Brick boys starting to feel confident again

BY WAYNE WITKOWSKI
Staff Writer

BRICK - Brick Township's boys basketball team, which was at a crossroads when it played Toms River East in a battle of Shore Conference A South co-leaders, is back in the chase and now has its hopes for the title in its own hands.

And the Green Dragons got back on track after losing their two previous games, to Lacey and Toms River South last week, and pulled out a 44-43 overtime victory on Friday night.

"If we win our three remaining league games, we'll have at least a part of the championship," said coach Joe Lewis, whose team is tied for first with Southern, and this week played on Tuesday at Jackson Memorial and plays host to Brick Memorial on Friday. The Green Dragons close their league schedule on Tuesday at Toms River North.

Brick Township beat all three teams the first time around on the league schedule, including a 48-37 victory over a Brick Memorial team coming into this week's action and a 37-32 victory over Toms River North.

"We have to all play together; everybody has to contribute on offense and defense," said F.J. Lucchetti, who sealed the victory in overtime Friday night when he sank the final two points of the game from the free throw line with 1:27 left. Toms River East had a long shot from straight-away at the buzzer go off the side of the rim.

"It was a great win. It's a big win when it's after two losses, and we really needed this one," said Lewis after his team's first overtime game of the season. "The guys were starting to look like they were getting a little down on themselves."

"This game was pretty important," said Mike Gawronski, who led the way with 16 points. "This win boosts our confidence."

But it was some unexpected big contributions from Tim Reddan, who pumped in 13 points and played what Lewis called "overall his best game of the season" that lifted the Green Dragons, who went to 11-5 overall, 8-3 in A South.

Reddan fired in three three-point shots in the third quarter when Brick Township broke open a five-point lead to 34-22 before Toms River East closed regulation with a 12-2 run, capped by a three-point shot from straight-away by Tyler Fox with four seconds left in regulation that tied it, 40-40.

"This is the first game where I felt it," said Reddan. "It's a big game, so I decided to step up."

The Green Dragons could've avoided the overtime had they made some free throws down the stretch that went awry. Gawronski struck quickly for 10 of those points as Brick Township took an 18-5 lead before Toms River East turned around its ice-cold shooting.

Toms River East cooled down Gawronski's scoring when it shifted to a box-and-one zone, and Reddan took the opportunity to elevate his game.

"He contributed the most of anybody," said Lucchetti of Reddan. "The box-and-one took away from Mike, and as long as he hit his shots, we knew we'd be all right. This game helped us take our game to where it should be."

"We have two outstanding wing players in F.J. and Tim, and we know they can come through for us," said Lewis.

Gawronski, only the third 1,000-point career scorer in school history, on Saturday came through with a season-high 29 points, but Brick Township slipped to unbeaten Freehold Township, 70-55, in a game it wanted to win to improve its chances of a good seed before the NJSIAA cutoff this weekend. Brick Township will be in the postseason for the third straight year.

Tom Paterno continued to be a presence in the post with 11 rebounds and six blocks for Brick Township (11-6), which pulled to 19-13 early in the second quarter when Freehold Township (16-0) began clicking on some of the 10 three-point shots it made in the game en route to a 20-point halftime lead. The Green Dragons pulled to within 11 points in the final quarter but got no closer.