STORM’S END
Trenton's historic 29-win season ends two shy of elusive state title
BAYVILLE >> As this season for the ages approached the state tournament, coach Darryl Young received phone calls every night from anyone who supported the program or played for Trenton High in any era.
“This is the team, Pup,” they would say. “These are the ones that are going to do it. This is the team that is going to do it.”
The 2022-23 Tornadoes believed in their hearts that they would end the capital city’s 62-year state title drought. The players felt it in their bones. Their coach walked into the gym every day and envisioned a picture of this team one day hanging to the left of the undefeated 1961 squad, along with two of his seniors’ jerseys hanging in the rafters.
That was what made Trenton’s 56-51 loss to Egg Harbor in the Group IV semifinals Thursday night at Central Regional so excruciating.
“I’ve never seen a locker room that sad,” Young said. “You couldn’t have told these kids they weren’t going to be a state champion this year. You couldn’t have told me they weren’t going to be a state champion this year.”
Players trembled and sobbed after giving everything they had, but the game’s result was a reminder that Group IV — the largest and deepest set of public schools in New Jersey — is an unforgiving and difficult gauntlet to be the last team standing.
“All you can do is try to console them. They had to console me,” Young said. “It was tough. This is going to be a hard one to swallow … a hard one to swallow.”
Antwan Bridgett and Kabrien Goss both netted 16 points for Trenton (29-2), while JayNelly Reyes dropped 22 points and DJ Germann had 17 points for Egg Harbor (28-5) in a matchup of two of the state’s top backcourts.
Trenton believed it had Egg Harbor on the ropes when the Eagles shifted to a zone defense in the second quarter, which signaled to Young that they were tired. Goss banged a pair of 3-pointers to supply an eight-point lead, forcing Egg Harbor to revert to man defense.
Trenton held a 23-21 halftime lead, and Young felt his team’s lack of defensive pressure in the third quarter lost the game. Reyes ended that period with a turnaround jumper to give Egg Harbor a 38-36 lead that it would not relinquish after opening the fourth quarter on a 10-2 run.
“The third quarter just wasn’t Trenton High basketball,” Young said. “We made them too comfortable. They weren’t uncomfortable at all. They were able to relax … all the momentum turned their way. That’s the first time all year where we just had a long stretch where we just didn’t play Trenton basketball.”
Trenton was also done in by 20 turnovers compared to Egg Harbor’s 11 and could not consistently draw fouls in the paint or take charges on the defensive end. Trenton was 1-for-5 on free-throw attempts, while Egg Harbor finished 16-for-21.
Young felt Trenton had the horses to match Egg Harbor’s backcourt and that his team would win because of its advantages down low in seniors Davontay Hutson and Chris Wilson. Yet Trenton settled for jumpers and interior offense rarely materialized.
“We totally got away from it,” Young said. “We just picked the wrong game not to play our game. I just feel in my heart that third quarter won that game for them. That third quarter killed us, man, because we just gave them so much momentum and so much energy.”
In a tense fourth quarter, the Tornadoes had a series of costly miscues. They barely missed a wide-open 3-pointer down four. They barely missed on a lob to the rim after Wilson blocked a shot on the other end, allowing Egg Harbor to storm back in transition and connect on a three-point play for a seven-point lead.
Trenton rallied from a 10-point deficit with two minutes left, getting it down to 52-48 with 24 seconds to go when Bridgett had a three-point play. But ultimately it was too little, too late.
Still, there was so much to be proud of for Trenton’s seven-man senior class led by Bridgett and Hutson, who became starters in their freshman season because of their work ethic.
“It was the buy-in from their freshman year,” Young said. “That buy-in made me say, ‘This is going to be a team that leads Trenton back to the glory days.’”
This team set a school record for wins, went 13-0 in the CVC, won the program’s first Mercer County Tournament title in 15 years and captured its first Central Jersey Group
IV title in five years.
Most of all, the team was a perfect 18-0 at the Tornado Alley and shined a beacon of hope on a city so often engulfed in chaos and turmoil on the streets.
Young has been around Trenton basketball his whole life as someone who grew up on Walnut Street, played on the team and graduated in 1986. His brother played on the 1989 team that lost a perfect season in the state final against Elizabeth. And his son played and graduated in 2010.
While celebrating Trenton’s sectional title this week at Pizza City in Ewing, Young heard his grandson shout, “You want The High!” and four other little kids shouted back, “You got The High!”
It took Young back to when he was six years old and fell in love with “The High.”
“It brought tears in my eyes,” Young said. “I’m like, ‘That’s it.’ That’s what I wanted right there for the little kids, because at that age, all I wanted to do was just be one of those guys running out of the Trenton High locker room, coming out of the old tunnel at The Alley … just being a little kid and when you see that red and black coming running out of the tunnel, it was magical.”
Along their own magical journey, these seniors learned life lessons including how to overcome the most unfathomable adversity. Prior to their junior season, Hutson’s mother, two assistant coaches and 16-year-old teammate Dione Ellis passed away.
Young said the community was in a dark place after Ellis’ passing. The team huddled before and after games and said, “1, 2, 3, Dione forever.” Young also put Ellis’ shirt on
a chair at every game as a way to keep him alive in their hearts.
“He was a special kid. He was a great kid,” Young said. “He worked hard for us. He’d have been out there on the court tonight getting major time. He was going to be a star player here.”
These Tornadoes vowed to become stars in his honor. After losing in last year’s sectional final, they worked all offseason and at the Hamilton Park Summer League to do something special this winter.
They were nearly flawless and finished one game away from the state final at Rutgers, but as they departed the Central Regional locker room long after the semifinal ended, the players walked into a round of applause from all the Trenton High faithful who made the trip and were inspired by their achievements.
“That’s the city of Trenton, man. We’re a basketball city. We love our basketball, and when you come to Trenton, you’re going to have a great experience,” Young said. “These kids, they’re a part of that. They helped bring that back. It’s something that you just don’t want it to end, and I just hope that going forward that we can just keep that positive energy in the city and get behind the kids. There’s nothing like looking up in that crowd and seeing that whole city there.”
TRENTON (51)
Goss 6-0-16, Moore 1-0-2, Wilson 5-0-11, Bridgett 6-1-16, Hutson 3-0-6. Totals — 21-1-51.
EGG HARBOR (56)
Reyes 7-7-22, Germann 6-5-17, Wilkins 3-4-10, Elliot 2-0-5, Rando 1-0-2. Totals — 19-16-56.
Trenton (29-2) 12 11 13 15 — 51
Egg Harbor (28-5) 13 8 17 18 — 56
3-point goals: Goss 4, Bridgett 3, Wilson (T), Reyes, Elliot (EH).