LAWRENCE: Boys hoops reached tourney final

Cardinals fall despite huge efforts

By Bob Nuse, The Packet Group
   Pat Tarrant is still waiting to see his Lawrence High basketball team play its best for four quarters.
   The fact the Cardinals have started the season 3-1 without doing that is a pretty good sign of things to come.
   ”I like what I see,” Tarrant said after his team suffered a 68-67 loss to Hillsborough in the championship game of the John Molinelli Memorial Holiday Tournament at Hopewell Valley. “I like our attitude. I liked our grit tonight. I think our best basketball is way ahead of us. There is going to come a time when we play a full 32 minutes. I can see us being a pretty dangerous team if we can do that.”
   Lawrence opened the season with three straight wins, topping Monroe, Nottingham and Hopewell before the one-point loss to Hillsborough, which won its third straight Molinelli title.
   ”They outplayed us late in the second quarter and took it to us physically,” said Tarrant of a 14-6 run by the Raiders that broke a 21-21 tie. “We got behind and from that point we kept battling, but we never really made up that difference. It got close a little bit and we showed signs. There was a point with about three minutes left that Corey had a shot that just rolled it. If it had gone in, that would have been a big swing.”
   The Cardinals trailed by as many as 13 points at 59-46 in the fourth quarter, but continued to battle right to the end. Terrence Bailey scored 14 of his team-high 25 points in the final quarter, including a three-pointer at the buzzer that accounted for the final margin.
   ”I’m proud of the way they battled late in the game,” Tarrant said of his players. “It’s early in the season and hopefully we can learn something from this. We have to play four quarters. We have not played four quarters yet and in a game like this we have to do a better job of that throughout the game.
   ”I told them you want to win every game. But there is a lot we can take away from this game.”
   Nick Brackett added 20 points for Lawrence and Corey Thomas chipped in with 14. Paul Grant and Junior Austin both brought a ton of energy to the defensive end of the floor.
   The Cardinals were set to enjoy a couple of days off before returning to the practice court to prepare for a game Saturday at Bridgewater-Raritan.
   ”You sprint to get to this point,” Tarrant said. “There are still other wrinkles we have not put in yet. Now we have a little bit of a break where we can get three good practices in before we get to our next game.”
   In the opening round of the tournament, Lawrence topped Hopewell, 57-35, as Bailey led the way with 15 points and Thomas added 14.