Slow start costly at Freehold
By: Rudy Brandl
This time, the Hillsborough High boys’ basketball team fell behind too far and couldn’t recover.
Two nights after coming back from a shaky start to win their first round state tournament game on the road at East Brunswick, the Raiders dug themselves a much deeper hole against top-ranked Freehold Township. The HHS boys entered the game as a big underdog and needed to keep the game close but it got away from them early and Freehold coasted to a 79-59 victory.
Junior guard Steve Westphal scored the first basket of the game to give Hillsborough its only lead but Freehold answered with 20 consecutive points to close the opening quarter with a 20-2 lead. Freehold stayed hot in the second quarter and led 40-18 at the half.
"If you take away the first quarter, we lose by two," Raider head coach Ian Progin said afterward. "Maybe it was the long bus ride. We tried to get there early to get loosened up, but we just couldn’t stop them in the first quarter."
Freehold, the sixth-ranked team in New Jersey, put on a transition game clinic in the first period. T.J. LaFalce scored 11 of his game-high 27 points in the flurry, with nine coming on three bombs from behind the 3-point line. Marcus Roberson (17), Rodger Wilmot (17) and Ed Fischer (11) also hit double figures for the winners.
"They are that good," Progin said. "Their transition game killed us. We wanted to slow them down, but we just didn’t get it done."
Freehold clamped down on Hillsborough’s two biggest offensive threats, senior guard Tom Molarz and junior forward Rob Champouillon. Molarz couldn’t hit any early shots and Champouillon was being double-teamed closer to the hoop.
The Raiders started to show some life with 16 points in the second quarter but still couldn’t stop Freehold from extending its lead. Hillsborough really picked it up in the third period, playing perhaps its best eight minutes of basketball this season.
Champouillon, Molarz and senior point guard Tom Pappalardo ignited a 29-point surge that represents the team’s most impressive offensive spurt of the year. Champouillon scored nine of his 15 points, Molarz had seven of his 12 and Pappalardo hit for six of his team-leading 18 points in the quarter.
"The third quarter was the best basketball we’ve played all year offensively," Progin said. "The guys were great. I’m very proud of the way they came back in the third quarter. All of a sudden, we woke everybody up."
Unfortunately, the Raiders had fallen too far behind. They kept battling and cut the deficit as low as 11 points early in the fourth quarter. Champouillon missed a short jumper that could have shaved it into single figures for the first time since the opening quarter. Freehold never looked back and hit enough foul shots to restore the 20-point margin.
Hillsborough hit five threes in the third quarter, two by Pappalardo and one apiece from Molarz, Champouillon and Westphal. Champouillon finished with 15 points, seven rebounds and two blocks. Pappalardo led the Raiders with 17 points, six assists and five steals in his final high school game.
"Pappalardo really sparked us tonight," Progin said. "He had a great game. It’s one of the best games I’ve ever seen him play. He really gave us life."
The Raiders ended their season with a rather misleading 11-12 record. While they didn’t reach last year’s win total of 13, they performed better in tournaments, advancing to the Somerset County semifinals and Central Jersey Group 4 quarterfinals. Large early deficits stopped their runs in both tourneys.

