Raiders Overcome Slow Start to Defeat Trojans in GMC Crossover
| North Brunswick’s Francis Omowole fires up a three point shot in the first half against Bishop Ahr on Monday night. North Brunswick won, 63-48. |
NORTH BRUNSWICK, NJ–Old foes from the Greater Middlesex Conference’s White Division in past years opened up the new year with GMC crossover contest in the newly refurbished NBTHS gym on Monday night. Bishop Ahr, now in the GMC’s Blue Division, jumped out to a 7-0 lead as sophomore Alex Santiago netted a three pointer and added another basket during the early run. North Brunswick, now in the GMC Red, had to fight through its early struggles, but behind junior guard, Francis Omowole and senior guard, Pranay Bhandare, the Raiders finished the half with a 33-18 surge over the last 13:39 to take an eight point lead at the intermission, and then continued to pull away in the second half with a 30-23 showing for a 63-48 victory.
Omowole, who scored 13 points in the opening night loss at East Brunswick, scored 12 of his points in the first half, and ended up with a team high 21 points while Bhandare added 15 to lead the Raiders. Elijah Hicks also chipped in with 8 points. Bishop Ahr was led by junior Sean Kudelka, who not only scored a game high 22 points, but also had several blocks and charges as he played perhaps the most complete game of his career. Santiago chipped in with 13 points for the Trojans. The game had a bit of a fast tempo pace, which didn’t seem to bother Ahr at first. The Trojans were able to break North Brunswick’s pressure, and cash in on early scoring opportunities while the Raiders had difficulty getting shots to fall including several from the perimeter that went in and out.
NBTHS wasn’t able to get on the board until the 3:19 mark of the first period on a putback by Hicks, but it was eventually able to climb back into the game by period’s end despite Ahr still clinging to a 12-11 lead thanks to a layup late in the frame by senior guard, Corey Ciszek (5 points). However, the Raiders seized control of the game for good after opening up the second with a 10-3 spurt over the initial 3:29. Bhandare, who had a three pointer in the first period to help North Brunswick climb back into the contest, drilled another trey from the right wing for a 21-15 lead with just over four and a half minutes remaining in the half. Bhandare struck again a little less than a minute and a half later when he knocked down another trifecta from the left wing for a 24-15 lead at the 3:11 mark.
Ahr would outscore NBTHS by a 10-9 margin the rest of the way, but the Raiders nearly outscored the Trojans by a two to one margin over a span of over 13 and a half minutes to take an eight point lead at the break. The trio of Omowole (12 points), Bhandare (9 points), and Hicks (8 points) accounted for 29 of North Brunswick’s 33 first half points as well as all 6 threes through the first two periods. The Raiders outscored Ahr by an 18-9 margin from beyond the arc. Five different players scored for both North Brunswick and Bishop Ahr, which was led by Kudelka with 11 points in the first half. The second half got off to a bit of a quiet start with both teams combining for only two points in the first two plus minutes before Ahr called time with 5:53 left in the third and trailing 35-25.
Over the next 3:16, North Brunswick was able to expand its lead for a bit by scoring 5 of the next 9 points including a putback by senior forward, Bryjon Smith at the 2:37 mark for a 40-29 lead. Ahr was able to pull within single digits at 40-32 on a three pointer before a NBTHS player was injured and had to leave the game with 1:01 remaining in the third. Thanks to a three from the top of the key by Basit Khan, the Raiders were able to push their lead back to 11 at 43-32 as the two teams entered the fourth quarter. Ahr cut the lead back to eight within the first minute of the fourth, but Khan responded with a mid-range baseline jumper from the left side at the 6:33 mark for a 45-35 North Brunswick lead. Despite a score by Santiago for Ahr, NBTHS was still able to maintain its double digit lead at 51-41 with 2:54 remaining.
The BGA then scored 4 of the next 6 points including a transition layup by Santiago that closed the gap to 53-45 with 2:10 to play. Unfortunately, Ahr was unable to get any closer than that the rest of the way as North Brunswick closed the game on a 10-3 run that included an easy layup by Omowole with 51.1 seconds to play following a back and forth sequence by both teams. With the victory, North Brunswick, evened its record to 3-3 overall while improving to 2-2 in conference play. Meanwhile, Bishop Ahr fell to 2-3 overall and 1-1 in the GMC. North Brunswick was back in action in the Red Division on Tuesday night against South Brunswick while Ahr hosts Hackettstown of the Northwest Jersey Athletic Conference on Wednesday night.