Destroyers Fall On Last Second Shot, 69-68
DUNELLEN, NJ—Dunellen (1-4), the home team, and three time defending champion of this tournament went up against the undefeated Princeton Day Panthers at 7-0. The hometown Destroyers hoping for a rematch with Middlesex, which won earlier, for the fourth consecutive time, raced out to an early lead en route to winning the first quarter 22-10. Princeton Day looked sloppy and unbalanced as nearly all of the points came from guard Joe Rogers and center C.J. Martino.
Princeton Day would start on the long road back with help from streaky shooter Kenny Hokmammer and AJ Robens good fundamental play. Nevertheless Dunellen took a 6 point advantage and momentum into halftime with Mundy being virtually unstoppable in the low post and Wenzel showing good size and power.
The third quarter would see Day whittle the lead from six to zero and briefly take the lead after a Mike Shimkin three. But Dunellen would take most of the momentum heading into the forth quarter where it stayed 51-51 until the third minute where the Destroyers pushed ahead to a 55-51 lead. Both teams traded scores with Dunellen’s mostly from the post and Princeton Day scoring mostly from the perimeter and their transition game. When the score was 66-64, Eric Orellana was intentionally fouled by Hokmammer with less then a minute to go. Orellana missed the first shot and made the second which still kept it a one possession game with Princeton Day inbounding the ball off a timeout used.
Robens sent it in to Farina who gave it back to Robens near but beyond the mid-court line. Rogers then recieved the pass from Robens and drained an off balance three while being fouled by Eric Orellana which tied the game at 67-67. Rogers hit the free throw that completed the four point play and sent the PDS cheering fans into an euphoria. That would be short lived as T.J. Wenzel bounced a pass into the paint that Mundy would convert with about 15 seconds left. Day brought the ball up and Hokmanner forced it into Rogers and he tried to advance it closer to the basket, finally settling for a fade-away that hit the twine with about a second left. After a discussion that had the game clock moved up to 2.5 left Wenzel inbounded the ball up to Moncada who sent it along to Nick Francisco, whose hail mary half court shot missed by millimeters as it rimmed out.
With the victory, Princeton Day improved to 8-0 overall, and advanced to the Championship Game against Middlesex while Dunellen falls to 1-5, and will face Manville in the Consolation on Saturday. Take a look at the box score, three stars of the game, and team statistics.
Scorecard
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final |
| Princeton Day (8-0) | 10 | 22 | 19 | 18 | 69 |
| Dunellen (1-5) | 22 | 16 | 13 | 17 | 68 |
Three Stars of The Game
Joe Rogers – Pretty much kept Princeton Day on life support in the first half and was calm, cool and clutch in the final half minute of the game scoring 6 points and turning two deficits into advantages.
Brock Mundy – One man wrecking crew down low led all with thirty points including the basket that gave Dunellen a 68-67 lead. However ill-fated, Mundy played with passion and used his strength advanatge to overpower the P/T who couldnt match up with him.
T.J. Wenzel – Day seemed to have no answer form him. With 18 points and 11 rebounds and 6 assists plus 2 steals he had a very good all around game. The DHS football quarterback did a good job spreading the ball around and feeding Mundy in good position in the post
Team Statistics
| # | Dunellen | Points | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Fouls | Blocks |
| 31 | T.J. Wenzel | 17 | 11 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| 3 | Jim Schleppenbach | 7 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 12 | Matt Ciafrone | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 41 | Brock Mundy | 30 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| 5 | Nick Francisco | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 4 | Pedro Moncada | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| 11 | Dan Borge | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 24 | Jonard Hall | 2 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 15 | Eric Orellana | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| 2 | Rembert Armistad | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Â | Totals | 68 | 26 | 14 | 11 | 13 | 0 |
| # | Princeton Day | Points | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Fouls | Blocks |
| 5 | Joe Rogers | 29 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | Kenny Holkammer | 11 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 0 |
| 10 | A.J. Robens | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| 13 | C.J. Martino | 14 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| 20 | Anthony Farina | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 21 | Mike Shimkin | 8 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 | Dylan Kelly | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 40 | Eran Quinn | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 24 | Mike Oiorunnisob | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | Justin Shedel | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 23 | Chris Bonnaig | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 69 | 24 | 8 | 10 | 11 | 0 |