Patriots Pull Away Late to Advance to N2 Group 3 Semifinals for 3rd Straight Year
CARTERET, NJ—In perhaps one of the highly touted GMC boys basketball games of the 2020 NJSIAA state playoffs, 5th seeded Colonia traveled to 4th seeded Carteret in the North Jersey Section 2 Group 3 Quarterfinals with the winner giving the GMC a team in the semifinal round of this bracket for the 4th time in 6 years.
Both of these teams reached the Quarterfinal round of the 2020 Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament, and each team had already won 20 games going into the contest. Both teams were picked in the GMC Hoops Pre-Season Top 10. On top of that, this game was a rematch of a contest won by Carteret (64-50) earlier this season in Carteret.
This contest would be a much more stout defensive battle than the first meeting between the two schools on January 18th. Colonia head coach, Jose Rodriguez, who scored over 1,200 points including a 50 point game his senior year at Carteret, has managed to develop quite a knack for making adjustments against playoff teams the Patriots have played in the regular season.
Last season, Colonia fell to Rahway in a hard fought battle at Rahway High School on January 24, 2019. However, after losing 1,000 point scorer, Luke Valeriano (now playing hoops at Ramapo), to a season ending injury in the sectional quarterfinals against Snyder of Jersey City, the Patriots turned the tables on the Indians in the semifinals with a dominant 58-30 victory on the road en route to defeating West Morris Central for the 2019 NJSIAA N2G3 sectional title.
The Patriots took a page from that experience to pull away down the stretch in a defensive war against a Carteret team that had taken the likes of Union County foes Plainfield and Union to overtime while also taking GMCT Champion, St. Thomas Aquinas to the limit before losing by double digits both times the GMC Blue arch rivals played this season, and defeating the likes of GMC Top 10 teams North Brunswick and New Brunswick.
Colonia got clutch scores from Noah Taylor, Ruben Reyes, Larenzo Jackson, and Jimmy Frage down the stretch along with big defensive plays from Jordan Derkack to knock off Carteret, 47-39 to not only avenge the loss earlier in the season, but also advance to the North Jersey Section 2 Group 3 sectional semifinals for the fourth time since 2015. The Patriots had 9 different players score in the contest including Frage, who had a team high 13 points while Taylor, a freshman forward, chipped in with 10.
Jackson added 8 points while Reyes contributed with 4. Derkack (2 points), Brandon Wasserman (2 points), Josh Oluremi (2 points), J.T. Kroner (3 points), and Chris Waldron (3 points) rounded out the Colonia scoring. Aiden Ramirez, a sophomore guard for Carteret, led all scorers with 18 points including three treys, which all occurred in the first half. Unfortunately, the Ramblers only had one other player, Starrell Hearns (8 points and 7 rebounds), that scored more than 5 points in the contest.
Carteret only had 6 different players get into the scoring column as football standout Cam McCargo (4 points and 6 rebounds), Tony Townes-Mays (5 points), Elijah Colon (4 points and 5 assists), and Hubert Ramos (1 point and 2 assists) rounded out the rest of the Rambler scoring. Both teams struggled to get into an offensive rhythm early on as Colonia jumped out to a 7-2 lead late in the first quarter before Ramirez gave Carteret is first field goal of the game on a three pointer in the closing seconds of the period.
The quarter ending three by Ramirez sparked a 13-3 tear over a span of about 3:10 to put the Ramblers in front for the first time in the game at 15-10 with 4:57 remaining in the second period. Ramirez added two more threes and a layup from the right low block for 11 points during the Carteret run. Colonia rallied back with a 7-0 rally including threes by Kroner and Jackson to take a two point, 17-15 lead before the Ramblers finished the first half on a 5-0 run including two free throws by Hearns for a 20-17 Carteret lead at the intermission.
The Patriots wrestled back control of the contest in a tightly played third quarter highlighted by defense and scrappy play by both sides. Colonia outscored Carteret by a margin of 14-9 in the frame to take a 31-29 lead as Frage scored on a layup with 4.5 seconds left in the frame following an earlier block by Derkack on a transition layup attempt by Colon. The Patriots increased the lead to five before the Ramblers had back to back scores including a jumper from Ramirez at the 4:23 mark of the 4th for a 34-33 Colonia edge.
Both teams exchanged scores including a putback by Townes-Mays with 2:14 remaining in the 4th to keep Carteret within one at 36-35. Colonia then put together a crucial 8-1 run that included two scores by Reyes, and another from Frage for a 43-36 lead with 57.7 seconds to play. Frage then wrapped up the win by making three free throws while Jackson added one of his own down the stretch.
With the victory, Colonia not only improved to 21-6 on the season, but also advanced to the sectional semifinals to take on top seeded West Morris Central in a rematch of last year’s final, won by Colonia (57-33). Carteret, which lost to West Morris Central in last year’s N2G3 Quarterfinals, concluded its season at 20-8.