West’s Basket at 0:12 Helps Falcons Overcome Vikings
 |
| St. Joseph’s Letrell West was flying high against South Brunswick on Thursday night with a game high 17 points including the game winning shot with 12.5 seconds remaining in a 56-53 Falcons victory. |
MONMOUTH JUNCTION, NJ–It was a game that in the end lived up to its billing and then some. In one of the best games of the season to date, second ranked St. Joseph’s relatively young and inexperienced squad learned about itself in a Thursday night GMC Red showdown against third ranked South Brunswick.
After taking a seemingly commanding 36-21 halftime lead, the Falcons succumbed to a 28-7 surge by South Brunswick over the first 12:18 of the second half to fall behind 49-43. During that incredible Vikings run, St. Joe’s didn’t even score a field goal. All the Falcons had were 7 free throws during the stretch.
Somehow the Falcons found a way to win though. Sparked by a Richard Greaves layup at the 3:42 mark of the fourth, St. Joseph’s turned the tables on the Vikings with a 13-4 spurt to end the game including a dunk by Malachi Walker at the 2:16 mark, a layup by Greaves at the 0:53 mark, and the game winning shot by Letrell West with 12.5 seconds left for a 56-53 victory.
West, who along with Walker accounted for those seven Falcon free throws when things were at their darkest in the contest, finished with a game high 17 points while senior guard, Mike Granda, who bookended both the end of the first half, and the end of the game with a pair of free throws, chipped in with 15.
Greaves added 9 points while Tyree Taganeca-Ford contributed with 7. Walker finished with just 6 points, but he was huge on the glass with 10 rebounds and 4 blocked shots. Tavian Alford, who gave South Brunswick its first lead of the game since the first quarter when he ended the third with a layup for a 41-40 edge, led the Vikings in defeat with 11 points.
Chris James, who was a key part of the Vikings tremendous second half rally to get back into the game, chipped in with 9. Vic Huetz (8 points), Greg Lee (7 points), and Anthony Blakey (6 points) also contributed for South Brunswick. One of the big keys to St. Joseph’s win was their defensive work on Vikings leading scorer, Mike Ugarte. The Falcons limited the SBHS senior guard to just 5 points, thirteen below his average.
As a team, St. Joseph’s collected 25 rebounds, 13 assists, 12 steals, and 5 blocks. Eight different players scored for South Brunswick while seven just scored for St. Joe’s. Both teams each had five three pointers in the contest while South Brunswick enjoyed a 30-20 edge in points scored from within the arc. St. Joseph’s won the game with its free throw shooting by outscoring SBHS by a 19-8 margin at the charity stripe.
Granda led the way at the foul line by scoring 10 of his 16 points there while West had six of his points in the contest via the charity shot. St. Joseph’s outscored South Brunswick in three of the four quarters played including a 19-12 showing in the first and a 17-9 effort in the second to amass its 15 point halftime lead. The Falcons led at one point by 16 (32-16) late in the second period.
The game started out in a back and forth type of fashion. South Brunswick drew first blood on a reverse layup off a drive from the left side by Lee with about 15 seconds gone by. The Vikings had a chance to go up four, but Taganeca-Ford picked up a steal, dribbled upcourt, and dished to West for a layup to tie the game at 2-2 with about 7:15 remaining in the period.
South Brunswick did go back in front at 4-2 though on its next possession when they got the ball to Huetz for a layup from the left low block at about the 6:45 mark. St. Joseph’s then evened the score moments later on a short jumper from the left lane by Walker off a dish from Greaves with 6:30 remaining in the period. The Falcons then took their first lead of the game at 7-4 on a three by Taganeca-Ford at the six minute mark.
The Vikings then scored the next four points including a reverse layup by Huetz off a great bounce pass down the middle by James for an 8-7 lead with 5:30 to go in the first. St. Joseph’s then took over the game for the rest of the half by outscoring South Brunswick by a margin of 25-8 over the next 12 minutes or so. The surge began with nine unanswered points in a little over a minute and a half.
Highlighting the run was a layup from the right side by West at the 4:33 mark, and a three by Granda at the 3:53 mark for a 16-8 lead. Following a South Brunswick timeout, the Vikings responded by scoring the next four points including a layup by Ugarte at the 2:53 mark for a 16-12 Joes advantage, but the Falcons went back up by seven (19-12) at the end of the period after a three by Ford from the left wing.
Opening the second by scoring four of the first six points, South Brunswick drew within five again at 21-16 on a jumper from the left baseline by Tavian Alford at the 5:39 mark. St. Joseph’s responded by scoring 11 unanswered points including a three from the right wing by West at the 4:03 mark, and a trey by Greaves at the 2:05 mark for a 30-16 lead.
The Falcons then added another score to take its largest lead of the game before the Vikings scored 5 of the next 7 points including a traditional three point play by Lee with 21.3 seconds remaining in the second for a 34-21 St. Joe’s lead. Granda then drew a foul in the closing seconds of the half and made both his free throw attempts for a 36-21 St. Joseph’s lead going into the intermission.
On the verge of being blown out in its own gym, South Brunswick began to second half with a greater sense of urgency and determination to get back into the game. The result was a comeback for the ages. Led by James, who scored all 9 of his points in the third period on three treys, the Vikings outscored the Falcons by a 20-4 margin in the period to take the lead heading into the fourth.
Ugarte got things going when scored a layup from the left side as he was fouled for a three point play to pull the home team to within a dozen. Then, James connected on a three pointer from deep on the right wing to narrow the deficit to single digits at 36-27. After a free throw by West put St. Joe’s back up by ten, Blakey, who scored all six of his points during the third, netted a three from the left corner to close the gap to seven at 37-30 with 4:33 to play in the frame.
A little over a minute later, South Brunswick crept to within two possessions when James drilled a triple from the top of the key for a 37-33 St. Joseph’s lead with 3:29 to go in the quarter. Following a foul shot from Walker that put the Falcons back up by five, James struck again from almost the same spot on the the right wing as his first three to make it a two point game at 38-36 with 2:07 remaining in the third.
About a minute after that, and following two free throws from West for a 40-36 lead, Blakey struck again, but this time with a traditional three point play that closed the gap to one at 40-39. Alford then followed that up with a layup from the left side with time running out in the third for a 41-40 South Brunswick lead heading into the final period. The Vikings didn’t stop there either.
Instead, the Vikes scored 8 of the first 11 points of the period as Kunal Thakral got into the act by scoring all five of his points during the run. Thakral opened up the fourth quarter with a three from the left side of the key for a 44-40 lead, and then added a short jumper from the right baseline to help give South Brunswick its largest lead of the contest at 49-43 midway through the fourth.
With their backs to the wall, the St. Joseph’s Falcons showed some grit and character by coming up with a great rally of their own to win the game. Greaves sparked the final run by scoring on a layup off a backdoor cut and a nice bounce pass from Walker at the 3:42 mark. Granda then added two free throws before Walker took a bounce pass from West for a two handed jam to trim the deficit to two at 51-49 with 2:16 to go.
West then made one of two from the line to make it a one point game at 51-50, but Huetz gave South Brunswick some breathing room by making a pair from the charity stripe for a three point lead with about 1:15 remaining. Greaves then dribbled into the paint from the right side, and flipped up a layup to pull the Falcons within one again at 53-52 with 53 seconds remaining in regulation.
South Brunswick had a chance to give itself some much needed breathing room again when it drew a foul with 31.4 seconds to play. However, the Vikings were unable to capitalize as they missed the front end of a one and one. All of this set the stage for West, who dribbled into the St. Joseph’s frontcourt, went into the paint, lost the handle, regained it, and sank a jumper with 12.5 seconds to play for a 54-53 lead.
Following a Vikings timeout, SBHS inbounded the ball, brought the ball up towards the St. Joseph’s basket, but lost the ball out of bounds with 1.2 seconds to go. After. St. Joe’s called for time, the Falcons inbounded the ball to Granda, who was fouled with 0.9 seconds to go, and made both ends of the bonus for a 56-53 lead. South Brunswick had one more chance, but the shot was off the mark as time expired.
With the victory, St. Joseph’s improved to 10-0 overall including a 6-0 mark in the GMC Red. With Woodbridge losing to Sayreville in the other big showdown of the day on Thursday, the Falcons are likely to move into the top spot in the GMC Hoops Top Ten next week. Meanwhile, South Brunswick fell to 8-2 overall and 5-2 in divisional play with the loss.
Both teams will return to action on Saturday with South Brunswick taking on Bridgewater-Raritan in the Coaches vs. Cancer Shootout at Montgomery High School while St. Joe’s travels to take on Old Bridge in another key GMC Red match-up.