Boys Basketball – Lloyd Daniels Lifts Colts Neck Past Pt. Beach in Final Seconds of Overtime

COLTS NECK – Prior to his team’s showdown with defending Shore Conference Tournament champion Point Beach on Saturday, Colts Neck junior Lloyd Daniels was still working off the shock of his most disappointing game as a high school player.

If the game itself was not enough to help Daniels put that rocky performance behind him, the finish certainly was.

Daniels hit a game-winning scoop shot with eight seconds left in overtime to cap a 25-point performance and the Cougars – the No. 8 team in the most recent Shore Sports Network Top 10 – rallied to beat the Garnet Gulls on Saturday afternoon.

In a 55-46 loss to Red Bank on Thursday, Daniels shot 0-for-11 from the field and did not score a point. He entered that night averaging 14.1 points per game and having just scored 16 points in 21 minutes in a win over Red Bank Catholic on Tuesday. On Saturday, Daniels shot 9-for-14 from the field and added seven rebounds and three assists. He scored 19 of his points after halftime, helping the Cougars overcome a 10-point halftime deficit.

“After the Red Bank game, I was kind of in shock,” Daniels said. “I’ve never played in a game where I scored zero points. I know I’m much better than that and I used it as fire to come out and play my best game against Point Beach.”

Point Beach junior Jimmy Panzini scored the first four points of overtime to put Point Beach up 56-52 with 1:55 left, but Daniels answered with a three from the right corner. After senior Jesse Hill made one of two free throws to push the Point Beach lead to 57-55, Colts Neck's Jordan DeGroot and Point Beach's Trevor Covey traded transition lay-ups to make it 59-57 in favor of Point Beach with 1:04 left.

Daniels hit two free throws to tie the game with 53.2 seconds left after drawing a foul in the paint and Panzini hit one of two on the other end to put Point Beach ahead, 60-59, with 34.7 left. Colts Neck took the clock to 10 seconds before Daniels spun to his left and kissed an under-handed shot off the glass and in for Colts Neck's first and only lead of the game.

Danny Frauenheim attempted a driving lay-up that did not fall as time expired.

Point Beach led by as many as 13 and led 47-37 early in the fourth quarter. Colts Neck pulled even for the first time since the opening minutes on two free throws by junior Tim Cavrack to make it 50-50 with 2:29 left. Garnet Gulls freshman Danny Frauenheim and Cougars senior Chris O'Reilly exchanged three throws on either end and each team missed a potential go ahead shot to send the game to overtime tied at 52.

“This game shows what kind of team we have,” Daniels said. “We’re going to keep fighting, no matter what the score is, how much we’re down, how much time is left. I think we did a great job not putting our heads down or giving up. They had a lot of momentum when Jimmy got the and-one for them, but we came right back.”

O'Reilly added 18 points for Colts Neck, which played without senior center Mike Lamb and lost junior forward Kyle Gordon to a right knee injury and junior forward Tom O'Reilly to his fifth foul in the fourth quarter. Lamb injured his left ankle in a loss to Red Bank on Thursday.

“We were running out of bodies,” Colts Neck coach Lou Piccola said. “We’ve got four of our best big guys on the bench with injuries and foul trouble and you have a bunch of guys come in with limited experience and, with no excuses or anything like that, they just work hard. We had a guy in Khaled Mostafa come in and give us good minutes on the defensive end, and this is his first year playing basketball. He’s six-six and a good athlete, but he’s just scrapping and battling out there and that sort of thing makes all the difference.”

Panzini led Point Beach with 19 points and senior Mike Frauenheim added 18 while battling first-half foul trouble. Mike Frauenheim had a clean look from 18 feet at the regulation buzzer, but his potential game-winning shot from the wing rimmed in and out.

Hill – Point Beach's leading scorer – did not play in the first half because of a sore left ankle. Hill said he rolled it on a curb while running to retrieve his dog from the middle of the street as a car was bearing down on the animal. Hill made his first appearance with 5:35 left in the third and finished with five points.

Colts Neck will travel to Wall – winners of seven straight – on Tuesday to cap its first trip through the division schedule. The Cougars are on a run of five straight games against Neptune, Matawan, Red Bank Catholic, Red Bank and Point Beach, of which the Cougars have won four.

“This is the toughest stretch of games that I can ever remember since I’ve been here,” said Piccola, now in his 16th season at Colts Neck. “Every game, we’re in a war. It’s Neptune, Matawan, Red Bank Catholic, Red Bank Regional. Then we play Point Beach, we have to go to Wall and we finish the week against a team that’s won, how many in a row? It’s relentless.

“The good thing is we’ve been able to pull some of these games out of the fire and I think we’re better for it. We’ve got tough kids. They have a lot of heart.”

Box Score

Colts Neck 61, Point Beach 60 (OT)

Point Beach (60): Jimmy Panzini 7 4-9 19, Mike Rice 2 0-0 6, Chris Schifano 1 0-0 2, Mike Frauenheim 8 1-1 18, Danny Frauenheim 0 4-4 4, Trevor Covey 2 0-0 4, Stephen Flanders 1 0-0 2, Jesse Hill 0 5-8 5. Totals: 21 14-22 60

Three-pointers: Panzini, Rice 2, Frauenheim

Fouled Out: Rice, Schifano

Colts Neck (61): Colton LaLima 0 0-0 0, Chris O’Reilly 4 8-9 18, Tom O’Reilly 2 0-0 4, Kyle Gordon 2 2-4 6, Lloyd Daniels 9 4-5 25, Jordan DeGroot 2 0-0 4, Tim Cavrack 1 2-2 4, Khaled Mostafa 0 0-0 0. Totals: 20 16-20 61

Three-pointers: C. O’Reilly 2, Daniels 3