Tornadoes run past Irish
LAWRENCEVILLE >> Trenton High erased any doubt of its status as the top boys basketball team in the Colonial Valley Conference on Tuesday night.
The Tornadoes came into Notre Dame’s gym and swatted away the Irish, 64-52, to move into sole possession of first place in the Colonial Division.
“It was huge because our coach, he stressed how we’re one of the top teams, Notre Dame is one of the top teams,” senior guard Elijah Kelley said. “They just beat Mater Dei Prep on Saturday, so that was a good win. We saw about the power points. Coach tries to tell us for later on the season so we can get more home games in the playoffs, so this is a big game, big win for us.”
Kelley netted 13 points and buried three of Trenton’s 10 3-pointers, which were the difference in a game that morphed into a track meet as both teams brought intensity from the opening tip.
Jordan Williams, a 6-foot-4 forward whom Notre Dame coach Rich Roche called a “workhorse,” finished with 20 points and dominated the glass despite missing the final nine minutes of the first half with foul trouble.
Both of Trenton’s big men went to the bench early with two fouls, but Notre Dame couldn’t take advantage. With the score tied at 6, the Tornadoes seized control with a 9-0 run and ended the first quarter with 23 points.
“We had a good situation in front of us and we just let it slip away,” Roche said. “We’re not contesting shots, and we needed to do Notre Dame’s Leon Jones, left, drives to the basket while defended by Trenton’s Brandon Moore, right, during a CVC game on Tuesday. that harder. So you have guys get off hitting 3s, and then I honestly have no idea how many layups we missed. I’ve got to credit them on a few of those, but on some of the fastbreak ones it had nothing to do with them.”
Trenton extended its lead to 10 at halftime when Jose Estevez drained a 3 over the top of Notre Dame’s zone defense, and then the Irish missed a fastbreak layup at the buzzer to end the second quarter.
Mike Kane kept Notre Dame afloat with several nice individual plays and had 20 points. But the Irish simply couldn’t match the depth of Trenton, which has a variety of slashers, shooters and tenacious defenders. Eight Tornadoes scored and five hit at least one trey.
“We run a lot in practice, so that definitely prepares us for types of teams like this,” Kelley said. “We stress defense.”
At 9-3, Notre Dame still has the talent to improve and challenge Trenton in a potential Mercer County Tournament rematch next month.
“They put us in a position where I was playing five guards at the end, just to try to run them around. Bottom line is you’ve still got to make shots and we couldn’t make shots,” Roche said. “Congratulations to (coach) Darryl (Young) and the boys. They got this one. Hopefully we get to do it again.”
And at 8-3 but with a schedule that has included some out of area powerhouses, Trenton feels it has asserted itself as the best team in the CVC. Yet there remains plenty of basketball ahead before the Tornadoes try to defend their Central Jersey Group IV title.
“Definitely,” Kelley said, “but we’re still staying humble because anything could happen any day.”
TRENTON (64)
Estevez 2-0-6, Williams 8-2-20, Hodge 4-0-10, Kelley 5-0-13, Phillips 2-0-5, Garita 2-1-5, Turner 1-0-2, Molder 1-1-3. Totals — 25-4-64.
NOTRE DAME (52)
Kane 6-6-20, Weber 1-0-2, Autry 1-0-2, Graver 2-0-4, Feretic 3-1-8, Jones 3-1-7, Yu 3-0-9.
Totals — 19-8-52.
Trenton (8-3) 23141710—64 Notre Dame (9-3) 15121312—52 3-point goals: Kelley 3, Estevez 2, Williams 2, Hodge 2, Phillips (T), Yu 3, Kane 2, Feretic (ND).