McNamara’s Layup At :02 Helps Bears Overcome Double Digit Deficit
MONROE, NJ–Midway through the first half, things weren’t looking good for the East Brunswick Bears. Â Trailing 21-6, EB was struggling to get its offense going, and the officials weren’t very sympathetic. Â Move Your Feet was taking advantage thanks to a putback and three pointer for its largest lead of the game at the 9:16 mark of the opening half. Â
The Bears would settle down and turn things around though as Nick Fudali connected on three treys to highlight a 16-10 run to end the half, and then EB shifted to full court pressure in the second half to force turnovers and produce easy baskets to eventually take the lead and ultimately win, 56-54 on a reverse layup by Tyler McNamara with two seconds left. Â The switch to full court pressure about midway through the second half was the turning point as McNamara, Billy Donahue, and Matt Salvent thrived off the turnovers with scores in the paint.
Trailing 38-25 with 14:54 left in the game after a couple layups by Move Your Feet, the Bears scored 9 of the next 15 points as Billy Donahue scored a couple of times in the paint, and Ryan Ward knocked in a three from the right wing to trim the deficit to six. Â East Brunswick continued to chip away at the deficit until it took its first lead of the game at 49-48 on a three point play by Tyler McNamara with 3:08 remaining. Â Brian Schuld then added a pull-up jumper for a three point lead at 51-48, but Move Your Feet tied the game back up on a three with 1:50 left.
Ryan Ward, who hit a three during the 24-10 surge that propelled the Bears to its first lead of the game with just over three minutes left, connected on another trey from the left corner off a kickout by Billy Donahue for a 54-51 lead, but once again, Move Your Feet would tie the game up on another three with 38.9 seconds remaining in regulation. Â The AAU squad then made a nice defensive play after kicking the ball out of bounds with 25 seconds left. Â The combination of the huge three, and the deflection out of bounds, Move Your Feet was sensing the momentum was shifting, and EB called timeout to settle things down, and set up one final play.
The Bears then inbounded the ball, and worked the clock until the final seconds when Matt Perel dribbled into the paint and dished to McNamara on the right side of the lane. Â The junior forward, then dribbled underneath the basket for a reverse layup with time running out. Â Move Your Feet inbounded the ball, and then tried to get off one last shot, but time ran out, and East Brunswick came away with the two point victory. Â Over the last 29:16 of the game, EB outscored Move Your Feet by a margin of 50-33 to win the game. Â The Bears had six threes in the contest, and had six different players score in the game. Â
With the win, East Brunswick, which won their season opener on March 28th over the Howell Rebels by the score of 70-31, improved to 2-0 on the spring, and will play next Thursday night, April 10th at 8:55 PM against Tune Squad Parr.