MONTCLAIR- It wasn’t pretty, and it was never smooth sailing for either team, but what it was happened to be what every high school basketball fan yearns for at this time of the year, namely an exciting and intense down-to-the-wire state tournament game with both teams leaving in all on the floor and a packed house of fans taking all the action in.
Fifth-seeded East Orange Campus earned its third straight trip to a North 1, Group 4 state sectional final with Tuesday night’s hard-fought 56-51 triumph at top-seeded Montclair thanks in large measure to the relentless and ultimately successful offensive prowess of junior James Roberts, who scored 11 of his game-high 31 points in the pivotal fourth quarter, and a persistent defense led by junior Will Dyer, who helped hold the Mounties’ top scorer Mason Determann to half his season’s average of 16.1 points per game.
Roberts helped seal the deal for EOC as he scored seven of his team’s eight points in the final 3:46 as the Jaguars snapped a 48-all deadlock to earn the pulsating victory.
EOC (17-12) will travel to second-seeded Hackensack for Friday night’s (March 6) N1G4 final. The Jaguars have lost the last two years to Ridgewood in the N1G4 title tilt.
The old East Orange High School and Montclair had their epic battles in regular season, county and state tourney action dating back to the old Big 10 Conference, and well before EOC was formed with the merging of Clifford Scott and the old East Orange High School in 2002.
The two schools currently play in different divisions in the Super Essex Conference, with the Jaguars in the top-tier and very challenging American Division, and the Mounties in the Colonial, which is the third division in the loop.
They met on Tuesday night for the second straight season in a N1G4 state tourney contest. The Jaguars won 53-37 in a quarterfinal game last year in East Orange and have now won eight straight games against their neighboring rivals with Montclair’s last win vs. the Jaguars being a 48-45 triumph on Jan 24. 2019.
Tuesday night was also Montclair’s first state sectional semifinal final since 2011 when then coach Major Jennings’ squad lost to Paterson Kennedy. The Mounties last state sectional title was 32 years ago when Jennings’ squad upset Elizabeth in the N2G4 final at the Dunn Center.
The latest meeting between the Jaguars and Montclair (19-10) saw intriguing back and forth action as the EOC jumped on top 19-13 in the first quarter thanks to 11 early points from Roberts, mostly on strong drives to the hoop.
However, Montclair fourth-year coach Cecil Stinson utilized some effective strategy at that point, going to a zone which helped his team in slowing down Roberts and Co. while winning the second quarter, 12-8, to pull within 27-25 at the half.
“We tried to mix up defenses to try and make them uncomfortable, using a hybrid 1-2-2 and a 3-2,” said Stinson. “We just didn’t think it would be to our favor to turn the game into a rat race because they are a good team in transition.”
The Mounties continued with its zone in the third quarter and took a 46-44 lead heading into the fourth quarter as senior La’Mear Singletary, who scored 8 of his 14 points in the third, converted a twisting move in the lane with 0.9 seconds still showing in the quarter.
EOC knew that it had to make some adjustments and did a better job against the zone in the final eight minutes even though their perimeter shots were still not falling with any regularity.
“I had told our guys that they (Montclair) were not going to be able to guard us man-to-man and that they’re going to have to do something different,” said EOC coach Gabe Baltimore. “We had seen from game film study that they had run a 1-2-2 against another team and we practiced against it, but tonight we just couldn’t get our shots to fall.
“I thought we were settling for outside shots that weren’t always the best for us to take, I called a timeout and made sure to get the message across that we had to make sure to start attacking more to get those key buckets we had to have.”
Roberts, the strong 6-foot-2 guard, made sure that attacking the rim was back in definite ‘go’ mode for the Jaguars, and he snapped the 48-48 tie with back-to-back successful drives to the hoop to make it 52-48 with 2:24 remaining.
Montclair junior forward Kody Nesbitt then sank a free throw with 2:06 left to once again make it a 1-possession game at 52-49; however, and after a Roberts sank one of two free throws with 53.9 seconds left, the Mounties’ junior swingman Samad Jiles made a strong drive and finish to pull his team to 53-51 with 42.2 seconds still showing.
Then, after missed opportunities by both teams as the action was frenetic, Roberts was fouled and hit two clutch free throws in between a Montclair timeout with 12.2 seconds left for a 55-51 EOC lead before Dyer, the ace on-ball defender for the Jaguars, made a key steal with six seconds remaining to seal the deal as junior point guard Elijah Caldwell hit one of two free throws with 5.1 seconds left for the final point of the night.
The ever-present Dyer, who made life uncomfortable all evening long for the Mounties’ Determann, finished with 5 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 steals, but his most important work was as an on-ball defender.
“Will Dyer is the best defender in Essex County by far,” said Baltimore. “If you look at who we’ve played this season, and we’ve played some really good teams with star players, he always covers the other team’s top guy, and he usually shuts him down, whether they’re 6-5 or 6-2.
“I can’t even accurately describe his impact on the game for us!”
With ever-present, persistent ‘D’ by Dyer and a number of Jaguars, the Mounties had their difficult stretches, but continued to work hard and received strong performances from players such as Singletary, the athletic 6-foot senior guard, and 6-5 senior center Mez Okaro, who had one of the best games of his career with a team-high 15 points along with 7 rebounds and 2 assists.
“I love my guys and they played hard from start to finish,” said Stinson. The seniors are amazing, they came here with me, and we’ve been through a lot together.
“We had some guys who left, but these guys stuck it out and played their hearts out all season long!”
For EOC it’s now a third straight shot at a sectional state title as they will face a Hackensack team that edged third-seeded Union City, 57-54, in their semifinal action on Tuesday night.
“We’ve worked hard since last summer to get to this point,” said Roberts, who also grabbed 12 rebounds, had 2 assists and 2 steals. “We need all 13 of our guys to get it done, and I’m not me without them.
“It’s time for us to go out and win the title this time!”
NORTH 1, GROUP 4 SEMIFINALS, TUESDAY, MARCH 3:
(5) EAST ORANGE CAMPUS (17-12) 19 8 17 12 -56
(1) MONTCLAIR (19-10) 13 12 21 5 -51
East Orange: James Roberts 10-2-5-31, Elijah Caldwell 2-0-1-5, Je’zi Lewis 2-1-1-8, Will Dyer 1-0-3-5, Stagean King 1-0-2-4, Azahn Collins 0-0-0-0, Bashir Lucas 1-0-1-3, Da’von Canzater 0-0-0-0, Tayshon Brown 0-0-0-0. Totals: 17-3-13-56
Montclair: Mason Determann 4-0-0-8, La’Mear Singletary 7-0-0-14, Mez Okaro 5-0-5-15, Kody Nesbitt 2-0-2-6, Samad Jiles 2-0-2-6, Josiah Brown 0-0-0-0, Asher Seawell 1-0-0-2, Cameron Whittington 0-0-0-0, Elijah Miller 0-0-0-0, Solomon Boyd. Totals: 21-0-9-51
North 1, Group 4:
First round, Thursday, Feb. 26
(1) Montclair 62 (16) Passaic 59
(9) Livingston 38 (8) Mount Olive 29
(5) East Orange Campus 66 (12) Memorial 58
(4) Paterson Eastside 55 (13) Fair Lawn 42
(3) Union City 73 (14) Kearny 39
(6) Bloomfield 68 (11) West Orange 55
(10) Ridgewood 64 (7) Morristown 41
(2) Hackensack 73 (15) North Bergen 41
Quarterfinals, Saturday, Feb. 28:
Montclair 56 Livingston 44
East Orange Campus 59 Paterson Eastside 47
Union City 65 Bloomfield 62
Hackensack 63 Ridgewood 53
Semifinals, Tuesday, March 3:
East Orange Campus 56 Montclair 51
Hackensack 57 Union City 54
Final, Friday, March 6:
East Orange Campus at Hackensack
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