HIGH HURDLE
Hopewell Valley clears Wall to advance in state playoffs
HOPEWELL TWP. » The rest of the Central Jersey Group III bracket can thank the Hopewell Valley boys basketball team.
The third-seeded Bulldogs knocked out one of the tournament’s best players, but not before he almost single-handedly ended Hopewell’s dream season and gave 14th-seeded Wall a first-round upset.
Searching for their first state playoff win in eight years, the Bulldogs survived a 49-point avalanche by the Crimson Knights’ Steve Geis and held on for an 82-74 victory on Monday night.
Geis finished with a career-high 12 made 3-pointers and had 18 of his 49 points in the fourth quarters as Wall (14-13), which trailed by 16 with 4:20 remaining, got as close as five on a Geis’ four-point play with 44.5 seconds left.
“I’ve never seen a shooting performance like that,” Hopewell coach Matt Stein said. “How high he gets on his jump shot, he pulls up from almost NBA range. That kid is really one heck of a player.”
Geis ended up 12-for-24 from beyond the arc, but Stein’s message to his kids was not to get discouraged if he made a tough one against good defense.
“We know that he’s going to get his because recently he’s been averaging over 30 points per game,” Stein said. “We knew to stay calm and composed.”
The Bulldogs (21-5) did just that on offense.
Alex Calhoun-Mummert paced a balanced attack with 22 points, Milo De Los Santos added 20 and Rob Wiley had 15.
Hopewell led wire to wire after it scored the game’s first six points. The double-digit lead it built allowed some margin for error when Wall, or more accurately, Geis, would pick up momentum.
“We started off strong,” Stein said. “We were playing with confidence. We were able to run our plays and execute our plays. It was a big state game, so being composed was our big thing.”
The Bulldogs also connected on 21 of their 28 free throws (75 percent) and 17of-22 in the fourth quarter.
Hopewell advanced to a quarterfinal game against sixth-seeded Northern Burlington, which beat 11thseeded Burlington Twp. on a buzzer beater.
“This is something new for these guys,” Stein said. “None of them have been in a state game before, so definitely for the nerves the way we acted right from the beginning, starting off hot was a good sign for us.”