Titans Withstand Several Charges By Jersey Blues To Win Fourth Of The Year
LINCROFT, NJ–On Thursday night, GMC Hoops took a trip down Route 35 South to Monmouth County to see the Jersey Blues of Brookdale Community College take on the County College of Morris in a game from the Garden State Athletic Conference and Region XIX of the JUCO ranks. Two players from the Greater Middlesex Conference have moved on to play at Brookdale including Khalil Bennett of Old Bridge and Jonard Hall of Dunellen.
Brookdale comes into the game with a record of 2-2 thanks to two close losses to Delaware Tech-Stanton (78-74) and Gloucester County College (62-61). The two wins for the Jersey Blues were against DeVry and Atlantic-Cape Community College (69-50). Meanwhile, the Titans of the County College of Morris are 3-2 so far this season with victories over Bergen Community College (79-72 OT) and Essex County College (74-68).
Jarrel Blalock leads CCM with a 19.5 points per game average in two games played while Damon Garrett has chipped in with an average of 15 points per game in all four games played. Mikel Rossignol has also contributed with a 14.3 points per game average in four contests played. Kamil Rutkowski has added an 11.5 points per game average in two games played. The Titans have scored an average of 75.4 points per game while giving up an average of 71.2 points per game. Brookdale is averaging 69.3 points per contest while giving up an average of 63.3 points per game.
Looking at the Region XIX standings, Bergen Community College and Northampton Community College are both 3-2 while Passaic County College is 2-2 overall in Division III. However, the standings aren’t up to date at the moment. Moving over to Division II, Harcum Community College in Pennsylvania is 4-1 while Lackawanna is 3-2. Raritan Valley Community College is 2-2. Harcum has two former GMC players in Colonia’s Kevin Edmonds and Piscataway’s Tristan Benjamin. Raritan Valley has former P-Way standout Antoine Beverly, and it will be playing Lackawanna next Thursday in a game that will be covered by GMC Hoops. Lackawanna defeated CCM 98-84 two days ago.
Preceeding the men’s game was the women’s contest between the same two schools. Brookdale jumped out to a 21-6 late in the first half, and led 22-8 at the intermission. Then, in the second half, the Lady Jersey Blues rolled with a 54-31 showing in the final 20 minutes for a 76-39 victory over CCM. Both Hall and Bennett started for Brookdale. The Titans jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first 2:21 on a one of two showing from the foul line at the 18:30 mark followed by a three pointer from the left wing with under 18 minutes to play in the first half. The Jersey Blues rallied back though with a layin at the 16:54 mark, and then a three pointer at the 15:38 mark by James Stanback for a 5-4 lead.
The game continued to swing back and forth with CCM taking a 6-5 lead on its next possession, but Brookdale came right back with a score for a 7-6 lead at the 14:45 mark. The Titans then took a 9-7 lead on a three pointer with 14:15 to go in the first half. Then, Jim Griffith drove in for a layup at the 13:02 mark for an 11-7 CCM edge. The Jersey Blues got back on the board when Tunell Polk scored on a layup at the 12:11 mark to close the gap to 11-9. The Titans came back down on its next possession, and got two free throws at the 11:53 mark by Anthony Tobar. CCM then scored the next four points for a 9-2 run, and a 15-9 lead as Brookdale called for a 30 second timeout at the 10:45 mark.
Following the timeout, the Titans reeled off the next five points including a three pointer for a 20-9 lead before Polk made one of two from the line for a 20-10 score with 7:30 left in the half as CCM called for a 30 second timeout. Over the next 3:30 the Jersey Blues rallied with an 8-4 run that included a Sean Dowd basket at the six minute mark, Hall’s first points of the game on a jumper from the right elbow, and two free throws by Bennett for his first points of the contest at the four minute mark for a 24-18 CCM lead. The Titans only got one field goal during the stretch with the other points coming on two free throws at the 5:37 mark. CCM then made one of two from the line at the 3:31 mark for a 25-18 lead. Exactly a half minute later, the Titans got a conventional three point play to go up by ten at 28-18 with 3:01 left in the half.
Brookdale wouldn’t go away though as the Jersey Blues put together another 8-4 run including two more free throws by Bennett, a layup by Polk, and an alleyoop dunk by Polk to pull within six at 32-26 with under a minute to go in the first half, but CCM closed the first period with the final six points for a 38-26 lead going into the intermission. After 20 minutes of play, our two GMC representatives were in the books as Bennett had four points on a perfect 4 of 4 from the line while Hall had two points for BCC. The second half didn’t start out that well for the Jersey Blue. The Titans scored six of the first seven points of the half including a basket while drawing a third foul on Hall for a 44-27 lead with 17:05 remaining.
Over the next 3:34, CCM continued to stretch its advantage with a 7-3 spurt including two free throws at the 13:31 mark for a 51-30 lead. Foul problems continued to mount for Brookdale as Bennett picked up his fourth of the game with 14:34 to play. The Jersey Blues continued to battle though as Lance Walker scored on a layup, and Chris Jetter hit a short jumper for a 51-34 CCM lead as the Titans called for time at the 12:25 mark. Brookdale hung tough though with three more points as Hall went 3 of 4 from the line to close the gap to 51-37 with about 10 minutes to play, but the Titans scored a three pointer from the right corner for a 54-37 lead, and then got a layup for a 56-37 lead with eight minutes to play as CCM called for time.
After the timeout, Brookdale got a three pointer, and then caught a break as CCM missed two from the line at the 7:33 mark. Bennett got back on the board with one of two from the line at the 7:20 mark for a 56-41 CCM lead. The Titans kept the pressure on as they got a steal, and drew a fourth foul on Hall at the 6:55 mark, which resulted in a one of two showing from the line for a 57-41 advantage. Bennett, who had drawn a charge during this stretch, attempted to do the same, but fouled out of the game with 6:09 to go. The County College of Morris then made both shots from the line for a 59-41 lead. Over the next 1:49 Brookdale rallied with six straight points including a jumper by Polk, and back to back layups in a span of seconds to close the gap to 59-47 with 4:20 to go as CCM called timeout.
Following the stoppage, Brookdale applied some pressure that produced a CCM turnover, and Polk converted with a basket as he was fouled, but missed the bonus free throw for a 59-49 Titans lead. However, the home team couldn’t get any closer. The Titans scored seven of the next nine points for a 66-51 lead with under two minutes to go before Polk got a feed inside for a two handed jam, and Anthony Lopez sank a three pointer from the left corner for a 66-56 score at the 49.5 second mark. Brookdale had several additional opportunities to score during the span, but couldn’t convert. The Titans eventually went on to win by a final score of 69-58. With the victory, the Titans improved to 4-2 on the season while Brookdale dropped to 2-3. Both Bennett and Hall scored six points each as the Old Bridge standout went 6 of 7 from the line while Hall had a field goal, and went 4 of 6 from the charity stripe.
GMC Hoops will wrap up its college hoops coverage for the week on Friday with a trip out to East Stroudsburg University to see Felician College take on Shippensburg in a tournament there.