Rahway Summer League–July 29, 2011

RAHWAY, NJ–On Friday night, the 2011 Rahway Summer League climaxed with three fine games at Rahway High School. The Final Four was carried out with both semifinals and the championship played on the same night. For the second straight year, it was a team from Union County winning the title as Roselle survived two low scoring struggles with J.P. Stevens in the semifinals and Union Catholic in the Championship. The third seeded Vikings got to the title game by knocking off second seeded Rahway in the first semifinal at 5:30 PM. It was quite a way to end the summer at Rahway. All three games were decided by five points or less.

Union Catholic Hangs On To Upset Rahway, 65-61

Arriving with only 1:55 to go in the game,  Union Catholic was leading 55-47.  Rahway made one of two from the line with 1:35 to play to draw within seven.  The Indians made one of two again from the line with 1:20 to play for a 55-49 Vikings lead.  UC then made one of two from the line for a 56-49 lead before Rahway struck for a three pointer from the left side with 1:10 to go for a 56-52 lead.

Union Catholic made one of two free throws, and then two more foul shots with 55.7 seconds to go for a 59-52 lead before Rahway got a layup with 49 seconds left, and a layin with 37.8 seconds to play to pull within three at 59-56.  The Vikings made two huge free throws with 33.7 seconds remaining for a 61-56 lead, and after Rahway sank one of two from the line with 30 seconds left, Union Catholic was fouled again in the backcourt for two more free throws, and a 63-57 lead with 27.4 remaining.

Rahway got a layup with 20 seconds to play to pull within four again at 63-59, but UC made two foul shots at the 15.0 seconds mark to wrap up the win.  The Indians got another layup while the Vikes blew a breakaway scoring chance, but by then the game was over as Union Catholic improved to 9-3 on the summer, and earned a trip to the Championship Game against the winner of the other semifinal between top seeded Roselle and fifth seeded J.P. Stevens.  Rahway, which won the league championship last year, finished the summer at 11-3.


Roselle Surges From Behind To Defeat J.P. Stevens, 42-37

After defeating Perth Amboy in the first quarterfinal on Thursday, and both J.F. Kennedy and Woodbridge losing in the other two elite eight games in the 2011 Rahway Summer League, the Hawks of J.P. Stevens were the only GMC team left standing in the post-season at Rahway heading into the semifinals and championship on Friday.

In front of them waited three very good teams from the Mountain Division of the Union County Conference including their final four opponent, Roselle, the top seeded team in the playoffs after earning the league’s best regular season record.  For the first 15:52 of this contest, Roselle continued to struggle after nearly losing a 13 point lead with under three minutes to go in the quarterfinals against eighth seeded Johnson Regional on Thursday night.

Led by the combination of soon to be sophomore Sky Harris, and soon to be senior, Brandon Ahmed, the Hawks jumped out to a 26-12 lead.  However, Roselle regained its composure, and put together a 30-11 surge the rest of the way for a come from behind 42-37 win.  The Rams limited Stevens to just four field goals including a three pointer in the second half after yielding 13 field goals including two threes in the first half.  Roselle, which was 4 of 14 from the line in the final 2:43 of its win over Johnson, was only 5 of 15 from the charity stripe by the early second half, but made them when it mattered most.

Over the final 12:03 of the contest, Roselle was 9 of 12 from the charity stripe.  In addition, the Rams enjoyed a huge advantage in free throw attempts (27-1) and points scored from the foul line (14-0).  J.P. Stevens didn’t score a point over the last 6:23 while Roselle finished up with the final 11 points to turn a 37-31 deficit into a 42-37 victory.  Prior to that, the Hawks seemed to get some much needed breathing room after the Rams started the second half with a 13-4 tear over the first 10:12 of the second half for a 32-31 Stevens lead just beyond the midway point of the second half.

Jalen Sorrell came up with a huge play when he got an offensive rebound off a Sahej Chowdary miss for a putback at the 7:14 mark, and a 34-31 JPS lead.  Xavier Johnson, who scored all five of his points in the second half then took a Brandon Ahmed pass on the right side for a three pointer, and a 37-31 lead with 6:23 left.  Unfortunately for the Hawks though, they only had one shot attempt for the rest of the game.  To make matters worse, Ahmed (12 first half points) and Harris (8 first half points) were limited by the Roselle defense to just two points combined in the final 20 minutes of play.

J.P. Stevens really missed the presence of Marvin Crawford, especially in the second half.  Throughout the game, the Hawks had trouble inbounding the ball against the Roselle fullcourt pressure.  The Edison school also had difficulty getting the ball over the midcourt line after getting it inbounds.  For the game, JPS got its 37 points on 17 field goals including three treys, but only went 0 of 1 at the foul line.  Meanwhile, Roselle scored its 42 points on 13 field goals including two threes, and made 14 of 27 from the charity stripe.

Also helping the Rams to victory was 22 points off of turnovers including 13 in the second half, and 7 second chance points. Ahmed led the way in a losing cause for the Hawks with 14 points, 3 assists, and a block while Harris chipped in with 8 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, and a block.  Johnson added his five second half points while both John Maxham and Chowdary contributed with 4 points.  Chowdary also handed out 4 assists while Sorrell rounded out the Hawk scoring with 2 points and 6 rebounds.

J.P. Stevens led the game for 33:29 while Roselle led for only 3:40 and the game was tied for 2:51. Neither team scored for the first 2:35 of the game before the Rams got on the board first by stealing the ball from Chowdary, and scoring a layup while being fouled by Maxham for a three point play, and a 3-0 lead at the 17:25 mark. A little over a minute later, Ahmed sparked a 7-0 run with a three pointer from the top of the key off a pass from Chowdary at the 16:20 mark. Sixteen seconds later, the Hawks went out in front at 5-3 on a steal for a layup by Harris. Ahmed then capped the run with hitting a jumper from just inside the key for a 7-3 lead with 15:27 to go in the half after getting a blocked shot at the other end.

Over the next 2:42, Roselle battled back into the contest with a 7-4 run on a three pointer at the 15:13 mark, a jumper off a kickout following an offensive rebound at the 14:26 mark, and then a putback for an 11-10 Stevens lead with 12:45 to go in the half. The next four and a half minutes was all Hawks as they reeled off nine unanswered points for a 20-10 lead before Roselle called timeout with 8:18 to go in the half. Ahmed had five points during the run including a three pointer to cap the spurt at the 8:25 mark while Harris and Chowdary added baskets as well.

Following the stoppage, J.P. Stevens continued to play well with six of the next eight points over a span of 4:10 to take its biggest lead of the contest. Maxham had all four of his points during the run while Chowdary added another score to cap the run. Against the ropes, Roselle began to fight back with six straight points over a span of just 1:22 including two free throws at the 3:00 mark, a steal that led to a putback at the 1:43 mark, and another steal for a putback at the 1:28 mark for a 26-18 JPS lead.

Roselle had a couple more chances to get closer, but after Stevens was called for a five second violation at the 1:19 mark, the Rams turned it over at the 1:08 mark. Then, after stopping the Hawks again, and drawing a foul, the Rams missed both free throws at the 55.2 second mark. Harris then ended the first half scoring by sinking a high arching jumper from the left side with 31.5 seconds left for a 28-18 lead going into the intermission. Despite losing some momentum going into the brief break, Roselle had made big strides, and more importantly, the Rams had begun to wear down the Hawks.

In the second half, Roselle locked down defensively, and began to gradually chip away further at the deficit. The Hawks were able to keep the Rams at bay for a while, especially after the putback by Sorrell and the three pointer by Johnson for the 37-31 lead. However, JPS weren’t able to build off that run, and Roselle eventually overcame the deficit and won the game. With the victory, Roselle improved to 12-1 overall on the summer, and took on third seeded Union Catholic in the Championship Game.  Meanwhile, J.P. Stevens concluded the summer at 7-5.


Roselle Wins Championship On Three Point Play At 9.8, 48-46

It was an all Union County final as two rivals from the old Mountain Valley Conference squared off for the Championship of the 2011 Rahway Summer League.  With three Union County teams making it to the final four, and all three were the top seeded teams in the post-season, the odds were in the favor of the Union County Conference to have an all conference final.

With Rahway winning the title over Piscataway last summer, it is the second straight year that a UCC team has won this summer league.  Union Catholic got here by earning the third seed for the playoffs after posting a 7-2 record during the regular season including close wins over J.P. Stevens (50-47 in OT) and J.F. Kennedy (by four in OT).  The Vikings also cruised past A.L. Johnson earlier in the summer (74-51).  

After getting a first round bye in the post-season, Union Catholic, defeated Kennedy again in the quarterfinals on Thursday before knocking off second seeded Rahway in the first of two semifinals on Friday.  Meanwhile, Roselle, which finished the regular season at 11-1, earned the top seed.  After also getting a first round bye, the Rams had a bit of a struggle on their hands with eighth seeded A.L. Johnson before winning 65-61 on Thursday night.

The Rams struggled early on in its semifinal against fifth seeded J.P. Stevens, a team that they only beat by three about a month ago in the regular season (49-46).  Trailing 26-12 with 4:08 to go in the first half, Roselle limited the Hawks to only 11 points on five field goals including a three while outscoring Stevens by 19 over the last 24:08 for the 42-37 victory.  The Rams, which struggled at the line in both of their playoff games, enjoyed a huge 27-1 edge in free throw attempts, and a 14-0 edge in points scored at the line.

Like Stevens, the Vikes got off to a fast start in the Championship Game with an 11-4 run over the first five minutes.  However, Roselle settled down, and started to assert itself at both ends of the floor with a 9-3 spurt over the next 11 minutes to pull within one before UC made two free throws at the 3:30 mark, and got a layup a short time later for an 18-13 lead.  The Rams then shot themselves in the foot by missing two free throws at the 2:48 mark, and the Vikings took advantage with a score at the other end for a 20-13 lead with 2:30 left in the first half.

Roselle scored the next four points on two free throws at the 2:03 mark, and then a steal for a layup at the 1:30 mark to close within 20-17.  The Rams then had a chance to pull within one, but after getting the steal, they were called for traveling en route to the basket with 1:10 to go in the first half.  Both teams got breaks heading into the intermission as Union Catholic scored on a putback off a missed jumper from the right side with 12.7 seconds to go in the half, and Roselle got a three pointer from the left wing to bank in at the buzzer for a 22-20 UC lead at the half.

Giving up the first points of the second half to give Union Catholic a 24-20 lead, Roselle charged back with a 13-4 tear over the next 7:30 to take a 33-28 lead with twelve minutes to play.  The Rams continued to maintain that five point lead at 35-30 before the Vikings responded with a 12-6 spurt over the next nine minutes for a 42-41 lead on a layup with 2:59 remaining.  Roselle then turned the ball over in its own backcourt after getting a rebound, and Union Catholic capitalized on it with a layup at the 1:45 mark for a 44-41 lead.

The Vikings held on to the tenuous three point lead at 46-43 before Roselle got a basket while being fouled with about a minute left, and then converted a three point play with 9.8 seconds remaining for a 48-46 lead. Union Catholic had a chance to tie or take the lead, but a shot attempt and the follow both missed, and the ball went out of bounds to Roselle with 0.3 seconds remaining.  From there, the Rams were able to run out the clock for the 48-46 victory.  With the win, Roselle finished up the summer with a 13-1 record while UC ends up at 9-4.

GMC Hoops thanks Dunellen coach, Bernie Buniak, and the folks at Rahway for their assistance this summer.