March
22, 2004
 |
 |
| Ahmad Mosby and the St. Anthony backcourt applied the defensive pressure that was a key to St. Anthony's ninth T of C championship. | |
EAST RUTHERFORD - Familiar setting, familiar surroundings, familiar result.
That should be the tag line for the St. Anthony boys basketball team, which completed the fourth undefeated season in school annals on Sunday night at the Continental Airlines Arena in the Tournament of Champions final.
With a 67-55 defeat of Bloomfield Tech, the Friars ended their season with a 30-0 mark, joining the 1974, 1989 and 1996 teams among the ranks of the unbeaten. They also become the third team to complete an undefeated T of C championship (there was no tournament in 1974) and will finish the season ranked second in the nation in the USA TODAY high school poll.
"A tremendous
accomplishment for this team," Friars head coach Bob Hurley said afterwards.
"The sacrifice that these eight players (the four seniors and four juniors
in the rotation) made all season long is why we are here. Any one of them
could play at another school and score 18 to 20 points a game, but they made
the commitment to play within the system and they flourished together as a
team against great competition.
 |
| Courtney Nelson scored 17 points and was named Bloomfield Tech's MVP. |
"We didn't build a schedule to go undefeated, we put together a schedule to get ready for the state tournament. We never played not to lose, we always played to win, and they went out and got it done."
With three players in double figures and two more with nine points, St. Anthony spread the wealth, something that senior Marcus Williams touched upon in the postgame, saying that, "we have so many guys who can score, and we just look for each other."
Against the Spartans, it was junior Barney Anderson who took high-scoring honors with 17 points, mainly because the Friars were able to take advantage of his size inside.
Hurley explained that, "our guards did a great job of dribble-penetrating and creating. Barney got the Most Valuable Player because he was able to be the finisher."
St. Anthony
ran out to an 18-10 lead after the first period, using a 10-point streak to
turn a 6-4 deficit into a 14-6 lead it would never relinquish. Anderson had
four of the points and Otis Campbell, just getting back to playing form after
a stress fracture, hit a three-point field goal and made a nifty pass into
Anderson for an assist.
 |
| St. Anthony's Barney Anderson was named the tournament's MVP. |
The Friars stretched it to 33-16 at the half, and were up 40-21 with 5:26 left in the third period before the Spartans made a run to get it back within 44-33. Courtney Nelson, Tech's MVP of the game, hit three straight buckets in the 12-4 run.
"It's high school basketball," Hurley said, "and every team will make a run, and they are to be congratulated on theirs, but we tell the kids, they'll have their run, then we'll have one back."
They finished the third quarter with a Sean McCurdy free throw and a layup a second before the buzzer by Anderson to make it 47-33 after three, and after BT scored the first three fourth quarter points, SA used strong free throw shooting (12 of 16 in the final period) to inflate the lead to 63-43 with 2:30 to go.
Bloomfield
Tech, the first Group 1 school to reach the T of C final in the 16-year history
of the event, got 17 points from Nelson and 11 and 8 rebounds from Jason Wilson.
The Spartans shot 17 of 45 from the floor and 20 of 28 at the free throw line.
Caseim Drummond pulled down 11 rebounds for Bloomfield Tech.
 |
| Da-Shawn Dwight helped Bloomfield Tech become the first Group 1 team to reach the T of C finals. |
"We just didn't have our legs," BT head coach Nick Mariniello said. "This being our first time here, I think we were a bit tentative in the first half. It took us until the third quarter to finally settle into the game, and you can't do that against a great team like St. Anthony."
The Friars were 22 of 45 from the floor and 20 of 34 at the line, with Williams scoring 11 points and grabbing 7 rebounds. McCurdy added 10 points and Campbell and Derrick Mercer had nine each.
|
|
|
| About Us | Contact Us | Home | Advertise |
Questions?
E-mail the editor editor@northjerseysports.com
All contents © copyright 2001-2004 HSSportsWeb.com, Inc. All rights reserved.
|
|
