Knights Defeat Bears for 3rd Time in 4 Meetings to Advance
OLD BRIDGE, NJ–The month of March began with another rematch of GMC Red Division teams in the 2017 Central Jersey Group 4 State Tournament as 14th seeded East Brunswick traveled to neighborhood rival and sixth seeded Old Bridge in the quarterfinal round.
This game marked the fourth time that these two schools, the largest in the Greater Middlesex Conference, met this year. East Brunswick won the first meeting between the two schools on January 3rd in East Brunswick, and then Old Bridge won the next two including the 2017 GMCT Round of 16 game on February 16th.
This fourth battle between the two schools was a low scoring, grind it out kind of thriller that had the 14th seeded Bears push the sixth seeded Knights to the limit before the home team emerged victorious. Old Bridge held off a 10-4 East Brunswick charge in the fourth to come away with an 38-36 victory.
Sophomores Jared Meyer and Julius Belton led the way for the winners. Meyer had a game high 16 points including two threes while Belton added 14 including four treys. Only four different players scored for the Knights. Dante Ralph led East Brunswick in a losing cause with 12 points while Ezra Levitt and Gil Wyman chipped in with 8.
Five different players scored for East Brunswick. Both teams combined for 12 three pointers with each team having six in the contest. EB had 9 field goals while OB had 8. Old Bridge was able to overcome the deficit in two point field goals by having a 4-0 edge in made free throws.
East Brunswick jumped out to a 12-8 first quarter lead only to have Old Bridge respond with a 15-4 showing in the second period for a 23-16 halftime lead. The Knights managed to maintain the lead into the early fourth despite being outscored 12-11 over the first 9 minutes of the first half as EB closed the gap to 34-28 with about seven minutes to play.
The Bears then scored 5 of the next 7 points including a corner three by Ryan Crocco (5 points) at the 4:29 mark to pull within one at 34-33. Kyle Paris (6 points) answered with a dunk off a baseline dish for a 37-33 Old Bridge advantage with 1:40 remaining. EB wouldn’t give up though as Mitchell Pingoy scored his only points of the game on a trey to get back within one at 37-36.
Both teams then had a lot of timeouts, and Old Bridge had some fouls to give. The Knights then added a free throw for a two point cushion at 38-36. East Brunswick had a chance to tie, but missed a shot with 0.3 seconds remaining as Old Bridge emerged victorious to advance to the sectional semifinals for the first time since losing to Trenton in the 2003 Central Jersey Group 4 Championship at Hunterdon Central.
With the victory, Old Bridge improved to 19-8 overall on the season, and will face second seeded Hunterdon Central in the sectional semifinals on Friday evening at 6:00 PM. East Brunswick, which had won 11 of its last 17 games coming into this contest, finished its season at 14-13.