Bombers Overcome Four Point Deficit in Final Two Minutes to Edge Hawks
| Sayreville’s junior forward, Jahsim Floyd, skies for a putback dunk midway through the second quarter against J.P. Stevens. Floyd finished with 7 points including the game winning putback in a 45-43 victory. |
PARLIN, NJ–Since this past summer, the rivalry between 8th ranked J.P. Stevens and 5th ranked Sayreville has grown in intensity. At the 2015 Rahway Summer League, the Hawks and Bombers went at it in two thrilling contests. The first one saw Sayreville rally from a large first half deficit to defeat Stevens in overtime. Then, in the second game, JPS overcame a double digit first half deficit to defeat the Bombers to advance to the league’s championship game. Fast forward to the regular season, and Sayreville defeated Stevens in their first meeting in North Edison on a last second shot several weeks ago.
On Tuesday night, the Hawks and Bombers got together again for another classic. Early on, Sayreville had J.P. Stevens on the ropes. With the duo of Ryan O’Leary (10 first quarter points) and Elijah Clark (six first quarter points) combining to score 16 of the Bombers 18 points in the opening period, the home team took an 18-10 lead, and ended up leading 30-23 at the half. However, Stevens scratched and clawed its way back thanks to the trio of Mike Lionikis, Alex Corrigan, and Rishav Ghosh, who led a 20-9 showing over the first 14 minutes of the second half for a 43-39 lead with about two minutes to play.
Refusing to lose, the Bombers scored the last six points of the contest including a three point play by O’Leary to tie the game at the 40 second mark, and then after fighting to tie Stevens up on a loose ball, a putback by Floyd with 2.6 seconds to play for a 45-43 victory at a raucous Bomb Shelter on Tuesday night. O’Leary finished the contest with a game high 18 points including 15 in the first half. Floyd ended up with 7 points including a putback dunk midway through the second quarter while Clark had the dunk of the night when he drove in from the left wing to the baseline for a emphatic one handed slam for a 10-2 lead in the first quarter, and ended up with 11 points.
Stevens had three players in double figures including senior Mike Lionikis, who led the Hawks with 13, Alex Corrigan, who scored 11, and Rishav Ghosh, who added 10 including a couple key scores in the fourth quarter. Six different players scored for Sayreville while J.P. Stevens had only five. Both teams only made two threes in the contest, and the Hawks were a perfect 11 of 11 from the line while the Bombers were only 9 of 20 from the charity stripe. Sayreville managed to get the win thanks to a 30-26 edge in points scored from within the arc. Another key was the Bombers crashing the boards for the two clutch scores late.
Both O’Leary’s three point play to tie the game, and Floyd’s game winning putback were products of offensive rebounds. In addition, the Hawks had one player foul out and had more team fouls (14-11) while Sayreville was in the double bonus in the second half. The Bombers had a monsterous start in the first quarter by scoring all 18 of their points on 9 field goals. O’Leary had five of those field goals while Clark added three more. Both scored in a variety of ways from hitting jumpers to attacking the basket. Sayreville scored 6 of the first 8 points over the initial 3:20 of the opening period. O’Leary capped the run with a score while Clark netted a jumper from the left elbow to spark it.
A little less than a minute and a half later, the Bombers got scores from O’Leary and Clark again for a 10-2 advantage as Stevens called for time following Clark’s highlight reel dunk. J.P. Stevens tried to climb back into the contest with a jumper from Jay’von Blacknall, but O’Leary added several more scores while Clark added another bucket for an 18-10 lead going into the second. In the first 1:45 of the second, Stevens scored five of the first seven points including a three by Corrigan from the left side of the key and a baseline jumper by Lionikis to close the gap to 20-15. Sayreville got those four points back over the next 2:19 including a putback dunk by Floyd off a miss by O’Leary at the 3:56 mark for a 24-15 lead.
The Hawks replied quickly with a conventional three point play by Lionikis to pull within a half dozen again at 24-18 with 3:36 to play in the first half. The play sparked an 8-6 run to end the half by Stevens that also included a three pointer by Blacknall and a trey from sophomore reserve guard, Tyrese Conover before the buzzer to narrow the deficit to 30-23 at the intermission. At the intermission, Lionikis led the Hawks with 9 points while Blacknall chipped in with 5. O’Leary led the Bombers with 15 while Clark chipped in with 8. Stevens stepped up the defensive effort in the second half, and it showed as the Hawks limited O’Leary to no points for 15:20 of the final two periods. In addition to the tougher defense, the Hawks got additional scoring punch from Ghosh, who made several key baskets over the final two periods.
J.P. Stevens outscored Sayreville by an 8-4 margin in the third, with both teams scoring coming in the first 4:21 of the frame. The Hawks closed to within one possession at 34-31 on a score down low from Ghosh. The visitors from North Edison opened the fourth with another score down low from Ghosh off an entry pass feed from Blacknall to pull within one at 34-33 within the first minute of the final period. About a minute later, Lionikis put the Hawks in front at 35-34 by coming in from the left side of the floor to put up a floater over Floyd. Sayreville promptly responded with a three from the left corner by Clark at the 5:45 mark for a 37-35 edge. Stevens scored the next four points including a tip-in by Ghosh over Floyd, and a pull-up jumper by Corrigan for a 39-37 lead midway through the fourth.
Sayreville’s Junior Zach Alessi got into the scorebook when he was fouled on a loose ball near mid court, and made one of two from the line with 2:44 remaining for a 39-38 JPS lead. Stevens then scored four of the next five points including two free throws from Blacknall with under two minutes to play for a 43-39 lead. Sayreville, which only got six points combined from O’Leary and Clark in the second half, was in dire need of a score. Derek Astarita tried to make things happen, and drew a foul with about 40 seconds to go in regulation. He made the first foul shot, but missed the second. O’Leary then swooped in for the offensive rebound, put it back up and missed before putting back his own miss while being fouled. O’Leary made the bonus free throw to tie the game at 43-43.
On the Hawks’ next possession, Sayreville’s defense forced a loose ball, and in the scramble, the two teams got tied up for a jump ball. The Bombers got possession of the ball since it had the possession arrow. Following a timeout, Sayreville set up for the final shot. The Bombers worked the ball around, and got it to O’Leary, who drove around to the left side for a shot against two Stevens defenders. The attempt was off the mark, but Floyd was there to clean-up with a putback for a 45-43 lead with 2.6 seconds remaining. After a Stevens timeout, the Hawks tried to inbound the ball, and threw it down court, but they were unable to catch up to the pass, and the ball went out of bounds with 1.4 seconds left. Sayreville then inbounded the ball and ran out the clock for the 45-43 victory.
With the win, Sayreville improved to 14-4 overall including a 10-2 mark in the GMC White, which now places the Bombers in a first place tie with Colonia after the third ranked Patriots were upset by Monroe. Meanwhile, J.P. Stevens dropped to 9-7 overall including a 7-5 mark in divisional play with the loss. Both teams will be in action on Thursday night with Sayreville traveling to New Brunswick for a 5:30 PM game while the Hawks will be hosting Edison at Hawks Nation in North Edison at 7:00 PM.