Valiant comeback effort falls short
By: Redd E. Patrick
Seeking the respect they felt they deserved, the South Brunswick High School boys basketball team earned it by roaring all the back from a 17-point deficit in the second half , but the Vikings could not accomplish what they wanted most – victory.
Despite a No. 1 seed and a 20-1 record coming in, South Brunswick fell victim to a much more experienced Colonia team, 52-42 in the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament semifinals on Thursday night at Middlesex County College. Fifth-seeded Colonia (17-7), which won its eighth straight, will play third-seeded Carteret in the GMCT title game on Sunday at South Brunswick High School at 1 p.m.
The Vikings, who had not been to a GMCT Final Four since 1993, displayed that inexperience in the first half by falling behind 22-12 at intermission. Colonia made just three of 17 shots in the second quarter, but the Vikings could not take advantage since they turned the ball over eight times in the session (14 for the half) and attempted just five shots.
"We’ve dug ourselves into a hole before in the first half of games this season,” said South Brunswick coach Hayward Vereen. "But nothing like that. I don’t know if we had the jitters or what, but I don’t know what was going on out there. We couldn’t even dribble the ball.
"I thought we played very good defense and we did the things we wanted to do offensively, but we just couldn’t execute.”
Colonia, the defending tournament champion, caught fire in the third quarter and made its first four shots. Later, when 27-point scorer Justin Chiera stole the ball and converted a layup, the Patriots led by 17 points, 32-15 midway through the third quarter.
When the Vikings could have easily folded at that point, they didn’t. Despite having Colonia make two technical foul shots because of a wrong number placed in the book and a wild, buzzer-beating shot from the lane by Colonia’s Derek DuBois (13 points), South Brunswick ended the third quarter within striking distance, 32-23.
In the fourth quarter, Chadd Wood (9 points) fired from the outside and hit, Mike Kneis (8) then nailed a 3-pointer, Jimmy Jowarsiak (5) connected on a 3-point bomb, then Drew Biri (11) converted on a follow. In the blink of an eye, South Brunswick trailed by two with 5:40 remaining and the had the momentum on its side.
With just under four minutes to play, the Vikings found themselves trailing by one point when Kneis drained another bomb. At that point, experience took over. Chiera, last year’s tournament MVP who was making his fourth straight trip to the Final Four and who came in with over 1,500 career points, led a 9-2 run by scoring all nine points himself to put the game away.
"I think experience played a big part,” admitted Vereen. "They’ve been here four straight times, while this was our first time here since 1993. I was proud of our team the way we fought back, but Colonia made the plays at crunch time when they had to.”
"We’ve been in this situation before and that helped,” said Chiera. "The game was hyped up, there was a big crowd and the place was going nuts, but we expected that. We’re used to playing in that kind of atmosphere. I think they may have been a little nervous. I think South Brunswick earned the respect they were looking for, but I think we’re just more experienced."
Commented DuBois, "We knew they would make their run because they’re a good team. They wouldn’t be here if they weren’t, so that didn’t surprise us. But after they made their run, we didn’t panic. We have guys who have been here before, so we just relaxed and got back into our rhythm.”