St. Joe’s takes TOC Falcons hold off Newark East Side
TRENTON — Those dreaming of a public victor in the Tournament of Champions will have to wait at least another year.
St. Joseph’s (Metuchen) beat Newark East Side, 49-47, in the final at the Sun National Bank Center Monday night, becoming the 14th consecutive non-public school to bring home the state’s top prize.
Up by as many as 17 points early, the Falcons (30-2) had to endure a furious rally by the Red Raiders (27-2), who took the lead with just 1:37 to play on a huge Jamar Gilbert 3-pointer. Three-star senior guard Marques Townes then hit 3 of 4 late free throws to inch the Falcons back in front, and Akbar Hoffman’s lastsecond 3-point attempt for Newark East side bounced wide.
“It’s not so much that we let them back in it,” St. Joe’s coach Dave Turco said. “They deserved to get back in it with the way they played.”
As soon as Hoffman’s shot was clear of the rim, the St. Joe’s players began to mob each other in celebration of the first ToC championship in school history.
The Falcons were also able to top the Red Raiders despite not getting a huge game from 6-foot-11 superprospect Karl Towns, who is graduating a year early to join the Kentucky Wildcats next season. Towns finished the game with just eight points, though his eight rebounds
CORRECTION The Ewing High guard trio of Kani Tye, Rasaan Parker and Deon Hale, West Windsor-Plainsboro High South senior forward Kareem Elhossieni and sophomore forward C.J. Howell, as well as Allentown High junior Dan Bascara were left off the honorable mention portion of the All-Colonial Valley Conference boys basketball team, which appeared in Monday’s paper.
Tye, Parker and Hale helped the Blue Devils go 27-5 this season and directed head coach Shelly Dearden’s team to the finals of the Mercer County Tournament and NJSIAA Group III State Tournament.
Elhossieni and Howell helped head coach Bob Schurtz’ Pirates go 16-10.
Bascara helped head coach Jay Graber’s Redbirds come back to win nine games after dropping their first eight contests of the 2013-14 season.
regrets the error. and three blocks certainly had a major impact.
Newark East Side, known for their suffocating defense, was never going to let Towns have a big offensive game. The lowpost combination of 6-7 Ismael Sanogo and 6-8 Abdul Lewis did everything in their powers to impede, obstruct, and frustrate Towns, who — like plenty of other top players who have faced the Red Raiders defense — never looked close to comfortable on the offensive end.
Unfortunately for the Red Raiders, Towns isn’t the only Division I-caliber player on the St. Joe’s roster. Townes, Vanderbiltbound Wade Baldwin and Breein Tyrere were all big for the Falcons, scoring 10, 12, and 10 points respectively.
The problem for Newark East Side, however, is that it couldn’t score either. On a number of occasion in the second half, the Red Raiders would come up with a big stop and appear to be on the verge of launching a serious run, only to have their offense stall on the other end. On the game, they shot just 31.5 percent.
Gilbert finished with 16 points for Newark East Side, while Ahmad Harrison had 10 and Sanogo finished with five points and nine rebounds.