BY TIM MORRIS
Staff Writer
BELMAR – Winning seems to follow Tim Begley.
Thursday night, the former University of Pennsylvania and Christian Brothers Academy star who hails from Freehold Township helped lead USA Financial to the Jersey Shore Basketball League Championship at St. Rose in Belmar.
With Begley, USA Financial topped defending champion Sterns Trailer, 103-101.
“The ride home will be a lot nicer,” said Begley, referring to USA’s loss to Sterns Trailer in last year’s final. “We have a good group of guys. We have a lot of Penn guys and players like Mike DeCorso who play like us.”
Begley was the Ivy League MVP at Penn, leading the Quakers to multiple Ivy League titles and three NCAA tournament appearances. That came on the heels of his very successful high school career at CBA.
The JSBL for Begley is a way to hook up with old friends and college teammates, and most important, to keep playing basketball. Begley recently re-signed with Bamberg (located in south central Germany in Bavaria) to play in German Bundesliga again this year. He leaves for camp at the end of the month (the Bundesliga season will keep Begley overseas for nine months).
“It’s such a high level of play; they’re all top teams,” he said. “I felt I knew the game real well, but I’ve learned so much about guard play from these guys.
“I feel so fortunate to do what I’m doing,” he added. “I’m a grown man getting paid to play a kid’s game. There are so many people who will never have the opportunity to do what I’m doing. I’m so lucky.”
Begley’s Bamberg team finished second in the Bundesliga and reached the semifinals of the European Cup League, losing to eventual champion CSKA Moscow, which was led by former Duke All-American Trajan Langdan.
Begley enjoyed both the basketball and cultural experience of playing overseas. Bamberg, which was built alongside the Regnitz River, is one of Germany’s most historic cities, with much of its old buildings dominating the city. Germany is more open to having Americans on their teams, thus Begley had six teammates from America.
“Having seven Americans on the team made the transition easier,” he said. “We’re near a military base where people speak a lot of English. It was a lot of fun.”
Begley’s three from the top of the key at the start of the championship game set the tone early. USA Financial was dialing it in from beyond the arc.
They would connect on five treys in the first quarter alone, jumping out to a 16-4 lead and extending it to 29-14 after the first 10-minute quarter.
USA Financial used the three to get the lead, then went to its bread-and-butter, a pair of UPenn players – 6-10 Adam Chubb and guard David Whitehurst, the former Monmouth Regional star. With the 3-pointers having spread Sterns’ defense, it left lanes open for the very quick Whitehurst to take it to the basket. When the team needed two, they went inside to Chubb, who abused the Sterns’ defense all night to the tune of 28 points.
Although USA Financial led from start to finish and would build up an 18-point lead in the second quarter, the game still came down to the final possession.
“I could have told you it would come down to the end,” said Begley.
When Sterns made its first serious run at USA in the third quarter and cut the lead to four, 61-57, Whitehurst and Chubb took over. Seven straight points between them extended the lead back to 13, 70-57.
Sterns, though, would not go away and got within two, 91-89, early in the fourth quarter. Whitehurst (20 points) and Begley responded and put the lead back to six at 95-89.
But back came defending champion Sterns, which has a Monmouth University connection again behind Marques Alston, the ex-Neptune star now playing for Monmouth, and another ex-Colt, Chris Kenny, and the lead evaporated to just one, 95-94.
USA went to Chubb, and he responded with back-to-back baskets to push the lead to 99-94.
It was down to 99-97 with 2:17 to play. A free throw by Begley (12 points) and two free throws from Don Moxley pushed the lead to 102-97.
Alston and Blake Hamilton answered with four straight points for Sterns, and with under a minute to play, it was 102-101.
Offensive rebounds helped USA survive. First, Chubb tied up Alston in a battle for a rebound and won the jump ball with 32.15 seconds left. USA used the 24-second shot clock to the fullest. Whitehurst missed a jumper as the clock was expiring, but Moxley had positioned himself in the paint for the offensive rebound and he was fouled with 7.38 seconds left. He made one of two from the charity stripe for the final two-point margin.
Chubb had 28 points and 15 rebounds, and Whitehurst had his 20. Jeff Shiffner had 19 and led the team with four threes. Begley had his dozen, and DeCorso, the former Colts Neck star now playing for New York University, had eight.
Alston had 27, and Kenny had 24 points, including six threes, for Sterns. Off the bench, Derrick Washington chipped in with 16. He came up big in the second quarter when Sterns was in need of someone to step up and score.
USA Financial finished 13-2 overall for the season, and Sterns, which had a great playoff run, was 6-9.
Begley made the All-JSBL Third Team and DeCorso made the Fifth Team.