Brick’s season comes to a close vs. Hillsborough

Brick’s season comes to a close vs. Hillsborough

BY WAYNE WITKOWSKI

Staff Writer

BRICK TOWNSHIP — So much for scouting reports.

Brick Township boys basketball coach Joe Lewis got a good look at NJSIAA first-round opponent Hillsborough and saw a team that looked to establish a perimeter game.

But Hillsborough instead attacked the inside with superb entry passes and tough moves to the hoop to foil the Green Dragons’ first trip to the states since 1997 with a 63-60 victory on Monday night.

Dan Reddan’s desperation shot from inside midcourt was knocked away with two seconds left to mark the end of a memorable 12-10 season that included Brick’s first Shore Conference Tournament berth in a decade. Dan Palma sank 21 points and Reddan finished with 15 and Sean Kennedy 11 for Brick Township.

Team leader Mike Malko dropped in 25 for Hillsborough (16-9), which had won 13 of its last 16 coming into last night’s game and finished a game behind Bridgewater-Raritan for the Skyland Conference Delaware Division championship despite having only two players with proven varsity experience entering the season.

"I scouted them two times and they really didn’t go inside at all," said Lewis. "They saw something they could do and they attacked it. Malko’s a really nice player and Russhon (Anderson) did the best he could do (covering him). Russhon’s an undersized guy but he’s our best defender and he did what he had to do against a very big player."

"I think he scouted us when we played teams that played 3-2 match-up zones against us and we didn’t see any man in that game and if he saw us against man, he’d see that we try to get the ball inside," said first-year Hillsborough coach Ian Progin. "We exploited some match-ups that we needed to and got the ball inside for our bread-and-butter shots. They made it tough (for us) defensively because when a kid is making shots halfway to halfcourt, it’s tough to defend, but we clamped down in the last few seconds and made sure any threes they took would be contested."

Brick Township spent the entire game in pursuit and had several rallies behind some timely three-point baskets but never took the lead, including at the end of the game when Palma drilled a three-pointer from the right with 1:43 left to make it 63-59 and Reddan sank one of two free throws with :38 left. Brick’s full-court pressure forced a traveling call against Hillsborough in the backcourt but Brick threw the ball away after the inbounds. Brick got the ball back off the possession arrow on a held ball but Reddan’s three-pointer from straight-away was short. Hillsborough fumbled the rebound out of bounds to set up Reddan’s final shot.

"We thought they were going to pull up a little more from the outside and they threw it inside more than we thought they would. Coach thought that’s why they went up so much but that’s no excuse for the way we started," said Reddan.

"We just turned the ball over constantly and were playing lousy defense and didn’t play with the intensity that they did," said Palma. "But then our defense brought us back."

"I knew my kids could come back because we’re never down (long) in a game because we shoot the three well," said Lewis. "We started pushing the tempo and if our guys get going (on threes), we can come back from anything. The guys didn’t quit. They played hard and that’s all I can ask for. We gave up some second chance points — they had to have 20, which killed us. Overall, I’m happy with the guys."

Malko sandwiched two lay-ups around another one by a teammate off a great pass to the low post for a 57-48 lead and both teams traded baskets from there until the frantic finish.

Brick shot 15-for-24 from the free throw line. Hillsborough was 11-for-15.

"We didn’t make big shots. We didn’t get rebounds and we missed a lot of free throws and you’re not going to win a state game like that," said Reddan. "We had the opportunities and didn’t knock down shots."

Although the team ended a dry spell of post-season tournament berths, the coach and players had mixed emotions after the game.

"I thought we could have had more wins this year," said Lewis. "We had some great wins but we also had some bad losses. Good teams don’t lose the games they should win, which I thought we did this year. Hopefully in a few years we can win those games."

"We could’ve won four or five more games this season but it’s tough ending it like this at home," said Reddan.

"The season was very good but we could’ve gone further than we did," said Palma.