By Jeff Appelblatt
A few flips on the bracket, and it could have been Colts Neck High School’s boys’ basketball team preparing to face conference rival Freehold Township High School in the NJSIAA Central Jersey, Group IV championship game March 7, just like last season.
Last year, Colts Neck defeated Freehold Township in the tournament’s final game when Brendan Clarke knocked down a buzzer-beater to give the Cougars a one-point win and the championship ring.
This year, Colts Neck found itself on the opposite end of a buzzer-beater in its lone Central Jersey, Group IV game. Colts Neck was beating Middletown High School North, 53-51, with the clock winding down, and then Middletown North’s Chris Kenny sunk a 3-pointer as the clock struck zero, giving the Lions a 54-53 victory.
“It was a tough ending,” Colts Neck coach Lou Piccola said a week after the loss, thinking about the game and the season as a whole. “It was a closure of the season. It ended with [us] losing a very tough game.”
Even before the game-winner, the fourth quarter was a disappointment for Colts Neck. The team entered the fourth with a six-point lead before being outscored in the quarter by seven.
With his team being eliminated early, Piccola decided he’d spend the rest of the tournament cheering for Freehold Township and his friend, Brian Golub.
“I’d prefer to see the Township win,” the coach said a few days before the finals. “They’re from our league.”
With the season over, Piccola has his offseason mapped out.
“I relax a little bit. I substitute [teach] a little bit,” he said. “And then it’ll be time for more basketball.”
Piccola will have most of his lineup back next year. Last year’s team graduated its entire starting lineup, including two of its top scorers: Lloyd Daniels and Tom O’Reilly.
Clarke, who shocked everyone when he hit the crucial game-winner last season in the Central Jersey, Group IV finals, is in his final few months at Colts Neck. But this year’s leading scorer, Danny Gaines, has another year left, as does one of his top teammates, Ben Bosland.