Owls Score Last Four Points Including 2 FTs at 54.5 for Win
Union County College guard, and former Union Catholic standout, Robert Miller goes up for a shot between several Brookdale defenders early in the 2nd half of the GSAC match-up between the Owls and the Jersey Blues in Lincroft on Thursday night. Miller connected on a floater with under two minutes to play to spark UCC to a come from behind, 55-53 victory.
LINCROFT, NJ—Following Tuesday night’s tough loss at home to Middlesex County College, Union County College had lost three games in a row, and had dropped to 1-4 overall on the young season. Meanwhile, Brookdale, a program that is two years removed from a D3 National Championship, was struggling as well to start the 2019-20 season with 1-3 start entering Thursday’s game versus the Owls.
The play of both teams throughout much of Thursday night’s Region 19 JUCO and Garden State Athletic Conference contest reflected the sluggish starts to their the young season’s. Although Union County College had double digit leads in both the first and second halves, it could not put Brookdale away. As a matter of fact, the Jersey Blues rallied from a 37-26 early second half deficit with a 25-11 surge to take a 51-48 lead on a three pointer from Adam Kukaj with 7:07 left in regulation.
Baskets and points became hard to come by after that in an uncharacteristically low scoring game. UCC would finish the game on a 7-2 run, but four of those points came within the last two minutes of the game after falling behind again, 53-51 on a fade-away jumper from BCC’s Deondre Smith with 3:13 to play. The Owls got a floater from Robert Miller with 1:52 remaining and two FTs from Terrence Durham with 54.5 seconds to take a 55-53 lead. Brookdale had a couple opportunities to score including one in the closing seconds, but Union County College was able to hang on for a much needed 55-53 victory at Collins Arena.
Durham, Shyeim Powell, Jason Okali, and Tyrese Cherry led the charge for the Owls. Kukaj led Brookdale with 18 points on 7 of 11 shooting from the floor including 2 of 3 from beyond the arc. He also added 2 rebounds and 2 assists. Despite struggling from the field and especially from beyond the arc Jelani Carter kept grinding to chip in with 14 points including a foul line jumper at the 8:07 mark to pull the Jersey Blues within two at 48-46, and then a steal for a breakaway layup to tie the game at 48-48 with 7:47 remaining. Carter also added 5 rebounds, an assist and a steal.
Dameire Fitch added 9 points on 4 of 8 shooting from the floor while also collecting 7 rebounds and an assist. In addition to his only two points of the game on his go ahead score with a little over three minutes to play, Smith also picked up 5 rebounds, 2 assists, and a steal. Allen Ozojie (4 points, 6 rebounds, and an assist), Ian Felix (3 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and a steal), and Jeremiah Fleurant (3 points, a rebound, and a steal) rounded out the Brookdale scoring. Union County College got off to a quick start by scoring 9 of the first 12 points of the game including a layup from the right low block off an inbounds by Miller at the 11:56 mark of the first half.
Over the next 4:05, Brookdale hung in there with the Owls with each team scoring 6 points including a three by Fleurant at the 9:05 mark for an 18-12 UCC lead. Union County College then scored 10 of the next 11 points including a layup by Okali off a nice dish from Durham at the 6:26 mark, and then a three pointer by Dequan Graves at the 4:58 mark for a 15 point, 28-13 lead. Brookdale CC would battle back though by finishing the first half on a 9-3 run that included a trey from the right side by Kukaj off a kickout from Carter with 3:30 to play to narrow the deficit to 31-22 at the intermission.
The Owls started the second half on a 6-4 run including a bucket by Okali to increase its lead back up to double digits at 37-26. But, over the next 10 minutes, the Jersey Blues showed some meddle by outscoring UCC by 14 including scores from Kukaj at the 14:42 mark, a trey by Carter at the 14:10 mark, a layup off a back door cut from the left wing by Kukaj with 12:04 left in the second half, and a bank shot from the left low block by Fitch with 10:27 to play. Carter then added his two scores to tie the game, and Kukaj capped the surge with his three from just to the right of the top of the key for Brookdale’s first lead of the game.
After Union CC tied the game at 51-51 with a free throw from Powell at the 6:44 mark and two more foul shots by Durham at the 6:15 mark, the two teams went into a scoring lull of three minutes before Smith connected on his fade-away after dribbling down the right side of the floor to give the Jersey Blues, their last lead of the game. Union then scored the last four points of the contest in the final 1:54 of the game, and then prevented Brookdale from scoring on a drive into the paint with time running out to preserve the two point victory.
With the win, Union County College improved to 2-4 overall on the season including a 2-3 mark in Region 19 Division 3 play, and a 2-2 record in the Garden State Athletic Conference. Brookdale fell to 1-4 on the season overall, in Region 19 play, and the GSAC. Union is back in action on Saturday, November 23rd when it hosts Monroe Community College in Cranford at 5:00 PM while Brookdale returns to the floor on Tuesday, November 26th when it hosts Atlantic Cape Community College at Collins Arena at 7:00 PM.
GMC NEWS AND NOTES: Neither UCC or Brookdale had former players from the GMC play in the contest. Union has no players from the Greater Middlesex Conference on their roster this season. Last year, the Owls had former Cardinal McCarrick standout, Nyke McCombs, who played for the Eagles under current Marist head coach, Ben Gamble, in the 2014-15 season, which was the last year the school was open. McCombs then followed Gamble to Mater Dei in Middletown and won a Shore Conference Tournament Championship in 2016. Dave Silva, a recent graduate from J.F. Kennedy, who played on an improved Mustangs team a year ago under Bas deVoogd, is on the Brookdale roster, but was not on the sidelines or in the box score Thursday night. In the women’s game that followed, UCC rolled past Brookdale 108-20 as Edison’s Samira Sargent played 24 minutes, made 5 of 9 shots from the floor including both her attempts from three for 12 points along with 7 assists and 7 steals while only committing one turnover. Sargent is currently Edison’s all time leading scorer for both girls and boys basketball with 1,515 career points.