Freehold Twp. edged by
Jerry Wolkowitz Freehold Township’s Walter Roberson goes up to drop in a layup against Manasquan in the championship game of the Kuhnert Holiday Basketball Tournament on Dec. 29.
Squan in Kuhnert Tourney
By tim morris
Staff Writer
Andrew Impastato’s three-pointer from the top of the key had spectators holding their breath. It disappeared into the cylinder for a split second before spinning out.
That was how close Freehold Township High School came to tying Manasquan and possibly forcing an overtime in the championship game of the Kuhnert Holiday Basketball Tournament on Dec. 29.
As it was, the Big Blue made three foul shots in the final 22.6 seconds after the Patriots’ Impastato’s near make to extend its 53-50 to the final 56-50 margin and victory in the Kuhnert Tournament at Freehold Borough High School for the second time in their history. (Their other win was in 1995).
Manasquan (5-1) and Freehold Township (4-2), the top two seeds in the tournament, produced a compelling final that seesawed back-and-forth and wasn’t decided until the final 20 seconds of the game.
According to both coaches, Manasquan’s Kurt Fenchel and Township’s Brian Golub, it was a matter of which team could assert its will on the game more.
The Pats wanted to keep the game under control and run when the opportunity presented itself, but for the most part, play the game in the halfcourt, running its offensive sets.
Manasquan wanted to get out and run, shoot, press and play up-tempo.
With Walter Roberson hitting the offensive boards hard, the Pats jumped out to a 5-0 lead to start the game and extended it to 10-2 on Impastato’s three from the wing.
It was just the way the Pats wanted to start the game off. However, before the first quarter was over, the Big Blue had rallied and taken a 16-14 lead. Ben Hawkins and Todd Eastmond nailed three-pointers that brought the team back, and Andrew Sigrist’s jumper beat the buzzer to break a 14-14 tie.
"Our guys are pretty resilient," noted Fenchel. "We’ve gotten off to slow starts before. We’ve got such good shooters that we’re never really out of a game."
But Township would bounce back in the second quarter and, led by Impastato’s eight points, which included two threes, outscore Manasquan 14-9 to take a 28-25 lead at the half.
Impastato was Manasquan’s biggest concern.
"They are good getting to the hole, and they are strong off the dribble," Fenchel pointed out. "Impastato is their man."
"We wanted to make him work hard," the coach added. "Tom White was guarding