RAHWAY, NJ–On Thursday night, playoff action resumed in the 2011 Rahway Summer League at Rahway High School. There were four quarterfinal games as all five of the top seeded teams joined the playoff action. Only one team from the Greater Middlesex Conference remains as we move on to the Final Four at RHS on Friday evening.
In two playoff games that weren’t covered by GMC Hoops, 11th seeded J.F. Kennedy lost to third seeded Union Catholic for the second time in eight days while 10th seeded Woodbridge lost to second seeded Rahway. Meanwhile, fifth seeded J.P. Stevens jumped out to a 17-6 led with 6:14 left to play, and then had to hold off a rally by fourth seeded Perth Amboy to advance to the semifinals with a 22-18 victory.
The Hawks will face top seeded Roselle, which defeated JPS 49-46 at the beginning of the month. The Running Rams had some difficulty with eighth seeded Johnson Regional, which jumped out to an early 8-2 lead, and hung tough for much of the contest before falling behind 61-48 with 2:43 left. Then, the Crusaders took advantage of poor free throw shooting by Roselle to put together a 10-0 spurt over the next two minutes to pull within three with under a minute to go. However, A.L. Johnson wasn’t able to get any closer as the Running Rams advanced, 65-61.
J.P. Stevens Hangs On To Defeat Amboy In Low Scoring Struggle, 22-18
In the first game of the quarterfinal quadrupleheader at Rahway High School on Thursday, two GMC Red teams squared off as fifth seeded J.P. Stevens took on fourth seeded Perth Amboy at 5:30 PM.
The Hawks were playing without Marvin Crawford while the Panthers were playing without David Rogers. Â The absence of Crawford didn’t affect J.P. Stevens early on. Â The Hawks scored the first nine points of the game, and didn’t let Amboy get on the board until the 8:22 mark of the first half.
Sahej Chowdary got layups at the 9:36 mark, and the six second mark while Sky Harris added a jumper at the 5:36 mark to maintain the seven point margin at 13-6 going into the intermission. Â The offenses continued to sleepwalk as neither team was able to get on the board until Harris broke the scoreless second half deadlock with a layup that got a kind bounce at the 13:12 mark.
The drought resumed after that for almost another seven minutes before Chowdary made a nice entry pass to John Maxham for a layup for a 17-6 lead with 6:14 remaining. Â Meanwhile, the Panthers really missed the veteran leadership of David Rogers. Amboy, which was nearly scoreless for the first twelve minutes of the first half, didn’t get on the board in the second half until they got a kind bounce on a floater with just inside six minutes to go. Â However, the Panthers press helped them get back into the ball game.
Stevens wouldn’t score for the next 5:04 while Amboy put on a dramatic rally that seemed to come out of nowhere. Â Over a span of 4:46, the Panthers reeled off nine unanswered points to pull within two at 17-15 with 1:33 remaining. Â The Hawks, which had trouble with Perth Amboy’s pressure throughout much of the game, caught a huge break when Brandon Ahmed hustled to save a crosscourt pass by Chowdary off a Perth Amboy player out of bounds with 1:22 to play.
Moments later, Ahmed was fouled on the floor, and made both ends of the bonus for a 19-15 lead with 1:10 to go. Â After Amboy called timeout at the 1:04 and 48.0 second marks, Ahmed came up with a big defensive play again when he stole a deflected pass, and was fouled with 41 seconds to go. Â He would miss the front end of the one and one, but the Panthers weren’t able to capitalize, and Harris was fouled after getting a rebound with 30.6 seconds to go for one of two free throws, and a 20-15 lead.
Perth Amboy wouldn’t give up though. Â The Panthers connected on a three pointer from the left corner for a 20-18 Stevens lead, and put pressure on the ensuing inbounds before fouling Harris with 12.7 seconds left. Â Harris sealed the victory by making both ends of the double bonus for a 22-18 victory. Â Harris ended up with 9 points in the victory for the Hawks while Chowdary chipped in with 6 points, and Ahmed added 5. Maxham also contributed with two points.
The Panthers, which only had one field goal for the first 24:01 of the game, ended up with more points in the final 5:59 of the game. Amboy only had five field goals including two threes while making 6 of 8 from the charity stripe. With the win, the Hawks advance to the semifinals on Friday to play top seeded Roselle at 6:30 PM. Â The winner of that game will face the winner of the other semifinal between Union Catholic and Rahway later on in the evening at 8:00 PM.
Late Rally By Crusaders Falls Short As Roselle Advances, 65-61
The eighth seeded Johnson Regional Crusaders of Clark earned the right to play top seeded Roselle in the finale of the quarterfinal quadrupleheader at Rahway High School on Thursday night.
The Roselle Rams were coming off a bye while A.L. Johnson defeated ninth seeded Dunellen in the opening round of the playoffs on Tuesday. Â Things looked promising early on for the Crusaders. Â Over the first three minutes or so of the game, Johnson jumped out to an 8-2 lead
However, Roselle began to dictate tempo and impose their will with a 19-6 tear over a span of about 10 minutes to take a 21-14 lead. Â The Rams, which won the regular season title with a 10-1 overall record, scored layups and connected on pull-up jumpers in transition to take control of the game offensively while the defense forced turnovers and put the Crusader offense in disarray.
Roselle’s first half tear came in two waves. Â The first wave lasted for a little more than four minutes as the Rams scored 13 of 17 points to take a 15-12 lead as Johnson called for time at the 12:43 mark. Â The timeout wasn’t the tonic for the Crusaders as their former Mountain Valley Conference rival, went on a 9-2 tear over a span of the next six and a half minutes to take a seven point lead.
Surprisingly though, Johnson Regional showed some resiliency by getting two quick scores over the next minute to pull within 21-18 as Roselle called for time with a little more than five minutes to go. Â Following the timeout, the Crusaders crept a bit closer with four of the next six points for a 23-22 Running Rams lead with 1:31 to play in the half. Â However, Roselle closed out the half with the final six points in lightning quick fashion for a 29-22 lead at the break.
After A.L. Johnson struck for a three pointer to open up the second half scoring, and pull within four at 29-25, Roselle scored 8 of the next 12 points for a 37-29 lead with 14 minutes left. Â The Rams then increased the lead to nine before the Crusaders struck for a three pointer to close the gap to 40-34 with 12:31 to play. Â On its next possession, Roselle drew a foul, and made one of two from the line for a 41-34 lead with 12:04 to go, but Johnson came back down to score a layup while being fouled for a traditional three point play anda 41-37 Roselle lead at the 11:31 mark.
The Crusaders clawed within three at 43-40 with less than nine minutes to go before Roselle got a layup at the 8:13 mark, and called for time with a 45-40 lead. Â Following the timeout, Johnson Regional got set up in their frontcourt, by the Rams stole the ball, and went in for a breakaway layup at the 7:47 mark. Â Roselle added two more transition layups for a 51-40 lead with 7:04 to play.
From there, Roselle tried continuing to pull away. Â Over the next 4:23, the Running Rams did what they did best, and ran. Â Roselle outscored Johnson by a 10-8 margin to take a 61-48 lead with 2:41 remaining. Â However, the Crusaders didn’t quit. Â With Roselle shooting 4 of 14 from the line in the final two and a half minutes, Johnson Regional rallied with a 10-0 tear to draw within 61-58 with 43.8 seconds to go. Â However, the Crusaders weren’t able to draw any closer as Roselle came away with the 65-61 victory.
With the victory the Rams improved to 11-1 on the summer, and will face fifth seeded J.P. Stevens in the semifinals on Friday at 6:30 PM. Johnson Regional finishes the summer at 4-8.