Allentown edges Bordentown on Senior Night
ALLENTOWN » One of the most intriguing boys basketball teams to watch when the Mercer County Tournament kicks off next week will be Allentown.
The Redbirds, seeded fifth in the 17-team field, have won 10 of their last 11 games following a 73-71 victory Thursday in a back-and-forth tussle with Burlington County power Bordentown.
For Senior Night, Allentown (16-5) honored graduating RJ Weise, Tim Mastromarino, Kaushal Kallam and Harrison Hass.
Weise finished with a game-high 27 points – 16 in the second half.
“The crowd was crazy. It was probably our best crowd this season,” Weise said. “I just wanted to go out and just go win.”
Weise, who reached 1,000 points for his career on Monday, elevated Allentown in the second half with his usual array of contorted body shots and play-making for his teammates.
After the teams exchanged the lead four times early in the third quarter, Weise knocked down a falling floater that gave the Redbirds a 38-37 advantage with 4:40 remaining in the period. Then he buried back-to-back triples.
“I know every night I’m going to get the best defender. They’re going to try and deny me, and I’ve just got to find a way to just score. I focus a lot on keeping my eyes on the rim, a lot of the time it works.”
Leading by four at the start of the fourth, Allentown took a nine-point lead on a corner 3 and then a layup from Mastromarino, who ended with 17 points to complement his rebounding and shot-blocking.
Behind one of the area’s top players in Jordan Martin, who dropped five 3-pointers and 25 total points, Bordentown cut the lead down to 3 with under 30 seconds to go. Allentown broke down Bordentown’s full-court pressure with an outlet pass to Mastromarino, who sealed the outcome with a free throw. Bordentown’s Gavin Shiver (18 points) netted a trivial layup at the buzzer.
Allentown got to the foul line 36 times — converting 22 — to help offset the fact that Bordentown sunk 11 3-pointers.
“I just think we got just a few more stops and rebounds,” Weise said. “I still knew that they’re a really talented team and it was going to every second out of that game for us to pull it out.”
Bordentown (12-9), the Burlington County Scholastic League’s Patriot Division champion, is in a rut with seven losses in its last nine games. The Scotties have five more games on their schedule prior to the start of the Central Jersey Group II Tournament, where they are projected to be the No. 5 seed.
Allentown is trending in the opposite direction. The Redbirds will play at Central Regional on Saturday – their fourth game this week – before hosting Pennington in the first round of Mercer County Tournament on Wednesday
“I definitely feel like we could surprise teams,” Weise said. “We’ve been very hot, and I just think we’ve just got to keep playing our ball. We’re playing our best ball right now, which is perfect timing for the postseason.”