South seniors plant seeds of success

Experienced group helped Pirates into states

By: Bob Nuse
   It’s inevitable that just about every good basketball team will end its season with a loss.
   If you’re good enough to make the state tournament, you’re going to either win the Tournament of Champions, or end the season with a loss.
   The West Windsor-Plainsboro High South boys’ basketball team isn’t quite ready to compete for a T of C title. But the Pirates certainly made great strides this season, going from a five-win team a year ago to a team that finished 18-9 this year, reaching the Mercer County Tournament championship game and the state tournament along the way.
   "It was an excellent season," said WW-P South coach Bob Schurtz, whose team was eliminated from the Central Jersey Group IV tournament with a 68-50 loss to North Brunswick on Monday night.
   "Sitting and talking with the team, I imagined myself five or 10 years down the road, hopefully still coaching here at West Windsor-Plainsboro South, and I think it’s this group of seniors and this team that I will credit for all the future success of the program. They really brought the program forward, hopefully to a point where we can have continued success. We had six seniors and we’ll miss all of them. Two in particular, Jarrett (Austin) and Derek (Lester), have been incredible. They’re excellent young men."
   The Pirates, who were making their second state tournament appearance in eight years, had hoped to advance beyond the opening round of the tournament. And midway though the second quarter it looked like they might. But after building a 30-21 lead, South did not score again until North Brunswick had taken a 35-30 lead.
   "We hit some shots early and it had me excited," Schurtz said. "I thought we were going to throw a lot down. We had five different guys hit threes in the first 12 minutes of the game to get us out to a 30-21 lead with 4:10 to go before halftime. At halftime it was 30-29, but then we only scored four points in the first five minutes of the second half. We went nine minutes with just four points. So they had a 20-4 run over a nine-minute span. And that has sort of been our achilles heel all season.
   "They did a great job pressuring the ball and forced some turnovers that created some good scoring opportunities for them."
   The Pirates were also hurt by foul trouble, as starters J.B. Fitzgerald and Andy McKeever spent a majority of the second and third quarters on the bench.
   "I’m sitting there in the third quarter and I am sort of looking at the future," Schurtz said. "We had Jordan (Robinson), Austin (Witter) and Dan Belevsky, three sophomores, out there on the court. And they went out there and did the best job they could. But it’s one of those deals where I’m looking at Andy and J.B. on the bench and just biting my tongue until I can put them back in."
   Austin finished with a game-high 17 points for the Pirates, while Robinson added 11 and Lester had nine. And while the loss is tough to take, the Pirates can go away from the season knowing that they helped contribute to a big turnaround on and off the court.
   "When I came in last year we had to suspend some guys for academic reasons," Schurtz said. "I think that kind of set the tone for this season. How were we going to work both on the court and in the classroom? I think that has helped. We had great off-season in the summer. The varsity and JV teams combined to play 75 games.
   "I think that is why we got off to a 7-2 start at the beginning of the season. Now it’s a matter of trying to make it not just a summer and winter thing, but getting them playing year-round and getting them lifting. Hopefully that only helps us continue to improve as a program."