Ewing holds off Hamilton upset scare in first round

EWING » No one knows better than the Ewing boys basketball team that the NJSIAA state tournament is about surviving and advancing — no matter the means.

The Blue Devils have played in five state finals in the last seven years, navigating through their share of close calls along the way under longtime coach Shelly Dearden.

Fifth-seeded Ewing survived an upset scare from 12th-seeded county rival Hamilton on Monday night, 48-46, and will play at fourthseeded Neptune in Wednesday’s quarterfinals.

Despite repeated threats from the Hornets to tie or pull ahead, the Blue Devils never actually relinquished the lead in the second half. In the final three seconds, Caleb Stokes deflected a Hamilton pass out of bounds, and then Ewing came up with last stop as Hamilton mustered only a halfcourt heave at the final buzzer.

“We rebounded and played good defense and we got offensive opportunities,” senior Isaiah Sparks said of Ewing’s play down the stretch. “We just had to keep doing that throughout the game. In the first half we weren’t playing good defense and our offense was really slow.”

Sparks came up with an offensive rebound and putback layup to give Ewing its largest lead of the night at 38-31 entering the fourth quarter, but Hamilton came roaring back in the final eight minutes.

Javon Porter scored six straight points on a layup, 3-pointer and free throw to make it a one-point game with 6:19 remaining. Ewing countered with a putback layup from Keyshawn Preston, who matched Hamilton’s Dane Riley for a game-high 14 points, and then a steal and layup from Shemar Robinson to push the lead back to 43-37 with 4:06 left.

With Hamilton down 4439 with under two minutes, Richmond Shasha netted a layup, then grabbed a steal on a long pass by Ewing near midcourt. Hamilton called timeout down just one possession with 1:05 left.

Riley pulled the Hornets within one point again on a layup, then grabbed a steal in the low post on the Blue Devils’ ensuing possession. But Hamilton missed two of their three free throw attempts in the final 30 seconds. Sparks and Kameron Clark each split a pair for Ewing.

The Blue Devils know they’ll need sharper play for 32 minutes to advance any farther in the tournament.

“Definitely hedging on screens and rebounding — boxing out and rebounding, because we do not box out well,” Sparks said. “We allow too many offensive rebounds and things like that. That’s just a lot of stuff that we work on at practice every day. We’ve just got to keep doing that.”

The first half had eight lead changes and didn’t feature a two-possession lead until Stokes’ baseline jumper made it 19-14, Ewing, with 40 seconds remaining in the second quarter.

Turnovers were rampant and quality looks at the rim were laborious for both teams. Hamilton’s 2-3 zone caused fits for Ewing’s ball movement, while the Blue Devils’ full-court pressure had the Hornets all out of sorts at times.

“We just had to make adjustments, put guys in the corner and just drive and kick,” Sparks said. “Just drive, cut from the corner to the baseline — stuff like that.”

Despite being the fifth seed and potentially needing to go through top-seeded Moorestown in the semifinals, Ewing is confident in its chances of making another deep run.

The Blue Devils graduated their starting five after last year’s team won the sectional title, but this season’s talented group has steadily improved and developed chemistry through the course of a difficult schedule. Ewing has recently lost twice to Nottingham, seeded second on the opposite side of the bracket, by a total of only 10 points.

“We definitely should’ve beat Nottingham the first game,” Sparks said. “The second game we were a little slow, we didn’t play well. But the first game we definitely had them. We just had a couple mistakes at the end that were crucial. But I feel like we could definitely make it back to Rutgers (for the Group III state final) this year.”