Kostro Montina drives to the hoop for two of his 20 points in helping Nottingham take a 73-57 win over Northern Burlington in the Central Jersey Group III semifinals Friday night (Photo by Wes “The Media Mogul” Kirkpatrick).
By Rich Fisher
Fish4scores.com
Mar. 2: For the second straight year, the Nottingham High boys’ basketball team is in the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group III semifinals.
But there is not quite the same joy this time around, as there was when the Stars reached this same point last year before losing at Ewing.
“We’re not happy to be there,” coach Chris “The Baron” Raba said after tonight’s 73-57 win over tenacious Northern Burlington in a CJ III semifinal. “The minute we walked out of that Ewing gym last year, we wanted to win the whole thing. We talked about that in Ewing’s lockerroom. We said we’re gonna come back better, stronger, more prepared and come back every day and work in the weight room.”
“I’m glad we got there again, this time we gotta win it,” said Richie Jones on the night he scored his 1,000th point. “We knew we were gonna get here, now we gotta win it.”
Cliff Joseph gets ready to penetrate and dish off for one of his six assists in Nottingham’s win over NBC (Photo by Wes “The Media Mogul” Kirkpatrick)
Second-seeded Nottingham (26-2) won’t know who it plays until about 2:30 Saturday, which is when Neptune and top-seeded Moorestown should finish up their semifinal, which was postponed due to the weather.
Should Neptune win, Nottingham will host on Tuesday. If Moorestown wins, the Northstars take to the road. And rest assured the Stars would love to stay in their Galaxy, where they are 30-0 over the past two seasons, including 10-0 in tournament games.
The 30th was anything but easy, despite the 16-point win. Northern Burlington (20-9) was much like Ocean Township, in that it was not intimidated and would not go down easy.
The Northstars appeared ready to blow it open by taking a 24-11 lead before the Greyhounds came back to tie it at 26-26 and 29-29. With Nottingham leading 32-31, Ku’Jane Johnson’s bucket to end the first half started Nottingham on a 17-0 run that put the score at 48-31. Most teams have wilted against the Stars at that point, but Northern battled back to within 63-55 with 3:31 remaining.
But five straight points by Cliff Joseph upped the margin to 13 with under two minutes left and Nottingham survived another tough team.
“They’re all tough when you get this far, our last game was tough too,” Raba said. “There’s a reason why there’s only four teams left in the sectionals. In the first half we had no answer for the (Josh) Jackson guy. We were trying to double him, and I think we got him a little tired in the second half by doubling him.”
Jackson had 15 through the first three quarters but just one bucket in the fourth. When the deficit was eight in the fourth quarter, NBC missed an opportunity to get even closer when it mis-fired on a three.
“Basketball is a game of runs,” Raba said. “I told the guys at halftime, four years of all the hard work in the off-season, 12 months out of the year it’s gonna come down to whose will is greater because they’re scrappy as anything. I give coach Gene (Darling) a lot of credit. For them to get here being sixth seed, Gene did a great job.”
As it usually does, Nottingham had an answer whenever NBC made a run. But Jones would rather see no runs at all.
“I actually would like us, when we’re up, to maintain a lead,” King Richard said. “I don’t want teams to keep coming back. We just keep trying to play our game.”
Nottingham senior Richie Jones celebrates with his family after scoring his 1,000th point in Friday night’s CJ III win over Northern Burlington (Photo by Wes “The Media Mogul” Kirkpatrick).
Jones knew a loss tonight would have taken all the luster off his 1,000th, which came on a jumper from the top of the key in the third quarter.
“Us winning was most important,” he said. “They were good. They had two guards that were keeping them in the game.”
Jones finished with 16 points, while Darell Johnson led the way with 22 points and 7 blocked shots and Kostro Montina had 20. Cliff Joseph, who is playing through some leg pain, only scored seven, but had 10 rebounds and six assists. Even Ku’Jane Johnson got into the scoring act, chipping in with six points, while grabbing seven rebounds.
“We know Kostro can score,” Raba said. “That’s the reason why (Jones, Joseph, D. Johnson) have so many points; because of role guys like that who do everything. Ku’Jane had a good game, Deonte (West) came in and defended, defended, defended. This group is a good nucleus of very good players and the role guys don’t mind doing their role.”
Not when it keeps Nottingham on a roll.
