South River Breaks Away with 10-0 Start to 3rd for 59-42 Victory
SOUTH RIVER, NJ—In the two previous meetings between South River and Highland Park, the Rams had scored an average of 71 points, and won each contest by nearly 30 points. Couple that with the fact that the Owls big man, Daniel Starcevic, was unable to play due to injury, and the odds weren’t in favor of 23rd seeded Highland Park making much of a game this time around either.
However, the Owls were determined to change the script this time when it traveled to play 10th seeded South River in a late afternoon tilt in the 2022 GMCT Preliminary Round on Tuesday. Coming off its first GMCT win in 10 years, Highland Park continued to play inspired basketball thanks to the play of senior guard duo of Ewan Haley-Lock and Matt Brozozowski.
After combining to score 37 of Highland Park’s 42 points in its GMCT Play-In round victory over 26th seeded South Amboy on Saturday, the two were back at it again to generate 24 points, 4 threes, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, and 8 steals. The result was a much more difficult contest for the Rams, who were looking to reach the GMCT Quarterfinals for the first time since 1991.
Leading only 17-13 after one, and 28-24 at the intermission, the Rams needed a 10-0 start to the third quarter to put some distance between themselves and the Owls. Even after that, Highland Park wouldn’t go away easily as they still trailed by single digits late in the third before South River finally pulled away for a 59-42 victory.
Junior forward, Lazaro Rodriguez led the way for the victors with a game high 15 points along with 11 rebounds for a double-double. Rodriguez, who scored 7 of those points from the foul line, also collected 2 assists and a block. Chipping in was freshman Alex Grospe, who added 13 points including two threes, 5 steals, 4 assists, and a rebound.
Darren Barberio, a junior guard, who scored a career high 24 points including 17 alone in the 2nd quarter in an 81-55 win over the Owls in South River’s 2020-21 season finale last March 6th, also scored in double figures with 10 points along with 2 rebounds and an assist. Junior big man, Roman Santos added 8 points, 2 rebounds, 2 steals, and an assist while Jeremy Grospe netted two threes for 6 points as well as 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and a steal.
Kobe Taylor (5 points and 5 rebounds) and Gavin Franco (2 points) rounded out the Rams scoring. Meanwhile, Haley-Lock led Highland Park with a team high 13 points including two first quarter threes while also collecting 4 assists, 3 steals, and a rebound. Brozozowski chipped in with 11 points, 6 boards, 5 steals, and an assist. Skyler Mack (8 points, 2 rebounds, an assist, and a steal) and Faizon Morris (8 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists) combined for 16 points while Robin Pestka rounded out the Owls scoring with two points scored in the game’s final minute.
While Highland Park enjoyed a 22-18 edge in points scored within the arc, South River was able to win the game via the combination of more points from beyond the arc (21-12) and from the foul line (16-6). Most of those points at the line came in the fourth quarter when the Rams took advantage of getting into the bonus. South River also held edges in rebounds (25-19) and blocks (1-0).
The Owls, which had a 13-11 edge in assists and an 11-8 edge in steals, trailed 12-7 with 2:15 left in the first quarter as Barberio struck early and often as he did last year for South River. Haley-Lock then kept the Owls within striking distance as he connected on a three from the left wing to close the gap to 12-10 at the 1:39 mark.
Following a Rodriguez score on an and one for a conventional three point play, and a 15-10 lead, Haley-Lock struck again for three from the right corner to pull Highland Park within two once more at 15-13 with 41 seconds left in the first period. South River utilized some great teamwork and passing by Taylor and Santos to set up Rodriguez for a layup from the left lane to close out the first period scoring with a 17-13 lead.
South River was unable to pull away from Highland Park though. Instead, the Owls managed to match the Rams point for point in the 2nd as the frame ended in an 11-11 tie for a 28-24 Rams lead at halftime. The Rams scored 6 of the first 9 points of the second as Taylor, Santos, and Alex Grospe all scored on layups while Brozozowski answered with 3 of 4 from the line for the Owls to make the score 23-16.
Highland Park would battle back to narrow the deficit back down to four by the end of the first half though with an 8-5 rally. Highlighting the rally were two scores each by Morris and Mack including an and one by the latter at the 1:23 mark that drew a great deal of enthusiasm from Owls bench, especially head coach Kambui Little as his team surprising only trailed their heavily favored opponent by two scores going into the break.
Unfortunately, the Owls were unable to get closer as they were outscored by the Rams, 31-18 over the final two periods. South River opened the third with a crucial 10-0 run sparked by two free throws from Rodriguez, and highlighted by a layup and a three from the left wing by Alex Grospe before older brother Jeremy Grospe capped the spurt with a three of his own from the right side to make the score 38-24 with less than two minutes gone by in the second half.
Not giving up, the Owls tried to climb back into the contest by scoring 8 of the next 11 points to pull within single digits again at 41-32, but the Rams scored 4 of the last 6 including a layup from the left side by Santos to take a 45-34 lead into the fourth quarter. South River then scored the first 7 points of the fourth to increase its lead to 52-34 with 3:35 remaining.
Rodriguez then gave South River its largest lead of the contest at 56-36 when he got the ball on the left wing from Santos, and drove to his right across the paint for a right handed layup with 2:32 left in the fourth. The Rams got the rest from the foul line while Pestka and Morris scored in the final minute of play for the Owls to close out the scoring in the Rams’ 59-42 victory.
With the win, South River improved to 17-4 overall on the season including a 13-2 record in conference, and advance to the GMCT First Round or Round of 16 on Thursday where they will take on Blue Division rival and 7th seeded South Plainfield at Cotoia Gymnasium at 5:30 PM. Meanwhile, Highland Park fell to 5-15 overall including a 5-11 mark in the GMC, and will host Henry Hudson in a non-conference game on Wednesday at 6:00 PM.