GMC Hoops Summary–Old Bridge Rallies To Defeat Monroe in OT, 66-56

Drews Leads Knights To Victory With 7 Points And Assist In Extra Session

MONROE, NJ–Coming into its game against Monroe on Friday night, Old Bridge was only 3-10 on the season.  However, the Knights had played in a lot of close games and experienced many heartbreaking defeats.  After having one of its most successful seasons in school history, which ended up with a first time berth in the GMCT Final Four, the Knights suffered a number of losses to graduation including big man Sultan Aminu, who is now playing Division II basketball at East Stroudsburg University.

There is still plenty of promise in these Knights though.  Their experience in close games paid off against the Monroe Falcons in a GMC Crossover clash on Friday night.  Trailing 36-26 late in the first half, Old Bridge outscored the Falcons by a 27-17 margin over the last 17 minutes or so of regulation, and then by a 13-3 margin in overtime to come up with a hard fought, 66-56 victory.  Senior Tyler Drews, who recently replaced Aminu as the all time leading scorer at OBHS, led the charge with 23 points including 7 in the extra session as well as an assist.

Bayonne transfer, Luis Cruz chipped in with 15 points while teammate Kasaun Figueroa added 10 points including the game tying putback with 3.6 seconds left in regulation.  Chris Germano led Monroe with 12 points while Tyler Salzer chipped in with 11 and David Okoh added 10 in a losing cause.  Old Bridge had 8 different players get into the scorebook including sophomores Connor Romano and Stephen Strom, who contributed with 8 and 6 points respectively.  Monroe had 7 different players get into the scoring column as Jair Davis contributed with 9 points while junior Matt Cocorikis had 7.  

Both teams had 21 field goals, but OBHS outscored MTHS by a margin of 24-12 from beyond the arc, and 8-6 from the foul line to get the victory.  Things didn’t look good for the Knights early on though.  After Old Bridge jumped out to an early 8-4 lead on threes by Drews and Kola Adeleye (3 points), Monroe took over as the Falcons took advantage of matchup problems Old Bridge had with junior forward Tyler Salzer, who posted up down low for scores and kicked out to the perimeter for threes, and even got beyond the arc for one himself.  As a result, the Falcons went on a 13-4 tear to take a 17-12 lead before Cruz netted a three to end the first quarter with Monroe up by two.

The second quarter saw the Falcons increased their advantage to nine with an 8-1 spurt over the first 2:18 of the period including a layup by forward David Matel-Okoh for a 25-16 lead as Old Bridge called for time at the 5:42 mark. Both teams then ended the half with an 11-11 tie as Monroe finished with three different players scoring 4 points in the stanza including Germano, Salzer, and Okoh.  Germano had 8 in the first half while Salzer added 7 for the Falcons.  Drews led the Knights with 8 while Cruz pitched in with 6.  Monroe maintained its lead for the most part in the third as Old Bridge was only able to shave one point of the deficit and trailed 46-38 heading into the fourth.

In the final frame of regulation, the Knights made their move by outscoring the Falcons by a 15-7 margin.  Four different players scored in the period for Old Bridge including Drews (4 points), Cruz (4 points), Romano (4 points), and Figueroa (3 points).  Figueroa sparked the fourth quarter rally with a three pointer, and then Romano followed that up with a layup to close the gap to 46-43 with 5:19 to go in regulation as Monroe called for time.  The Knights then added a score by Cruz to pull within one with 4:51 left.  Jair Davis gave the Falcons some breathing room by scoring on a leaner for a 48-45 lead with 3:24 remaining in the fourth as Old Bridge called timeout.

After the stoppage, Old Bridge went ahead for the first time since leading 8-6 in the first period when the Knights scored the next 6 points including the game tying layup by Cruz at the 2:31 mark, and then a steal for a layup by Drews with a little more than two minutes left for a 51-48 edge.  Monroe would answer though as Davis fired in a three from the right wing to tie the game up at 51-51 with 1:41 to go in regulation.  The Falcons then got a stop on defense, called timeout with 1:26 left, and went ahead 53-51 on a score by Cocorikis with 1:07 left in regulation.  OB would tie the game though as Figueroa scored on a putback with 3.6 seconds to go after the Knights got several offensive rebounds.

Monroe had a chance to win the game, but Chris Romano’s last second shot as off the mark as the buzzer sounded.  Then, in the extra session, Old Bridge blitzed the Falcons with a flurry of points in the first 1:09 as Romano and Cruz got layups, and then Drews drove thru the middle for another layup to put the Knights up 59-53 with 2:51 remaining.  Following a Monroe timeout, Drews drove to the basket for scores two more times to put the Knights up 63-53.  Drews completed his personal 7-0 run with a 1 of 2 showing from the foul line, and then dished out an assist on a layup by Figueroa to complete the Old Bridge scoring in the overtime.  Alex Infosino accounted for the only Monroe scoring with a three from the left side as Old Bridge came away with a 66-56 win.

With the victory, Old Bridge improved to 4-10 overall on the season including a 3-7 record in the GMC.  Monroe fell to 8-7 overall, and 7-5 in conference play.  With his 23 points, Drews came within a point of 1,300 for his career.  The Knights have played in 11 games decided by 10 points or less including 8 decided by 5 points or less, and two that went to overtime this season.  The Knights are only 3-8 in those games.