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GMC Hoops Summaries--January 18, 2012
Week Five--Gold Division Clash

Davis And Del Sol Lift Wardlaw Past South Amboy, 55-49

By Greg Machos
January 18, 2012

NORTH EDISON--It has been a tough season for the Rams of Wardlaw-Hartridge. After a promising 2-1 start to the season including a 52-40 win at home over South River in December, Wardlaw had lost eight straight. The Rams did have something positive to build on recently in a crossover clash loss at home to Carteret. In that game, the Rams led at halftime before the Ramblers rallied in the second half for the 45-35 victory.

Coupled with that positive was the return to the lineup of senior forward Jordan Del Sol, who decided to play for the team this year after sitting out the first month of the season to focus more on baseball. The Rams couldn't have asked for a bigger impact as Del Sol played like he didn't miss a beat in Wednesday afternoon's Gold Division contest against South Amboy. Del Sol connected on three field goals including two threes while also making six foul shots for 14 points including seven in the fourth quarter as the Rams defeated the Guvs by the score of 55-49.

Junior forward, Justen Davis continues to climb toward 1,000 points for his career with a game high 16 points on five field goals and six free throws. Noah Ganz chipped in with 11 points on four field goals including two threes in the first half while Matt Rosado added 9 points. Joe Fruncillo and Nick Kales led South Amboy in a losing cause with 14 points each while Steve Herdman chipped in with 8 and Dan Murphy added 6. The Governors had a 15-11 edge in two point field goals while both teams scored 15 points from beyond the arc, but Wardlaw enjoyed an 18-4 edge from the foul line, and that turned out to be the difference.

Trailing 13-8 early in the second quarter, the Rams went on a 13-4 run capped by a three from Ganz to take a 21-17 lead. Herdman then connected on one of his two threes to pull the Guvs within one, but Ganz quickly responded with another trey for a 24-20 lead. Wardlaw went into the intermission with a 24-22 advantage. Over the first 11:19 of the second half, the home team outscored the visitors by a margin of 21-8 to take a 45-30 lead after a three from Del Sol at the 4:41 mark of the fourth. However, South Amboy's young squad fought valiantly with a 17-7 tear over the next 4:13 including threes by Herdman and Kales along with one from reserve Charles Pannell to close the gap to five with less than a half minute to play.

Similar to the game against Henry Hudson in the consolation round of the 2011 Keansburg Tournament, Fruncillo got off to a fast start with seven points over a span of 3:57 as South Amboy jumped out to a 13-8 lead with 7:18 to go in the first half. Fruncillo converted a three point play at the 3:15 mark of the first period, a layup down low at the 1:55 mark, and then opened up the second quarter scoring with a layup off a nice dish by Herdman. Wardlaw scored the next four points including a three pointer by Arturo Martinez that banked in at the 6:13 mark, and one of two from the line by Davis at the 5:42 mark for a 13-12 Guv lead. Robert Burns got his only points of the game when scored on a layup from the left low block for a 15-12 Guvs lead. The Rams then took command of the game for good with 9 of the next 11 points.

Rosado sparked the run with one of two from the line at the 4:35 mark. Del Sol followed up by converting a traditional three point play at the 3:32 mark for a 16-15 lead. Rosado netted a pair from the foul line at the 3:09 mark for a three point lead, and then after Murphy scored on a layup, Ganz connected on a three from the right corner for a 21-17 advantage with 2:22 remaining in the first half. Herdman pulled the Guvs back to within one with his trey at the 2:06 mark, but Ganz negated that score with a trey of his own at the 1:47 mark for a 24-20 edge. South Amboy got the final points of the first half as Matt Lavan got his only field goal in the contest on a layup with about a minute to go for a 24-22 Wardlaw lead at the intermission.

The Rams picked up where they left off to end the first half by scoring the first four points of the third period including a baseline jumper from the right side by Davis at the 6:53 mark, and a short jumper from Jon Belfer at the 6:30 mark for a 28-22 lead. After Kales hit the first of several short baseline jumpers from the right side in the game to pull the Guvs within four, Wardlaw scored the next five including a three point play by Davis at the 3:55 mark, and a putback by Ganz at the 3:13 mark for a 33-24 lead. South Amboy scored four of the last seven points in the third including a runner by Herdman at the 3:03 mark, and a baseline jumper from Kales at the buzzer for a 36-28 Rams lead.

The scoring in the fourth period didn't begin until about a minute and a half in when Davis scored off a fake to his right, and a spin to his left for a 38-28 lead. Following a bucket by Murphy at the 6:15 mark, Wardlaw scored the next seven points including a layup from the left side by Ganz at the 6:07 mark, a score down low by DAvis at the 5:35 mark, and Del Sol's three to take a 45-30 lead. Things would get interesting though as the Guvs battled back to get within single digits again. Fruncillo sparked the run with one of two from the line at the 4:25 mark before Herdman swished a three from the left wing at the 3:35 mark, and Kales knocked in a jumper to close the gap to 45-36 with 2:43 left.

Rosado scored on a layup and Del Sol added two free throws for a 49-36 lead with 2:12 remaining, but South Amboy scored 11 of the next 14 points including two threes and a jumper by Kales and a trey by Pannell over a span of 1:44 to narrow the deficit to 52-47 with 28.3 seconds remaining. However, the Guvs were unable to get any closer as Ganz made one of two from the line at the 26.2 second mark and Del Sol netted a pair from the charity stripe with 6.6 seconds left before Fruncillo scored on a putback to close out the scoring. With the victory, Wardlaw improved to 3-9 overall on the season including a 3-5 mark in the Gold Division, which ties them with South Amboy for fifth place. The Guvs fell to 4-8. See play-by-play and video highlights from this game in the GMC Hoops Blogosphere.

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