No. 1 seed Colts knock off No. 2 Middletown South.
BRICK,
NEW JERSEY – The No. 1 seeded Christian Brothers Academy Colts (Lincroft, N.J.) dominated the second half of the Shore Conference Tournament final to defeat
the No. 2 Middletown South Eagles (N.J.) 60-44 on Saturday night.
Christian Brothers
Academy trailed 26-22 at halftime but
ended the third quarter on a 10-0 run, outscoring Middletown South 23-8 in that
decisive quarter.
J.P. Koury led the Colts with 17 points.
Photo by Steve Goldberg
“As a
team, this definitely ranks up there with all of our second half performances
this year,” senior guard J.P. Koury said. “Our defense was tremendous in the
second half. We had a terrible first half, so we had to come out and put
pressure on them to get turnovers and transition points.”
Koury scored
nine points in the third quarter and led the game in scoring with 17. Matt
McMullen added 16 for the Colts, scoring the majority of his points in the
second quarter to help keep the game close. R.J. Hobbie and Roy Mabrey also
contributed with 15 and 12 points, respectively. Hobbie made two three-pointers
in the third quarter, and Mabrey knocked down three three-pointers in the game.
“We have confidence in all of the
guys," Mabrey said. “If it's four guys who do the scoring, then that's
great. We just trust one another and try to get good shots. The stats are
secondary and that's the way we've always looked at it.”
The
Colts have now won 42 straight games against Shore Conference opponents. Christian Brothers Academy
has also won back-to-back Shore Conference Tournament titles for a total of 16
in school history.
“Words
are hard to describe it, but at Christian
Brothers Academy,
you come here and you’re expected to win,” Koury said. “This is what you train
hard for, and all the hard work pays off. It’s a great feeling because we have
had great leadership all year and we’ve stayed together as a team.”
Middletown
South, the No. 3 seed in the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group III playoffs, will
play their first round game on Monday night against No. 14 Hopewell Valley
Central (Pennington, N.J.). No. 5 Christian Brothers Academy will
play No. 12 Red Bank Catholic (N.J.) in the first round of the NJSIAA South A
playoffs on Wednesday.
CBA won their 16th Shore Conference title.
Photo by Steve Goldberg
“Wednesday
will be our Senior Night at home against a big rival of ours in the Shore
Conference,” Christian Brothers Academy Head Coach Geoff Billett said. “We’re
worried about Red Bank Catholic first, and we’ll take it one game at a time.”
If the
Colts defeat Red Bank Catholic, their next game will be on the road against No.
4 St. Joseph (Metuchen, N.J.). Christian
Brothers Academy
defeated St. Joseph
on the road last season, but fell one game short of the Tournament of
Champions. The Colts will need to win in some hostile environments if they hope
to win their first group title since 1995.
“When
I walked into the Ritacco
Center the other day, I
was having flashbacks [of last year’s season-ending loss] and it was haunting
me,” McMullen said. “Ever since then, we're been wanting to get back. There are big-time teams
waiting at the end of the tunnel, like St. Peter’s Prep and Seton Hall Prep. [Winning the Shore Conference
Tournament] is great, but we're already thinking about that next
challenge."
