Steinert’s Crysten Wood drains the 3-pointer against Neptune in the CJIII Quarterfinals. Photo by Michael A. Sabo
By Rich Fisher
Fish4scores.com
Feb. 28: It has been a long time since both ends of Klockner Road got this late into the NJSIAA state basketball tournament at the same time.
But both the girls and boys of Klockner will be represented in Friday’s Central Jersey Group III semifinals, as the 3rd-seeded Steinert girls topped 6th-seeded Neptune by the shocking score of 68-29 tonight; and the 2nd-seeded Nottingham boys finally pulled away from stubborn 7th-seed Ocean Township for a 78-61 victory.
Steinert will now take to the road to play at 2nd-seeded Allentown in Friday’s semi, while Nottingham remains home to meet 7th seeded Northern Burlington.
While the Northstars were the only one of four CVC boys teams to win tonight, all four girls teams won, guaranteeing a sectional champion from the CVC. Ewing hosts Hopewell Valley in the other girls’ semi.
If Steinert bottles tonight’s performance against the Fliers, they will challenge for the crown. The Spartans absolutely dominated Neptune from start to finish, scoring the first 11 points and leading 16-3 after one quarter. It was 40-14 at halftime and 62-20 after three quarters.
“I can’t actually believe it,” said guard Natalie Mehl, who led the Spartans with 16. “Last year they beat us by 30 (in the sectional quarterfinals).”
Neptune lost some firepower from that team, but still has a difference maker in Makayla Andrews, who averages over 20 per game. The sophomore had 17 against Steinert (21-6), but they all came after the game was decided. And this one was decided early.
“We knew coming in here it could be anyone’s game,” said Mehl, who only hit one 3-pointer but made eight free throws. “We just had to stick to what we’re good at, and whatever happens, happens. I think our defense is amazing. We made our lay-ups,,we made our shots. Overall it was just a great game by everybody on the team.”
Mehl felt that once the Spartans began to build their lead, their self-assurance built right along with it.
“It was a good confidence builder for us,” she said.
And that confidence played itself out throughout the lineup.
Tatiana Dorner was her usual wreaker of havoc with 14 points, 4 rebounds and 4 steals. Erika Golik had 8 points and 8 rebounds, while Crysten Wood came off the bench for 10 points and Jayda Bing had 8 points, 6 rebounds and 3 steals. Leila Collazo rounded out the balanced attack with 6 points and 2 assists.
Next up is a trip to Allentown (23-3), which took a 50-47 win over Steinert on Jan. 26 while playing without leading scorer Ryan Wiese. It’s another chance for the Spartans to keep enjoying this magical season, which has them within two wins of tying the 2009-10 school record for victories.
“It is fun right now,” Mehl said. “At the beginning of the year we set a goal for ourselves, we wanted to make it far in the tournament. We’re just sticking to that and keeping it going.”
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As are the Nottingham boys, who faced an extremely tough Ocean Township team and managed to finally put the Spartans away in the fourth quarter.
Darell Johnson continues to live large on the big stage, collecting 29 points, 5 rebounds and 5 blocked shots.
“I did a lot of work,” Johnson said. “Now’s the time to show it.”
Johnson showed it against one of the best players Nottingham has seen all year in 6-foot-7 Andrew Seager. The senior, who has gone against Johnson in AAU, collected 26 points and six rebounds, showing an array of nice moves around the basket.
“He’s like Darell,” coach Chris “The Baron” Raba said. “Darell shoots a little better but they’re almost like the same player.”
Johnson, however, has a supporting cast like few others as Cliff Joseph had 18 points and Richie Jones tallied 23. King Richard is now 10 away from becoming the third 1,000-point scorer on the roster, as Joseph and Johnson are already there.
Ocean (17-12) was not intimidated by the Winter Jo-Storm, however. Despite being on the verge of getting blown out a few times, the Spartans only trailed 35-28 at halftime.
Nottingham appeared ready to pull away with a 7-point flurry at the end of the first quarter. Leading 12-11, Joseph hit a jumper and Johnson then threw a fullcourt pass to Deonte West, who made a great catch and converted a tough lay-up for a highlight reel play.
“That was good,” Johnson said with a grin. “I knew he was gonna get it. Deonte is real athletic, I just threw it up and hoped he got it, and he got it. That gave us a little bit of energy, got the bench going, got him going.”
“Darell’s been doing that all year,” Raba said. “He’s been outletting passes like (1970s Baltimore Bullets star) Wes Unseld sometimes. And it was a great finish. It was a hard catch and a very good finish.”
Jones followed with a 3-pointer and suddenly it was 19-11.
“That lifted us a lot,” Johnson said. “When Richard gets going we all get going. We try to get Richard going.”
Ocean refused to wilt, however. Even after Nottingham opened a 44-31 lead, the Spartans got it down to 44-38. They could never pull even, however.
“That was very important,” Raba said. “Most of the time if a team can get the lead after that, the opposing team is in trouble. But we kind of held them at bay, we were close to blowing them out a few times too.”
The problem with playing Nottingham, is that teams can scrap and grind to get back into the game, but the Stars are so explosive they can go on a quick run and suddenly all that hard work has been reduced to a double-digit deficit. Once Ocean got within six, Nottingham scored eight straight and was up 14.
“That changes the whole momentum of a game,” Raba said. “You work so hard and then within 20 seconds we can go up 10 or 12 points.”
The last spurt put the Spartans for good, as the Northstars spent most of the fourth quarter draining free throws (24-for-32 for the game).
It was important to do that against well-coached Ocean, which has played some of the state’s best teams down to the wire and has also taken some big wins.
“We played them six years ago my first year here and went up there in state tournament, and they did an excellent job and beat us,” Raba said. “We did a great job. They have 17 wins and we win by 17. We played well.”
With that, Raba headed for home to break down film of NBC.
Afterall, there is Klockner Pride to uphold. Now it’s getting serious.
