Ewing flashes its depth by blasting Notre Dame
EWING » If you aren’t familiar with the Ewing boys basketball program, here’s a tutorial: The varsity team graduated its top-six scorers last year, and yet it might still be the deepest team in the Colonial Valley Conference.
Five players netted at least seven points and several more contributed to the Blue Devils’ 76-52 demolition of Notre Dame at home Wednesday night.
Ewing (13-6), even though it may be a surprise to some in Mercer County, continues to build toward being a serious postseason contender.
“We’re very fortunate. Our system is very good,” 14th-year coach Shelly Dearden said. “Our rec system is very good, our travel system is very good. So that feeder system coming into the school just helps out greatly. So when they get here, they already know to play. It’s easier for me because of that.”
After easily erasing an early 7-2 hole and leading by 12 at halftime, Ewing opened the third quarter on an 8-0 run to seize complete control.
Isaiah Sparks scored 16 of his career-high 21 points in the second half, pacing the Blue Devils’ talented rotation with constant assertiveness and hustle plays in transition.
“Coach just told me to keep being aggressive, attack the glass, and I just kept doing that,” Sparks said. “She told me to keep attacking on offensive rebounds, and that’s what I did.”
That took the load off of Shemar Robinson, who owned the opening 16 minutes. The senior netted 14 of his 18 points in the first half. His lethal dribble penetration also helped get others in rhythm, finding Caleb Stokes for a corner 3 to push the lead to 30-16 in the second quarter.
But Ewing’s defense and rebounding are what make the Blue Devils so formidable this season. Dearden employs a variety of trapping and pressure schemes, and the players oblige with physicality and passion.
Kameron Clark, the tallest Blue Devil at 6-foot-5, set the tone with two first-half blocks. Keyshawn Preston had a strip of Cartier Bowman, Notre Dame’s superstar forward who led all scorers with 24 points, on a fastbreak.
“The kids, they love to play defense,” Dearden said. “We knew that our defense would win us the game today. That was it, period. There was no other strategy. There was no other thing about it. We had to play good defense and we had to box out and rebound.”
Despite Sparks and Stokes being among the few Blue Devils who saw quality varsity minutes last season, Ewing is 12-2 in the CVC and 7-0 in the Patriot Division, where it has already claimed the first-place crown.
And yet, no one in the program is stunned. Last year’s JV team finished 21-0.
“Coach always says, ‘Next man up, gotta step.’ So we always just come ready to play and play hard no matter what,” Sparks said. “We’ve all been playing together since we were small, so we pretty much have good team chemistry playing with each other all the time.”
Ewing also continues to play one of the toughest schedules among public schools in the area, opening the season against Atlantic City (15-3) and hosting Haddonfield (17-2) two weeks ago.
Next Wednesday, a litmus test of how much Ewing has grown awaits when it welcomes Nottingham (17-1) to Parkway Avenue to close out the regular season.
“We do that for a reason: to prepare us to play tough games throughout the season and to prepare us to play those type of games at the end of the season — the county tournament, the state tournament,” Dearden said. “That’s why we basically play those hard teams and try to get them on the schedule ... so we know what we have to do in practice to get to that level.”
Bowman 12-0-24, Kane 3-1-9, Jones 2-3-8, Kellman 1-1-3, Yu 1-2-4, Feretic 2-0-4.
21-7-52.
Totals —
Robinson 8-0-18, Preston 4-0-8, Sparks 9-3-21, Reed 4-2-12, Stokes 2-2-7, Clark 2-0-4, Doggett 1-2-4, Ezeigbo 1-0-2. — 29-9-76.
NotreDame (9-11)12 Ewing (13-6) 17 3-point goals — Totals 13 20 17 21 10 — 18 — 52 76
Kane 2, Jones (ND), Robinson 2, Reed 2, Stokes (E).