Nottingham set to make first final appearance since ’87

TRENTON » For the first time in 31 years, the Nottingham boys basketball team is going to the Mercer County Tournament final.

The top-seeded Northstars punched their ticket with a 69-63 win over No. 5 Ewing on Thursday night, setting up a championship game against No. 2 Trenton Catholic Academy, the defending champion, back at the CURE Insurance Arena.

Nottingham lost its only MCT final appearance to McCorristin High, which TCA used to be named until 2005.

Ewing was vying for a repeat appearance and its first title since 2011, but instead the Blue Devils will begin preparations for next week’s Central Jersey Group III Tournament.

Darell Johnson, Cliff Joseph and Richie Jones all scored double figures and combined for 57 points for Nottingham.

After a three-point by play Ewing’s Delvon Doggett tied the game at 2727 in the second quarter, Nottingham closed the final 4:10 of the half on an 11-2 run and then led by 14 entering the fourth quarter.

Jones’ 14 points in the first half led all scorers, and his three early 3s broke Pete Kelly’s school records for both single-season (77) and career (175) 3-pointers set back in 2008.

Shemar Robinson paced Ewing with 22 points, his 21st double-digit outing of the season. Sparks 4-1-10, Clark 1-0-2, Preston 1-3-5, Robinson 8-5-22, Reed 4-1-10, Doggett 5-3-13, Stokes 1-0-2.

24-13-63.

Totals —

Joseph 6-6-20, DJohnson 7-3-17, Montina 5-0-10, Jones 5-5-20, KJohnson 1-0-2.

24-14-69.

Totals — Ewing (17-8) 18 Nottingham (22-2)21 3-point goals —

Jones 3 (N).

11 17 11 16 23 — 15 — 63 69

Robinson, Reed, Sparks (E), Joseph 2,

JOHN BLAINE — FOR THE TRENTONIAN Nottingham’s Cliff Joseph (4) goes up for a shot over Ewing’s Kameron Clark (23) during a semifinal MCT game at CURE Insurance Arena on Tuesday night.