WEST WINDSOR: Pirates fall in MCT hoop final

By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
   The West Windsor-Plainsboro High South boys basketball team had been in this position before.
   Trailing by four points early in the fourth quarter, the Pirates seemed poised to close with a flurry and rally to beat Pennington in Friday’s Mercer County Tournament championship game.
   But this time there would be no fourth quarter comeback. Instead, the Red Raiders outscored the Pirates 20-8 down the stretch and came away with a 59-43 win to capture their first MCT title.
   For WW-P South, it was the second time in three years it had lost in the MCT final.
   ”We cut it to four and then they got a reverse layup off a nice play,” WW-P South coach Bob Schurtz said. “That’s what they did all day. They hit the big shot to keep us from getting that last run. All year long, when we have been down, we’ve been able to get that last run on a team. We could not get that tonight.”
   Instead, the Pirates fell to 21-3 and will head into Wednesday night’s Central Jersey Group IV quarterfinal game trying to figure out how to jumpstart an offense that has scored 44 or fewer points in each of its last three games.
   ”We’re just stagnant right now,” said Schurtz, whose team will face the winner of the opening round game between Hunterdon Central and Hillsborough. “We have to do everything we can to regroup, take it for what it is and try to prepare the best we can to represent the CVC in the Central Jersey Group IV tournament.”
   Pennington, which was playing its third game in three days, got off to a quick start thanks to sophomore guard Chandler Fraser-Pauls, who scored the team’s first 20 points and finished the game with 31 points. The Red Raiders led by as many as seven in the first half and nine (35-26) in the third quarter before the Pirates rallied to get within 39-35 early in the fourth quarter.
   But at that point the offense went cold and Pennington made its foul shots to pull away down the stretch.
   ”That is how it has been the last three games,” Schurtz said of his struggling offense. “Hightstown and Notre Dame are tough teams as well, but right now we’re just not crisp. We’re not clean. We have to find a way to get back to executing and playing better basketball.
   ”When Austin doesn’t get into a rhythm, people start looking around. You could blame it on a weak ankle (which he twisted in the MCT semis on Wednesday) or a great defensive effort by Dante Johnson. But regardless, we still need to go out and execute and score points. We have too many weapons on this team that we should have to settle for 43 points in a contest.”
   Chris Johnson led the Pirates with 14 points, while Dan Balevski added 11. Jack Dennehy had nine and Witter finished with eight, just the third time this season he has failed to reach double figures.
   ”I thought they did a great job of executing their game plan,” Schurtz said of Pennington, which had lost in the state Prep B final at Rutgers Prep a day earlier.
   ”It’s no secret what they want to do. They transition the ball and look to get Chandler the ball off some screens with the ball or without it. It’s all read and react off his movement. They got some good rebound opportunities and some passes for layups.”
   And they stopped the Pirates from making the sort of run they had been making all season long.