Santoro’s Seven Threes and Romano’s Last Second Layin Lifts Knights Past Mariners
NEPTUNE, NJ–With the graduation of the school’s all time leading scorer in Tyler Drews, who is now attending D2 Caldwell College along with the departures of Kasaun Figueroa and Kola Adeleye, the Old Bridge Knights are looking to a group of talented juniors to pick up the slack. This junior class is capable of doing great things. As freshmen at Old Bridge, they defeated North Brunswick in the 2013 Perth Amboy/GMC Freshmen Tournament Championship. Last year, sharpshooters Stephen Strom and Connor Romano benefited from the playmaking ability of Drews while Luis Cruz, another junior, transferred in from Bayonne to provide additional scoring punch.
This year though, more newcomers will be needed to contribute. Enter C.J. Santoro, another member of the talented junior class at Old Bridge, who contributed to the Amboy Frosh Tourney title two years ago. On Monday night against Shore Conference Class A South Division foe, Toms River North, Santoro put in an amazing performance with 7 three pointers and another jumper for 23 points. Among those seven threes were two treys that tied the game late in the second half. The first one knotted the game at 46-46 with 3:43 remaining. Then, the second one tied the contest at 50-50 with 34.8 seconds to go, and set the stage for Romano’s last second heroics. Following a Toms River North turnover and an Old Bridge timeout with 10.8 seconds to go, Romano went the length of the floor and scored on a layin with 5.3 seconds left to give the Knights a come from behind, 52-50 victory over the Mariners to remain undefeated on the fall at the Hoop Group Headquarters.
Things didn’t look good early on for the Knights. In a game that saw more than its share of three pointers, Toms River North swished several of them early on in the first half to help break a 5-5 tie at the 17:38 mark, and eventually extend the lead to 24-14 at the 5:10 mark on a 11-2 spurt over a span of 8:55. Santoro did his best to keep the Knights in it with one of his two first half threes at the 14:05 mark, Kyle Parris added a layup and Strom made two free throws to account for the only Old Bridge scoring in almost 9 minutes. Trailing 24-14, OBHS got a putback by Parris at the 4:47 mark and then two free throws by Cruz with 3:30 left in the half to draw within six at 24-18. Toms River North would go back up by double digits heading into halftime though thanks to a four point play at the two minute mark as a Mariner player was fouled on a three pointer from the right wing. Both teams had chances to score in the final seconds of the first half, but were unable to as TRN went into the intermission ahead, 28-18.
Old Bridge opened the second half with the first five points including a three by Santoro from the top of the key at the 18:43 mark, and then a putback at the 17:16 mark to narrow the deficit to 28-23 as Toms River North called timeout. Following the timeout, the Mariners got going again with a 10-3 run over the next 3:46 for its largest lead of the game at 38-26 with 13:30 remaining. Highlighting the run were back to back scores prior to a free throw by Cruz at the 14:15 mark, and then a three from the left wing at the 13:30 mark. The Knights managed to hang in there though thanks to the efforts of Santoro, who fired in five threes in the final 20 minutes. After TRN netted a trey of its own to take a 40-29 advantage, Santoro brought the deficit back down to single digits again with a trifecta from the top of the key at the 12:08 mark. He wasn’t finished there either.
After the Knights scored 4 of the next 7 points to trim the deficit further to 43-36, Santoro knocked in another three from the right wing at the 6:03 mark to pull OBHS within four at 43-39. The Knights then added a layup at the 5:37 mark to pull within a bucket, but the Mariners replied by hitting a three for a 46-41 lead with 5:18 to go. There was a lull of a little more than two and a half minutes before Santoro struck again with a triple from the right side to knot the game at 46-46 with 3:43 remaining. Over the next 2:49, Toms River North appeared to get some breathing room and retake control of the game by scoring 4 of the next 5 points for a 50-47 lead at the 54 second mark, but the Knights wouldn’t go away. Instead, Santoro put them right back into the contest with another three from the right side with 34.8 seconds to go. Toms River North had a chance to hold for the last shot and win the game, but turned it over with under 11 seconds to go. After Old Bridge called timeout, the Knights inbounded the ball, and got it to Romano, who drove the rest of the way for the winning basket.
With the victory, Old Bridge improves to 3-0 on the fall. The Knights have defeated Jackson Memorial and Donovan Catholic as well as Toms River North. Old Bridge will be back in action for Week #4 at the HGHQ Fall League on Monday night when it takes on Long Branch over at the Hoop Group Court at 8:00 PM.