By Tim Morris
Khalid Moustafa knew what he had to do.
“I’m the (team’s) rebounder,” the Colts Neck High School boys basketball team’s center said.
With Colts Neck trailing Freehold Township High School, 44-43, with 16.1 seconds remaining in the NJSIAA Central Jersey, Group IV title game in Colts Neck in front of a standing-room-only crowd, the Cougars’ Tom O’Reilly misfired on a free throw that would have tied the game. The miss could have doomed the Cougars’ attempt to win their first sectional championship.
Instead, Moustafa turned the miss into a positive by out-jumping everyone to pull down the biggest offensive rebound of the season and giving Colts Neck new life, which the Cougars took full advantage of to pull out a 45-44 win.
“I had to get up there and get the rebound,” he said. “I was not going to let my team down.”
After snaring the carom, Moustafa passed the ball back to Lloyd Daniels, and Colts Neck was in position to have the last shot.
After calling a timeout with 9.3 seconds to go, everyone in the Colts Neck gymnasium knew who was getting the ball — Daniels.
Freehold Township, whose 2-3 zone had given the Cougars trouble for much of the night, was ready and denied Daniels, making sure that someone other than the Cougars’ best player would have to beat them. Instead of forcing up a contested jumper, Daniels passed the ball to an open teammate, Brendan Clarke.
“The play was for Lloyd to go inside,” Clarke said. “The play broke down and he found me. I knew I had to make a play.”
“They were denying me hard,” Daniels said.
Clarke, who received the pass from Daniels on the elbow of the foul line, took two dribbles toward the baseline and then put up a jumper.
“I knew there wasn’t much time left,” he said. “[The shot] felt good, and I saw it go in at the buzzer.
“It’s indescribable. I never hit a bigger shot in my life.”
Clarke’s jumper set off a jubilant celebration on the Cougars’ home floor. After three previous unsuccessful trips to the state sectional finals, head coach Lou Piccola and the Cougars had the championship that gave their winning program further validation.
“It’s the best feeling; we just made history,” said Daniels, who scored a game-high 18 points in the win. “We’re the first team to do it.”
The game-winning play said much about the trust the Cougars have developed in one another. Daniels has shouldered the offensive load all season and yet, when it came time for what would be the biggest shot in school history, he didn’t hesitate to pass the ball to a teammate for a better shot.
“It says a lot about Lloyd,” Clarke said.
Daniels said that Clarke had his back that night.
“[He] hit the craziest shot I’ve ever seen.” Daniels said.
Piccola has praised Daniels’ unselfish play all year, and there was no better example of it than the time it mattered most for the team.
The Central Jersey, Group IV finals between Freehold Regional High School District rivals pitted teams both seeking their first Central Jersey titles against each other and that both have a shared commitment to defense. Defense helped them both win Shore Conference Division titles this winter (Freehold Township in A North and Colts Neck in B North). Both teams made offenses work for every point and no loose ball went uncontested. Because of all the work on the defensive end, at no time did any team have bigger than a five-point lead throughout the entire game.
Freehold Township led throughout the first half, getting strong inside play from Stephen Staklinski and John Carroll.
With the Cougars having trouble against the Patriots’ 2-3 zone, Daniels took charge in the second quarter, scoring 11 consecutive points for the Cougars to pull them to a 24-24 tie at the half.
No one pulled away in the third quarter, and the teams went into the fourth with the Patriots holding a 31-29 lead.
The Cougars were where they wanted to be, according to Piccola.
“Stay close and give yourself a chance to win it at the end,” Piccola said about the team’s goal.
Colts Neck finally found some seams openings in the Patriots’ 2-3 zone. Clarke and Jordan DeGroot hit 3-point shots.
Nick Facendo, who had a clutch goal for the Patriots’ boys soccer team when it captured the Central Jersey, Group IV title in the fall, took the game over in the fourth quarter by scoring nine of his 17 points to help the Patriots grab a 41-37 lead with less that two minutes to go in the game.
Clarke came up with a big defensive play, coming up with a steal and converting it into a layup. Daniels hit his only points of the quarter and tied the game at 41-41 with 1:22 remaining.
The teams traded baskets, and Facendo gave the Patriots their final lead of the night, 44-43, making one of two free throws with 25.6 seconds left to play.
O’Reilly was fouled on the other end with 16.1 to go but missed his free throws. However, Moustafa saved the day with the biggest offensive rebound in Cougars history, giving Colts Neck a second chance and setting the stage for Clarke’s historic buzzer-beater and the 45-44 victory.
“[Winning] our first sectional title makes this [win] special,” Piccola said. “We got the bounce.”
The Cougars’ coach also pointed out the solid effort made by the Patriots.
“Freehold Township fought as hard as they could,” he said. “You can’t give them enough credit.”
Ironically for the Patriots, whose strength has been their rebounding all year, it was one defensive rebound that got away that probably cost them their first Central Jersey championship.
Behind Facendo, Staklinski scored 10 points, while Carroll had a game-high eight rebounds.
The Patriots finished the season with a 20-11 record during a season that will be highlighted, according to head coach Brian Golub, by how much the team improved from December to March. The Patriots had only two varsity veterans in Facendo and Carroll returning. And what turned the season around was how well the newcomers and less-experienced players developed over the course of the season.
Two days after winning the sectional title, the Cougars were in Egg Harbor Township playing Atlantic City High School in the Group IV semifinals. The scrappy Cougars were within a point, 51-50, with 30 seconds to go but couldn’t make the big play this time.
Playing in what is his final game in a Colts Neck uniform, Daniels had a superb all-around game, scoring a game-high 23 points and pulling down eight rebounds. He also made three assists and three steals.
Piccola said he walked out of the semifinals proud of his players.
“It was a great run, a great group of kids,” the coach said.
Colts Neck finished its finest season with a 23-5 overall record and three championships (Holiday Tournament in Rumson, B North and Central Jersey, Group IV).