March 3, 2004

The Tournament is underway!

By TOM WILLIAMS
Sports Columnist


It is Tournament Time in New Jersey basketball.

There is no other time of the year quite like it. More than 150 high school basketball teams from around the state started playing Monday night in competition that will ultimately determine the state’s best in an NJSIAA Tournament of Champions final doubleheader on March 21 in the Meadowlands. Along the way, South Jersey and state champions will be determined in each group.

Many of the most memorable moments in high school basketball happened in the state tournament. Maybe it’s because of the pressure involved with each game, the fact that a single loss ends your season.

One of the greatest games of the last decade was a first round game. In 1997, Egg Harbor Township beat Williamstown when Terence Ward made an incredible three-pointer to send the game into overtime and then an even more amazing shot to win it just before the overtime buzzer.

There was Ryan Reich’s 35-footer for Ocean City in 1999 that sent the Group 3 final with Middle Township into overtime, a game the Raiders would win. Do you remember the game where a Shawnee player threw one in |from almost the other foul line to send a big Group 4 game with Atlantic City into another overtime?

Among the girls, there were a number of thrillers during Wildwood’s three straight state championships, the buzzer-beater by EHT’s Stephanie DeFeo over St. John Vianney back in the early 1990s and the remarkable comeback by Sacred Heart just last year in the state final.

If you go back far enough, there was Mainland’s triple-overtime win over rival Ocean City in the early 1980s, Atlantic City’s back-to-back thrillers over Camden and Cherry Hill West in 1973 to win South Jersey Group 4 and Mike Toner’s two free throws with just seconds left to spark Holy Spirit to a win over Notre Dame in the 1960s.

Already, this year, in Monday opening games, Ryan Lancaster of Egg Harbor Township led a second half rally by the Eagles, scoring 24 of his 28 points, including five three-pointers, in the second half against Washington Township. It was a Ward-like effort, much of it while facing a box-and-one defense. Lancaster’s shooting brought EHT from 12 points down at the half and helped overcome the seven three-pointers by the Minutemen’s Andrew Canzanese.

Mainland defeated Cherry Hill West in another Group 4 game to set up a rematch with Atlantic City. Absegami’s boys lost their fourth straight tournament game to hot-shooting Cherry Hill East, EHT’s next opponent. And the Atlantic City girls, getting better as they give the ball to Tasha Cannon more and more, knocked off Cherry Hill West and will return to Cherry Hill to play East in a doubleheader with the EHT boys.

And that was just the first night.

We’ve still got the Oakcrest boys facing the Timber Creek-Camden-Woodrow Wilson obstacle course in Group 3. Pleasantville taking on the best in the Colonial Conference – Collingswood and Haddonfield – in an effort to return to the Group 2 final. Middle Township hoping for a third straight South Jersey title, an accomplishment that would give Tom Feraco 58 tournament wins, tying Ken Leary for the most by a CAL coach.

St. Augustine is looking at another match with Christian Brothers in the semi-finals and, if successful, either Camden Catholic or Notre Dame (the Irish, either way) in the Parochial A final. And how about Parochial B? Holy Spirit, the ninth and last seed, could win it. If St. Joe gets its first tournament win since 1987 it will be in the semi-finals. And Wildwood Catholic, division champions again despite a tough start against a challenging schedule, opens with the team to beat - McCorristin.

Among the girls, Absegami, Wildwood and Sacred Heart are seeking to defend championships. Holy Spirit is hoping for another shot at the Lions, in a Parochial B tournament that also includes St. Rose, Bishop Eustace and Wildwood Catholic. Either Oakcrest or Hammonton in Group 3 will face undefeated Highland in the second round. And Wildwood limps into the Group 1 tournament, seeking a fifth straight South Jersey title.

It’s The Tournament. Don’t miss a night. It is filled with excitement and it will be over far too quickly.



Read more of Tom Williams' columns