Boys basketball: South River survives Bound Brook in CJ2 semifinals
SOUTH RIVER – A 15-point seemingly secure lead had evaporated into a three-point, fourth-quarter deficit Saturday afternoon when South River High School boys basketball coach Brandon Walsh called a timeout.
The bulk of the message was to remind his players that they hadn’t worked so hard for so long to let what was within reach slip away. Just over seven minutes remained.
The top-seeded Rams rallied, scoring a thrilling 72-66 victory over No. 4 Bound Brook in a Central Group 2 semifinal, and will play host to No. 2 seed Manasquan at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the sectional final.
“We had to stay resilient in the face of tough moments and adversity,” said Walsh. “When it seems like the world is shrinking all around you, you just have to believe in each other, believe that we could overcome that and we did in the fourth quarter.
“We fought with all hearts. Props to them because they fought back, but we stayed resilient through it all,” said South River sophomore Alex Grospe, who had 13 points with three, 3-pointers.
The Rams outscored the persistent visitors with a strong close. Bound Brook advanced through the first round with an overtime win over Holmdel and squeezed by defending sectional champ Rumson-Fair Haven 46-45 to get to South River.
“We said ‘listen these guys aren’t gonna stop playing until the clock hits zero and neither are we,’” said Walsh.
Two 3-pointers from Gavin Franco, another by Jeremy Grospe and 8-for-8 shooting from the free-throw line made the difference.
A 23-11 third quarter got Bound Brook back into it after it trailed 40-28 at halftime. The Brook started the fourth quarter tied at 51-51 and it took a couple of leads.
“We needed to play better on offense. We had too many turnovers against a good team and we didn’t defend very well overall,” said BB coach Anthony Melesurgo, whose team was beaten in last year’s sectional final by Rumson-Fair Haven. “We had to be better.”
BY THE NUMBERS
South River had an 9-3 advantage in the 3-point department Jan. 5 when it beat Bound Brook 66-61 in Bound Brook. In the rematch, the Rams out 3’d the Crusaders 11-6.
South River’s Gavin Franco had 15 points on five 3-pointers.
GAME BALLS
Five different Rams scored in double figures – senior Gavin Franco and senior Ramon Santos with 15 apiece, senior Lazaro Rodriguez and sophomore Alex Grospe with 13 apiece, and senior Jeremy Grospe with 11.
Crusader seniors Jordan Summers and Jordan Robinson each had 19 points apiece. Summers capped his outstanding career with 1,456 points – second on the Crusaders all-time scoring list behind Quadir Harrell’s 1,551. Harrell is now a redshirt freshman at FDU-Teaneck.
THEY SAID IT
“If we knew we had (Jordan) Summers out of the paint we had easier driving lanes so the other guys
could help and we could kick it out to our shooters and we had very, very high shooting percentage today,” said Alex Grospe. “We stayed with it and if it worked why change it? We want to get the best shot every single play. If it’s a good shot, we want to get a great shot.”
WHAT’S NEXT
South River will play host to No. 2 seed Manasquan at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the sectional final. Manasquan ousted No. 3 Raritan 48-30 in the other Saturday semifinal.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ Boys basketball: South River survives Bound Brook in CJ2 semifinals
