Nottingham Northstar Darell Johnson takes flight for the layup against Notre Dame in the quarterfinals of the MCT Tournament. Johnson helped propel the Stars to victroy, scoring 20 of Nottingham’s 34 points in the first half. Photo by Michael A. Sabo
By Rich Fisher
Fish4scores.com
Feb. 17: The Nottingham boys’ basketball team has made things look so easy at home over the past two years, that it’s reason for pause to watch them scuffle in the Galaxy.
But scuffling doesn’t mean losing, as the top-seeded Northstars held off upset-minded, 8th-seeded Notre Dame, 59-47, in a Mercer County Tournament quarterfinal today.
“That’s the name of the game in tournament play,” coach Chris “The Baron” Raba said. “Win and move on.”
Winning is commonplace on the corner of Hamilton and Klockner, as Nottingham has won 26 straight home games. The Stars were 15-0 last year and are 11-0 this season with at least one state game to go.
That won’t come for a while, however, as action now shifts to the Cure Insurance Arena for the MCT semifinals. The Stars will meet 5th-seeded Ewing at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the final game of a boys-girls’ quadruple-header.
Nottingham (21-2) is making its second straight semifinal appearance after losing to Trenton Catholic last season. For a while, however, it looked like the Stars may be dimmed prematurely.
After falling behind 9-0 and 22-10, Notre Dame (12-12) showed some impressive spirit in rallying to make it a four-point game at halftime. Darell Johnson lifted the Stars to that advantage, scoring 20 of Nottingham’s 34 points in the first half.
His play was huge, as Richie Jones was limited to 14 points and Cliff Joseph to seven. Both average around 19 but had a combined eight in the first half.
Nottingham vs Notre Dame MCT Quarterfinal Photo Gallery. Photos by Michael A. Sabo
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“We didn’t come out with an energy to play today and they came out with a lot of energy so it turned into a close game,” said Johnson, who finished with 26 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals. “This is big time, and I can show that even if some of our guys have a bad game we can still come back to win.”
Johnson had all 10 Nottingham points in the second quarter, and both teams struggled to score seven points each in the third. After Notre Dame got within 41-39 to start the fourth quarter, a bucket by Jones and putback by Deonte West started an 8-0 run that finally gave Nottingham control with a 10-point lead.
“During that little streak, we started to rebound and got some loose balls, and we kind of broke it open a little bit,” Raba said. “We got a couple loose balls, and we outletted.”
As usual, Kostro Montina was in the middle of all that as he finished with six points and seven rebounds.
“It was a little bit rocky,” Montina said. “We just didn’t bring that much intensity. At halftime, coach said they were working a lot harder than us, so we had to bring it more. We were a little bit off, we were shooting more threes instead of taking it to the paint.”
After opening a 49-39 advantage, the Northstars maintained control when Johnson, Jones and Montina combined to go 8-for-8 from the foul line in the final 35 seconds. Jones finished with two 3-pointers to tie Pete Kelly’s school record of 77 set in the 2007-08 season.
Now it’s time to focus on Ewing, who the Stars edged 58-54 on Tuesday.
“I’m sure they’ll be motivated to play us and we’ll be motivated to play them,” Raba said. “We were up 10 at halftime the last game, Darell got his fourth foul early in the third quarter and Darell sat over a full quarter. So, we’ll see what happens.”
The players are confident that Nottingham can get to the finals for just the second time in school history.
“We want to win it this year,” Johnson said. “We don’t feel pressure (of being top-seeded) because we were number two last year. We’re used to being hunted and being on top.”
Raba said getting to the semifinals, “two years in a row is a big deal. Last year was more of a ‘We were happy to be there.’ Our goal was to get to the final four. It’s a little different this year, our goal is to get to the championship.”
And Montina feels it won’t be another nail-biter with the Devils.
“No, this time we’re gonna bring it to them,” he said. “We gotta put it away early.”
Steinert falls to Notre Dame despite big effort by Bing
Steinert’s Tatiana Dorner goes up for the layup against Notre Dame. Photo by Amanda Ruch Photography.
After playing Notre Dame tough on opening day back in December, the 5th-seeded Steinert girls could not keep up in today’s MCT quarterfinal as the 4th-seeded Irish rolled to a 91-70 victory.
Jayda Bing had a huge game for the Spartans with 29 points and seven rebounds, while Natalie Mehl had 17 points and five boards. But it was not enough as a balanced ND attack put five players in double figures. Erika Porter, Kayla Burnett, Leah Johnson, Natalie Smith and Hailee Jantorno combined for 58 points.
Steinerts Jada Bing nails a three pointer from the outside against Notre Dame. Photo by Amanda Ruch Photography
Notre Dame gradually pulled away throughout, leading 22-16 after one quarter, 48-33 at halftime and 71-49 after three.
Unless it picks up a game during the week, Steinert’s next contest will be a home game against Brick High School in the first round of the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group III tournament Feb. 26.
