| Boys Basketball SCT - The Kloser: CBA 53, Manasquan 44 | ||||
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*Click Here for Video Highlights (Members Only)* *Not a Member? Click Here to Join Now!* *Click Here for a Photo Gallery by Bill Normile* TOMS RIVER - As the man called upon to shadow Manasquan leading scorer Matt Vadas, Christian Brothers Academy junior J.P. Koury was hoping to limit Vadas to considerably less production than the 25 points the Warriors senior posted in Wednesday night's Shore Conference Tournament semifinal, but when Koury starting running out of answers for Vadas on the defensive end in the fourth quarter, the talented junior let his offense do the talking. Koury scored nine of his team-high 18 points in the fourth quarter while chasing around Vadas until the Manasquan senior fouled out of the game with 42 seconds left to help the top-seeded Colts close out the No. 4 Warriors 53-44 at the Ritacco Center, setting up a third meeting of the season against Shore Conference Class A North rival Middletown South for the championship at 8 p.m. on Saturday, once again at the Ritacco Center if the storm forecasted for Thursday and Friday does not affect scheduling.
"Even when he scores, I feel like, 'Okay I've got to get that back.' He would score and I tried to go create a play. I got a couple drives, made some free throws, but the main goal today was to play defense and all in all, it was a great team effort." Vadas scored 21 of his game-high 25 in the second half and pulled Manasquan even at 38 with two free throws with 3:58 left in the game, and after CBA's Matt McMullen scored on a jump hook to put the Colts back up, 40-38, Vadas brought the ball back up court looking for another answer. Koury, who forced Vadas into difficult shots throughout the first half, came up with perhaps the biggest play of the game, when he stripped Vadas near mid-court and drew the fourth foul on his counterpart, followed by two made free throws to put CBA back on top 42-38 with 3:21 left. By the time the clock ticked under one minute, CBA had finished off a 10-2 run that started with McMullen's hook and ended with Koury finishing a wide-open layup on an inbounds pass from McMullen. Koury scored five points during the run, while Vadas ended the spurt with a long 3-pointer, but picked up his fifth foul when he held Roy Mabrey on the ensuing inbounds play following a Manasquan timeout. CBA went 5-for-6 from the free throw line in the final minute and 11-for-12 overall in the fourth quarter. "I still can't make a free throw," McMullen, who went 4-for-9 on Wednesday and missed two free throws with two seconds left in CBA's 55-52 quarterfinal win over Point Beach on Sunday, said with a laugh. "I must have shot 2,000 free throws over the last two days. It'll get better, but at least the rest of the guys hit their free throws and we got some big stops at the end." CBA had a shaky time closing out the win against Point Beach in Sunday's quarterfinal, nearly squandering a seven-point lead in the final minute, during which the Colts turned the ball over, missed a layup and went just 2-for-6 from the foul line. The Colts took an eight-point lead into the final minute on Wednesday and after Vadas hit his long three to trim the CBA lead to five, the Colts did not turn the ball over or allow a field goal and missed only one free throw. "We were better at the free throw line and we did a better job overall of finishing the game," CBA coach Geoff Billet said. "A lot of times, kids treat a six-point lead with a minute to go like a 20-point lead and six points in a high school game is nothing. They knew they had to be better at the end of the game, and I think it helps that we've been competitive in all of our games this year, except for St. Pat's, so I think we're know how to play in that situation, but we just didn't do a good job of it on Sunday." McMullen scored 14 points and pulled in eight rebounds, while Mabrey had 14 points, five rebounds and six assists while running the point. R.J. Hobbie scored seven points and was the only other CBA player to score outside of Koury, McMullen and Mabrey. Vadas shot 8-for-17 from the field and carried the scoring load for the Warriors, as four other scorers combined for the rest of Manasquan's 19 points. Manasquan trailed 23-13 at halftime and 32-23 in the final minute of the third quarter when Vadas buried one of his three 3-pointers from the top of the key to cut the deficit to six. CBA failed to score on its next possession and Manasquan capitalized when senior point guard Adam Cook hit a runner in the lane with two seconds left in the quarter to make it 32-28 heading into the fourth. Manasquan cut CBA's lead to two on three separate occasions early in the fourth. Senior forward Neal Sterling, who finished with six points, drove for a layup to make it 32-30 before Hobbie hit two free throws to push it back to four. Vadas then made two free throws on the other end to draw the Warriors within two, but Hobbie again countered, this time with a long jumper. Vadas came back and hit a baseline jumper to make it 36-34 and after Mabrey and McMullen each missed shots the next time down, Ryan Casey finished a layup to pull Manasquan even for the first time since it was 8-8 in the first quarter. Koury scored on a second-chance layup on a nice feed from Mabrey, who missed a pull-up attempt but got his own rebound before finding Koury. Vadas hit two free throws on the other end to re-tie the game at 38 and CBA then went on its 10-2 run, starting with the hook by McMullen.
"The first half we had him (Vadas), and then in the second half he just went off on us," Mabrey said. "He's a good player," McMullen said of Vadas. "We did everything we could to key on him and keep him from getting his shot and he still got it. We always say the best way to stop shooters is to not let them shoot and he was getting off shots whenever he wanted to." Manasquan will now focus its energy on defending its NJSIAA Central Jersey Group II title, which will be a difficult task since Malcolm X Shabazz - one of the top teams in the state - moved into the section from North Jersey II Group III, and Willingboro - which reached the South Jersey Group II final against Camden - moved up from the South. With a gritty second-half performance against the best team the Shore Conference under its belt, Manasquan feels prepared to defend the title. "I thought we showed what we could do," Vadas said. "CBA's a great team and we were able to come back from down 10, but they're obviously real battle-tested and they made the plays down the stretch. But we feel like we're playing well and we have a lot we can build off of." CBA, meanwhile, will attempt to win its second straight SCT title by beating a red-hot Middletown South squad for a third time this season. Mabrey and McMullen are holdovers from last year's rotation, but Koury, Hobbie, starting guard Nick McMahon and bench contributors Sean O'Connor and Eric Shaw are all looking to win a title as a key contributor. Hobbie saw time two years ago as a sophomore, but back trouble kept him out for his junior year as the Colts made a run for the SCT title. Koury suited up for the run, but saw most of his action on the junior varsity team as a sophomore. "This is what you work for," Koury said. "It's why you put in all those hours in the gym running and taking a thousand shots during the fall. Roy's been a great leader all year and Matt has even stepped up and become a great leader as a junior, and we've all kind of followed them because they're the guys who have done it and now we want to win it with them." Middletown South, 47-37 winners over Monsignor Donovan in the second game of the night, has won seven straight games since losing back-to-back days to CBA and Rumson-Fair Haven, all of which the Eagles have won by double-figures and six of which have come against teams that qualified for the Shore Conference Tournament. CBA rallied to beat Middletown South 50-47 on Jan. 5 after trailing by five in the fourth quarter and later beat the Eagles 49-39 at CBA on Jan. 29. "We beat Middletown South twice, but they're tough," Mabrey said before knowing who his opponent was. "That's not a team we're going to to be real excited to play for a third time, especially with the way they've been playing. But we feel like our work's not done. We're happy to be back in the finals, but our goal is to win a championship, and we have one more to go." Box Score CBA 53, Manasquan 44 Manasquan (44): Matt Vadas 8 6-7 25, Adam Cook 2 1-2 5, Nick Lustrino 1 0-0 3, Kevin Callahan 0 0-0 0, Neal Sterling 3 0-0 6, Zach Rogers 0 0-0 0, Ryan Casey 2 0-0 5, Jimmy Walsh 0 0-0 0. Totals: 16 7-9 44. Three-Pointers: Vadas 3, Lustrino, Casey CBA (53): Roy Mabrey 4 6-6 14, Matt McMullen 5 4-9 14, J.P. Koury 6 6-7 18, R.J. Hobbie 2 2-2 7, Nick McMahon 0 0-0 0, Sean O'Connor 0 0-0 0, Eric Shaw 0 0-0 0. Totals: 17 18-24 53 Three-Pointers: Hobbie
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