TRENTON, NJ–Although the season came to somewhat of a disappointing end, the 2008-09 Immaculata Spartans still put together another surprising run through the state tournament to reach the semifinal round of the Tournament of Champions for the second consecutive year. Immaculata, which also won the regular season championship of the Delaware East Division of the Skyland Conference, and the Somerset County Tournament Championship over Ridge High School, finished the season with a 26-4 record including 15 straight victories.
Among those victories were wins over perennial powerhouse programs such as Don Bosco Prep of Ramsey, St. Joseph’s of Montvale, Seton Hall Prep, and CBA of Lincroft. Immaculata, which had a similar run into the Tournament of Champions Semifinals before losing to eventual champion St. Anthony’s of Jersey City, had lost two in a row including a defeat at the hands of St. Joseph’s of Metuchen in the 2009 Prime Time Shootout thanks to a solid performance by Nikko Vastola. Thanks to their fine run, the Spartans were rewarded a bye, and a second seed in this year’s T of C.
Immaculata had shutdown a CBA team that had taken a 27-10 lead in the first half, and eventual 58-48 victory against St. Joe’s of Metuchen in the semifnals of the Non-Public A South State Tournament at the Bird Cage back on March 7th. In addition to those quality wins in the states, Immaculata also defeated Scotch Plains, a team that had a fine run in the state tourney itself with a finals appearance in the North Jersey Section 2 Group III, where it was dethroned by Newark Shabazz, Irvington from the Watchung Conference, Ridge (twice), Notre Dame of Lawrenceville, Pennsauken, and Penn Charter.