By: Sean Moylan
NEPTUNE Someone should make a DVD of the opening three minutes of the Hightstown High School boys’ varsity basketball team’s 52-47 road win over Neptune on Saturday afternoon and put it into a time capsule.
Then one hundred years from now people can dig it up and receive a quality lesson on the art of playing perfect team basketball. Those three minutes of pure action gave the Rams the confidence to break through the Fliers’ "Sea of Hands" smothering press, which left every Hightstown guard bruised, yet happy, after the game.
Cory Smith (8 points) and Mike Williston (8 points, 10 assists) combined for a steal to open it up. Then Bryan Mino Worth set a beautiful high screen to provide a path to the basket for Smith, who was fouled and made two free throws to give the Rams the first points of the contest.
Seconds later, the Rams came with full-court pressure to force a Fliers’ backcourt violation. Tim Lawson then skied for an offensive rebound and a put-back layup to push the Rams advantage to 4-0.
Then Smith whipped a pass to Bobby Dougherty, who made a killer baseline move to score a bucket to make it a 6-0. And only later seconds later, Dougherty would make a steal.
Hightstown led 13-9 after a quarter and 26-24 at the half. But the seeds of success had been planted during those opening minutes. The Rams knew in their hearts that they could beat the Fliers if they continued to play their halfcourt game and press on defense.
"It was actually a surprise (to take the early lead). But I saw that we could actually definitely beat this team. And I knew we were going to be able to do it the whole game. So those were great moments," said Dougherty, who went on to lead all scorers with 15 points.
Any time the Rams got in trouble, they seem to draw on those opening minutes of controlled aggression and use them as a blueprint to get back in the game.
So even after Thomas Jones made a long three to put the Fliers up 38-34, the Rams didn’t panic. They knew Neptune would shoot its way out of the game with such low percentage shots. Dougherty scored a bucket to close out the third quarter. Then Lawson, who had 14 rebounds and 8 points, cleared out the right side and made a bold, power move to the basket to knot the score at 38-38.
"I had a hole so I took it. We’ve been in close games all year and Coach Hess tells us to keep our composure, play our game and stay relaxed," said Lawson.
"Tim has carried us in a lot of big games," added Don Hess, Hightstown’s great head coach. "He’s such a great kid and good rebounder. He’s difficult to play because he’s really a guard also, but he plays power foward."
Hightstown kept its composure, but its fans went into a frenzy seconds later when Smith threaded the needle with a perfect pass to Dougherty for a lefty lay-up. The Rams’ senior shooting guard was fouled on the play and made a shot from the charity stripe to give his team a 41-38 lead. Although Neptune came back to tie it at 41-41, one never sensed Hightstown was in any danger of losing the game because it was so poised.
Smith added a basket on the left side and Lawson penetrated and then kicked the ball back to Dougherty who drained a gargantuan three-pointer to put Hightstown up 46-41 with 4:38 to play.
"I saw we had numbers so I was hoping he’d (Smith) pick up his head and see me (cutting to the hoop). He saw me, I got it and I knew I was going in for the lay-up. I got the foul shot and I knew it was going in too," said Dougherty, who was also very pleased with his clutch trey.
Desperate to get back in the game, the Fliers turned up the heat and went to a full-court press, which was so physical you could hear the contact as Williston, Dougherty and Smith teamed up to push the ball through it.
"We actually knew they were going to press a lot so we played 6-on-5 and 7-on-5. We had the two extra guys trapping us real hard. So we had to work together to take the ball up," said Williston, who, with 57.2 seconds left, had a big rebound and hit two foul shots to give Hightstown a 50-45 lead.
A little while later Williston iced the game with a pair of steals and a couple of makes from the free throw line. He even stole an inbounds pass with just under 10 seconds to go.
"You don’t know how many times Michael has done that (stolen an inbounds pass) this year- it must be at least 25 times. But that’s Michael. He can be quiet (most of the) game and all of the sudden he gets two or three steals and he’ll hit a shot you didn’t think he was going to make. He’ll do things to win a game. They all do," added Hess. "All of these kids are great. In seven years of coaching college and 28 years coaching high school, it’s great to see a group of kids who are not selfish. It’s all about winning and going on."
Hightstown threatened to pull away in the second quarter but Lawson, who was controlling the boards, got in foul trouble and had to sit out the last few minutes of the quarter. Moreover, for a minute or two the Rams tried to run on offense and that is "definitely" not their game at all. But, luckily, Jason Brown made a three-point play and Kevin Sobkowiak made a bucket at the close of the half to enable the Rams to go into the intermission with a 26-24 lead.
"Every game we have a different game plan and we stick to it. Boxing out and rebounding that’s my job," said Worth, who had 10 points, 10 rebounds and a few key steals. "When you get to this level it’s who can crash the boards and who can shoot. They’re a good team. They can do everything. The only difference is they like to run and gun and we’re a slow down team. Like they say, whoever gets the other team to play their game is the team that’s going to win."
For the most part, Hightstown made Neptune play its game.
"I really thought that first quarter set the tone for the game," said Hess, the finest basketball coach in the CVC, who worked eight hours to come up with a masterful game plan.
"This is the best team I have ever had. This team will do anything they have to do to win the game. We have no one averaging over 10 points a game. We have seven kids averaging between 7 and 9.5 points a game. That’s what I call a real team."

