Falcons Soar in 2nd Half Behind Battle, Vujadinovic, and Frink
| St. Joseph’s senior guard, Bree Tyree goes into orbit for a one handed slam that set the tone early in the Falcons 75-53 win over EB. |
METUCHEN, NJ–One of the keys in the GMC Red showdown game between top ranked St. Joseph’s and second ranked East Brunswick was how well the Bears could keep up with the Falcons. Could EB prevent Joes from going on a huge run to put the game out of reach like it had done the previous two years that the two teams have gotten together at the Maglio Gymnasium? For two and a half quarters, it appeared EB had answered that question in the affirmative. Leading 37-36 with under five minutes to go in the third, St. Joe’s seemed to be on its way to yet another barnburner.
However, the Falcons put together another huge third quarter run to put the Bears away at home for the third straight year. Over the last four minutes of the third, St. Joseph’s scored 16 of the last 18 points to take a 53-38 lead into the fourth, and then outscored East Brunswick by a 22-15 margin in the final period to come away with a lopsided 75-53 win at home against its arch rival for the third straight year. Senior Tyus Battle, who had 21 points in the Tuesday night win over Old Bridge, turned in perhaps his best performance of the year with 28 points including 16 in the first half to lead the Falcons. Branislav Vujadinovic also came up big with 13 points including a three in the first half and a three point play in the second half. St. Anthony’s transfer, Alanzo Frink, chipped in with 11 points including 9 in the fourth quarter while freshman, Khalif Battle ended up with 8 points including two threes.
Bree Tyree only had 6 points in the contest, but four of those came on two thunderous one handed dunks. One came in the first quarter to give St. Joe’s a 4-2 lead, and most importantly, set the tone for the evening. The second came in the third quarter. The Falcons had 9 different players score in the game while East Brunswick only had five different players get into the scorebook. Most of the Bears scoring came from the senior trio of Addis Ralph (19 points), Mike Vick (17 points), and Matt Ross (12 points), who accounted for 48 of the team’s 53 points. St. Joseph’s scored its 75 points on 20 field goals, 6 threes, and 17 of 22 from the foul line. EB got its 53 points on 15 field goals, 5 threes, and 8 of 15 from the line. The Falcons outscored the Bears by an 18-15 margin from beyond the arc and a 17-8 margin from the foul line. Joes outscored East Brunswick in each quarter.
East Brunswick fought valiantly for the first 20 or so minutes of the game. Led by the play of Ralph and Vick, the Bears rallied from an early 8-2 hole with a 13-5 spurt over a span of about five minutes to take a 15-13 lead late in the period before Battle netted a three pointer from the right corner in the waning moments of the first for a 16-15 Falcons lead after one. EB then opened the second with 5 of the first 7 points including a three from the right wing by Vick at the 5:33 mark for a 20-18 lead. Joes then regained the lead and control of the contest with a 14-4 tear over a span of 5:03 including a three from the right side by Vujadinovic at the 3:32 mark, and another trey by Khalif Battle at the 1:06 mark to take a 32-24 lead before Ralph threw down a one handed dunk as he was fouled to close the gap to 32-27 with 30 seconds remaining in the half. The score remained that way as the two teams went into their respective locker rooms. Both Ralph and Vick had 11 points for the Bears while Battle led the Falcons with 16 and Vujadinovic chipped in with 7.
The two teams went at it for a while in the third with EB chipping away a bit more at the deficit by scoring 9 of the first 14 points of the second half to pull within one. St. Joseph’s then got a three pointer to go up 40-36 at the 3:57 mark of the third, and then reeled off 13 of the next 15 points including a three point play by Vujadinovic at the 2:07 mark, and a three from the left corner by Khalif Battle at the 1:02 mark for a 53-38 lead after three. In the fourth, the Falcons picked up right where they left off in the third by scoring 7 of the first 12 points of the final period including a putback by Frink to take a 60-43 lead at the 5:59 mark. East Brunswick then tried to climb back into the contest with 6 of the next 8 points including a four point play by Matt Ross and a coast to coast layup by Vick that closed the gap to 62-49 with 4:29 remaining. EB wasn’t able to get any closer though after that. Instead, St. Joseph’s put the game out of reach with 7 of the next 8 points as it spread the floor out, and worked the ball into Frink, who picked up a three point play at the 3:23 mark to cap the run, and put the Falcons up 69-50.
St. Joseph’s then finished the game by scoring 6 of the last 9 points of the contest for the 22 point victory to improve to 7-1 overall on the season and 4-0 in the GMC Red. East Brunswick, which was playing its first game since defeating West Windsor-Plainsboro South on day two of the Brunswick-Windsor Classic on December 30th, dropped to 4-1 overall and 2-1 in divisional play. Both teams return to action on Saturday as East Brunswick hosts Woodbridge and St. Joseph’s takes on Westfield in the SFIC Festival at Kean University’s Harwood Arena.