By: Laura Kropp
Following are the highlights from the championship games of the Lambertville Basketball Association played at South Hunterdon Regional High School during the week.
Kiwanis 9
Sneakers Plus 7
In a thrilling game that went down to the final seconds, Kiwanis held on to win the championship Tuesday, March 20.
The game was back and forth all night as the teams traded baskets each time the other one scored.
Sarah Franzini and Kacey Abitz each scored four points, and Shannon Ferry added a foul shot to complete the scoring for Kiwanis.
Kerry Runkle, Amanda Wengryn, Maria Lelie, Zully Sandoval and Shelby Bacorn provided food offensive and defensive support for Kiwanis to secure the win.
Sneakers Plus had good team scoring as four out of the seven girls hit the scoring column.
Julia Greenwood, Devon Nini and Jessica Hoff each scored two points while Cassie Barrett added one point from the line.
Sadie Lerman, Amanda Myers and Hadley Greenwood made several key passes and grabbed numerous rebounds for Sneakers Plus.
All the girls played hard.
Sarah Franzini earned the game MVP honors while Cydney Caldwell of Niece Lumber was awarded the Sportsmanship Award for the division.
Zanya Spa 13
Body Tech Fitness 11
In the second game of the night Tuesday, this game topped the first one as far as going down to the wire.
Body Tech Fitness hit a shot a second after the final buzzer that would have sent the game into overtime, but the Spa girls were not to be denied.
They held on for the victory.
Zanya Spa was the regular season champions and ended up the champions as well.
Zanya Spa had good team scoring with Emily Marshall scoring six points. Taylor Caldwell, Heidi Culbertson and Dain Silvestri all scored two points each while Ryann Tucker added one point from the foul line.
Amy Dupuis and Cassie Fresco helped run the offensive for Zanya and assisted with many good passes inside for easy baskets. Madeline Colavita was also a big part of the team wins this year, but was unable to play in the championship game due to not feeling well.
Body Tech Fitness played a good game, but just came up a little bit short.
Jessica MacGregor led Body Tech with four points. Chelsea O’Neal had three points, Keziah Groth-Tuft and Brett Lelie each had two points.
Ali Carlson, Tiffany Moran, Ashley Luster and Annie Hajek played tough defense on Zanya Spa and had several good shots at the basket.
Emily Marshall earned championship game MVP honors while Julianna Hoff was awarded the Sportsmanship Award for the division.
The Medicine Shoppe 12
E.J. Lelie 7
The boys started off Thursday, March 22, with an exciting championship game.
The regular season champion Medicine Shoppe held off a pesky E.J. Lelie team.
Clayton Hope and Tyler Frazee each scored five points for The Medicine Shoppe while Brennan Carey chipped in with a basket.
Dakota Fiel, Collin Fritschy, Nick Bohrer, Wyatt Fuller, Joseph Ippolito, Sam Tucker, Tom Wyckmans and Shane Carey all played well with tough defense to keep E.J. Lelie out of the scoring column.
E.J. Lelie outscored the Medicine boys in the second half, but came up short.
Brendan Hartpence led E.J. Lelie with four points. Myles Johnson had two points, and Andrew Lelie had one point from the line.
Robbie Quinn, Brandon Smith, Miles Smith, Shane Hoyer, Brandon Panetta, Richard Roy and Alex Romeo helped run the offense for E.J. Lelie and played tough defense against the Medicine Shoppe.
E.J. Lelie had a shot to tie with Andrew Lelie throwing up a three-pointer with a little under a minute to go, but the shot bounced off the rim, and Clayton Hope of the Medicine Shoppe scored a bucket at the other end to secure the victory.
Clayton was awarded MVP honors, and Josh Phillips was voted the Sportsmanship Player of the year for the division.
Mike Cifelli’s Sunoco 37
Mortgage Mobility 20
The regular season champion Cifelli boys completed their undefeated season by winning the championship against a tough Mortgage Mobility team.
Jake Phillips led Cifelli’s by pouring in 18 points. He also earned the game MVP honors.
Devon Troutman swished the nets for 11 points, Grant Jensen had five points, Ryann Godown banked in a basket, and Patrick Ferry added a point from the foul line.
C.J. Townes had a good game, grabbing numerous key rebounds to start the offense for Cifelli’s. Andrew Koval, Liam Piscetelli and Cody Burd had several key passes and played tough defense on the Mortgage Mobility boys.
Troutman ran the point and faced tough full-court man-to-man defense most of the game and did a good job. Phillips was tough inside and had several close range baskets and put-backs.
Mortgage Mobility was led by its inside force, Daniel Voorhees, who scored eight points, Toby Coleman, who was a monster and poured in six points, Jake Whitaker, who had four points, and Bishop Castor with two.
Jimmy Eick, Alex Frazee, Brad Bolash, Zachary Mastrich and Andrew Nini played good full-court man-to-man defense that caught the Sunoco boys off guard.
Andrew Nini also did a good job running the point guard position for Mortgage Mobility, and Jake Whitaker was a hawk on defense by making it hard to get the ball up the court. Daniel Voorhees blocked several shots inside the paint.
Troutman was awarded the Sportsmanship trophy for the division.

