the lion's share of the 40 points combined in the fourth to get the huge early season victory. Leading the way was senior guard, Matt Fiorino, who clicked for 25 points on seven field goals including four threes, and seven charity shots. Chipping in was senior backcourt mate, Matt Sheehy, who had a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds while handing out several nice assists.
Continuing with the Trojan scoring, Matt Melnick collected 9 points on three field goals and a three pointer while Darius Griffin picked up 6 points on a field goal and four free throws. Griffin also stood out on defense by stepping it up early in the fourth quarter to help produce two key turnovers that led to quick scores. Justin Peoples went 3 of 4 at the line in the fourth quarter for all of his points while Jordan Smith added a field goal to round out the point total for BGA. Meanwhile, for Middlesex, Mike Perone stood tall in a losing effort with 19 points on six field goals including four threes, and three foul shots for 19 points. Senior forward, Mark Stockton chipped in with 13 points on four field goals, and five free throws.
Proceeding with the rest of the Blue Jay scoring, Ryan Farley had three field goals, and three foul shots for 9 points while teammate Mike Colacci added 8 points on two threes including one that ended the third for a 35-33 Ahr lead, and two foul shots. Rounding out the scoring for Middlesex was Adam Wells, who connected on a short to mid-range jumper from the right wing that not only accounted for his only points, but also sparked the 6-0 quarter ending run for the Blue Jays in the third. Avery Barnes, Mike Fincher, and Rob Menditto also played for Middlesex while Tom Lancey, Manny Kroggmann, Pat Widdoss, and Matt Bernocchi played for the Trojans.
As mentioned earlier, it was a nip and tuck affair throughout the first three quarters as Bishop Ahr jumped out to a 12-10 first quarter lead, and maintained that tenuous two point cushion at halftime. GMC Hoops arrived at the game after being at work, and sat down to see Ahr go up by four, 26-22 with 6:04 remaining in the third. Farley then sank a jumper at the 5:57 mark to pull the Jays back to within two again at 26-24. Bishop Ahr would be the next to score as Sheehy grabbed an offensive board off a missed three point attempt by Fiorino, and followed it in for a four point, 28-24 lead at the 5:04 mark. A little more than a half minute later, Fiorino swiped a steal, and eventually scored on a three pointer for a 31-24 lead with 4:33 left in the third.
Following a Middlesex timeout at the 4:26 mark, Melnick stole a pass from Farley, and scored a layup for a 33-24 Ahr lead with 4:11 to play in the third. On the ropes, the Blue Jays fought hard to get back into a game that appeared to be slipping away for a bit. First, Farley kicked out to Perone for a straight on three pointer from the top of the key that made the score, 33-27 at the 3:14 mark. Barnes then came up with a big defensive play by blocking a Melnick shot at the 2:45 mark, but moments later on the inbounds, Sheehy found Fiorino going to the basket, and fed him the ball that drew a foul, and resulted in two free throws for a 35-27 lead. At this point, the Jays made their move to get back into the game with a 6-0 run.
Starting it all was Farley, who passed to Wells on the right wing for a 12 foot shot that made it a six point game at the 2:14 mark. Then, after some difficulty that led to calling a timeout to avoid a five second call at the 1:56 mark, and then a traveling violation at the 1:42 mark, Middlesex got one of two at the line from Stockton at the 27.8 second mark, and a long three pointer from the left wing by Colacci that was nothing but nylon, and made the score, 35-33 after three. Moving into the fourth, the game appeared to be swinging back into the favor of the Jays, but Ahr was about to step it up on the defensive side of the ball with Griffin leading the way.
Griffin's pressure defense energized the Ahr halfcourt trap, and led to a People's steal that led to a drive to the hoop, which drew a foul, and resulted in two free throws at the 7:51 mark. On the next Middlesex possession, Sheehy intercepted a pass, and drove it all the way in for a layup at the 7:32 mark for a 39-33 lead. BGA then forced another turnover as Griffin and Peoples double teamed Mike Ficnher, who threw an errant pass, which eventually went out of bounds at the 7:19 mark. Fortunately for the Blue Jays, Ahr wasn't able to cash in on the turnover like the nine points scored off of five miscues in the last 14:04 of the game.
With new life Middlesex again tried to make things interesting again as Colacci got his only two free throws of the game for a 39-35 score at the 7:01 mark, but Ahr got some much needed breating room as Peoples kicked out to Fiorino for another trey, and a 42-35 lead with 6:36 left in the contest. On the next Jays' sequence, Stockton scored on a layup for a 42-37 BGA edge at the 6:17 mark. Farley then added one of two at the line with 5:55 remaining for a 42-38 score. Melnick then came up with a huge score as he drove left from the right side into the paint for a left handed hook shot, and a 44-38 lead for Ahr at the 5:15 mark.
Stockton then continued the back and forth exchanges with a pair of free throws at the 5:03 mark for a 44-40 BGA edge. Sheehy then answered on Ahr's next possession with a nice pass to Melnick for a layup, and a 46-40 lead with 4:40 to go. Not to be outdone, Stockton went back to the line with 4:18 left for another pair of free throws, and a 46-42 Trojans' lead. Griffin then drew a charge on Perone at the 3:37 mark, and followed that up with two free throws at the 3:19 mark for a 48-42 lead. Middlesex then called a timeout to avoid a five second call. Following the stoppage, the Jays quickly got the ball back to Stockton for a layup, and a foul, but he missed the bonus free throw for the traditional three point play, and the score stood at 48-44 with 3:10 to play.
Peoples then made one of two from the line at the 2:59 mark for a 49-44 lead before Barnes had the first of two critical empty trips for a usually fine foul shooting Middlesex team as he missed both attempts at the 2:35 mark. Peoples then threw a cross court pass to Griffin, who was going back door for a layup, and a 51-44 lead with 2:17 remaining. After Fiorino missed a one and one at the 1:51 mark, Perone scored on a layup that made it 51-46 with 1:38 to play. Bishop Ahr then was forced to use a timeout in order to avoid a five second call of its own, but after that, Sheehy drew a foul with 1:01 to play, and calmly buried both free throws for a 53-46 lead.
BGA continued to perform well at the line by hitting 4 of its last 6 including 2 of 2 by Fiorino, and 2 of 4 by Griffin in the last minute of the game while Middlesex had its second empty trip at the foul line when Farley missed two at the 44.4 second mark. The Trojans then went on to win despite a three pointer by Perone, 57-51 to start the season at 1-0 both overall, and in divisional play while Middlesex evened its record in both division and overall play at 1-1.
Team |
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
Bishop Ahr (1-0) |
12 | 12 | 11 | 22 | 57 |
Middlesex (1-1) |
10 | 12 | 11 | 18 | 51 |
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