JV Bombers End Game on 11-5 Run for Victory
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| North Brunswick’s I-Be Allah (No. 3 in photo) scored a game high 32 points in the JV game against Sayreville, but the Junior Bombers managed to prevail in a 66-64 opening night victory. |
NORTH BRUNSWICK, NJ–Prior to the start of what would be a memorable game between the Sayreville and North Brunswick varsity teams, the JV squads from both schools turned in quite a thriller as well. In a game that saw tremendous swings in momentum throughout, the Junior Bombers of Sayreville were able to prevail.
Trailing 59-55 early on in the fourth quarter, Sayreville’s JV team ended the game on an 11-5 rally, and got two blocked shots in the final seven seconds of play to come away with a hard fought 66-64 victory. Leading the way for the JV Bombers was J. Reick, who scored 18 points on six threes. I-Be Allah led North Brunswick’s JV in a losing cause with a game high 32 points in a spectacular performance.
Allah scored 16 points in the second quarter, and 9 more in the third as the JV Raiders rallied from a 26-11 deficit with a 38-22 surge over a span of 14:18 to take a 49-48 lead to end the third. North Brunswick then opened the fourth and final quarter by scoring 10 of the first 17 points to increase its lead to four before Sayreville rallied to win the game.
The first 10 or so minutes of the game was controlled mostly by Sayreville. The Junior Bombers jumped out to a 7-2 lead over the first two minutes of the game, and then got a three from the left corner by Reick to take a 10-6 lead at the 3:54 mark. North Brunswick stayed within four points for the next couple minutes before, Sayreville ended the frame on a 7-0 run including another three by Reick for a 22-11 lead heading into the second.
Sayreville opened the second with the first four points to take a 15 point lead, and appeared to have all of the momentum before Allah and the JV Raiders got going. The JV Bombers had 11 unanswered points as its defense pressured North Brunswick into committing numerous turnovers. NBTHS then put together a 15-0 onslaught of its own in just 2:44 courtesy of Allah, who had several layups and a three during the rally to tie the game at 26-26 with 3:34 to go in the first half.
The two teams then exchanged threes as Sayreville connected on its triple first for a 29-26 lead only to have North Brunswick answer with a trey of its own to tie the score again at 29-29. The JV Bombers and JV Raiders exchanged another four points to go into the intermission tied at 33-33. Allah led North Brunswick with the game high of 20 points at the break while Reick led Sayreville with 8 points.
Starting the third period on a 10-4 run, the JV Bombers were able to go back up by seven before North Brunswick got a three pointer from Dan Reardon that closed the gap to 43-40 before a timeout was called at the 3:43 mark. The Reardon three sparked a 12-5 NBTHS spurt to end the quarter including another bucket by Allah for a 49-48 lead heading into the fourth period.
The Junior Raiders continued to surge by scoring 10 of the first 17 points over the initial 2:42 of the final frame to increase its lead to four at 59-55. The game began to turn at this point as Sayreville got a score from Eric Sokolowski at the 5:18 mark to not only narrow the deficit to two, but also spark the JV Bombers decisive rally. Sayreville finished the game by scoring 11 of the last 16 points for the win.
Highlighting the Junior Bombers run was a great hustle play to track down a loose ball before it went out of bounds, and converting it to a layup at the 3:19 mark for a 61-60 lead. Sayreville eventually went up by four before North Brunswick got three points including a bucket with 1:39 remaining to pull within one at 64-63. After the JV Bombers added a free throw for a two point lead, North Brunswick managed to get the ball back with seconds to play.
However, Sayreville’s defense was able to block a three point attempt with 7.4 seconds to go, and after an NBTHS timeout, the JV Bombers blocked another shot attempt as time expired for the 66-64 win. With the victory, Sayreville starts the season at 1-0 while North Brunswick fell to 0-1. Both JV squads return to action on Tuesday with Sayreville hosting J.F. Kennedy at 5:30 PM while North Brunswick visits Woodbridge at 5:30 PM.