Boys Basketball – Point Beach Escapes Upset in Thriller vs. Jackson

Photo Gallery by Cliff Lavelle

LONG BRANCH – A dream season and a multi-year renaissance for the Point Pleasant Beach boys basketball team nearly began its downward spiral Sunday at Long Branch High School the same way it began its meteoric rise.

As their Shore Conference Tournament championship hopes hung in the balance in the quarterfinal round of the tournament, Point Beach coach Nick Catania and his senior point guard Matt Farrell both recalled this same time three years ago, when it was Point Beach that had a No. 1 seed up against the ropes in the SCT quarterfinal round at Brookdale Community College with a chance at a program-defining win.

“When you’re the underdog, everybody is going to get behind you and it’s easy to feed off that energy,” Farrell said. “A few years ago, we were the small school underdog against big, bad CBA and the crowd got behind us. Now we’re the top seed, and we’re the team nobody wants to win.”

Now the No. 1 seed with a senior class looking to collect as much championship hardware  as possible on its way out, the Garnet Gulls overcame the pressure, the crowd and a hungry No. 9 seed in Jackson Memorial to avoid the same fate they inflicted upon Christian Brothers Academy back in 2011.

Farrell overcame second-half foul trouble to score 24 points and seniors Dom Uhl and Noah Yates broke out in the second overtime period to help top-seeded Point Beach survive Jackson Memorial, 51-43, in double overtime.

“We haven’t been in a game like this against a Shore Conference team, and as well as we’ve played for most of the season, there are too many good teams in the tournament to not have a game like this somewhere along the line,” Catania said. “Jackson played a great game, they had a great gameplan, but I think we can take away a lot from this game. We didn’t execute our offense for most of the game and against a good team, it can come back to bite you.”

The Jaguars sent the game to overtime on a step-back, fade-away 3-pointer by junior guard C.J. Blue from in front of the Jackson bench as time expired. The Jaguars had trailed since midway through the second quarter and needed a three-point basket off an out-of-bounds play with only 5.5 seconds remaining and trailing 32-29.

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Blue also gave Jackson Memorial a 35-32 lead with two foul shots early in the first overtime, but the Garnet Gulls trio of offensive standouts woke up in the final six minutes.

“When (Blue) hit that shot, there was almost this sense like the guys were glad it went in,” Catania said. “Not that they didn’t want to win, but that they liked playing in a tough, grind-it-out game like this where every possession is huge. I wasn’t thinking that, but I think our guys started to embrace the challenge in overtime.

“(Junior Mike) Frauenheim was saying in the huddle after the shot went in, ‘That’s it. That play’s over. This is a new game and now we get to put that game behind us.’ And I think we treated it like a fresh start and a chance to find our rhythm.”

Uhl made a driving lay-up while drawing a foul following Blue’s free throws and made the ensuing free throw to tie the game at 35 in the first overtime. Uhl then made two free throws on the next possession to put Point Beach up 37-35.

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The Jaguars extended the game thanks to a baseline floater by junior Gino Palummo that tied the game at 37 with 33 seconds left. Farrelll missed a long, contested 3-pointer as time ran out, sending the game to a second overtime.

The extra four minutes only served to give Farrell, Uhl and Yates more time to find their offense. Yates buried a three from the top of the key to put the Gulls up 40-37 on the first possession of overtime. Uhl then followed by driving through the lane and coaxing a dunk to rattle in and make it 42-37 in favor of Point Beach.

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Blue knocked down another three to cut the Gulls’ lead back down to two, 42-40, but Farrell delivered the deciding blow by converting an acrobatic, driving lay-up as he was fouled with 1:12 left. The ensuing free throw gave Point Beach a 45-40 lead.

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Farrell, Uhl and Yates combined to score all 51 Point Beach points. Uhl had 14 points, eight rebounds and three assists, scoring nine of his points in the second overtime. Yates scored five of his 13 points in double overtime and hit three 3-pointers. Farrell hit three first-half 3-pointers and added four steals.

Farrell picked up his third foul with 1:13 left in the first half and was whistled for a fourth at the six-minute mark of the third quarter. He sat on the bench until 6:26 of the fourth quarter and during that stretch of nearly eight minutes, Point Beach did not make a field goal and managed only one point. Upon re-entering the game, Farrell promptly made his first attempt on his first possession to put Point Beach ahead, 29-26.

With Farrell on the bench, Jackson Memorial outscored Point Beach 8-1 over a span of 7:30.

Farrell’s third foul not only took Point Beach’s leading scorer off the floor, but it also served to halt a 9-0 run by the Gulls that turned a 16-15 deficit into a 24-16 halftime lead.

“Obviously, we rely on Matt a lot in our offense, but we are usually a much better team than that when he’s out of the game,” Catania said. “We just didn’t move the ball like we’re capable of and we made ourselves too easy to defend.”

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While Blue was the late-game hero for Jackson Memorial, Jaguars senior center Eric Carter kept the Jaguars in the game by putting up 16 points and 11 rebounds while holding Uhl to five points over the first 36 minutes on 1-for-11 shooting.

“I don’t know the stats off the top of my head, but regardless of what they were, this was far and away Eric Carter’s best game at Jackson Memorial,” Jackson coach Joe Fagan said. “His intensity level from the opening tip was exactly where it needs to be in a game like this, and he maintained it through the whole game. There was one play he didn’t get over top of a screen and Yates hit a three. Outside of that, he didn’t take a single play off.”

Blue finished with 11 points on three 3-pointers and junior Jesse Hill added eight points, 10 rebounds, two steals and two blocks. Hill came up with a crucial steal of a Farrell pass with a minute left and Jackson trailing 32-29. He earlier scored on a put-back to tie the game at 29 before Farrell responded with a driving lay-up to put Point Beach back on top, 31-29.

Point Beach had been averaging 66 points per game heading into Sunday, but Jackson held the Garnet Gulls to 32 regulation points and 16-for-48 (33 percent) shooting overall.

“We thought the best way to play them was to match up and switch on everything,” Fagan said. “They have so much talent, you’re going to give up something, so we’d rather it be jumpshots more than anything else. We didn’t want guys helping off of Yates, and we were hoping we’d have enough help in case Farrell got into the lane. I guess, if anything, we could have done a better job defending Farrell’s shot, but he’s got range out to the NBA three and there’s only so much you can take away.”

The Garnet Gulls will play No. 4 Matawan, 46-36 winners over Manasquan in the final game of the day. The Huskies are playing in their first SCT semifinal in nearly a half-century and are hoping for their first trip to the SCT final since 1964, putting them in a similar situation to the one Point Beach was in during its 2011 run.

“You’re going to have games and moments in games where you have to grind through it, and today was one of those,” Catania said. “It’s good to know that the next time we get into one of these games, we know we can keep our composure and play through it.”

Box Score

Point Beach 51, Jackson Memorial 43 (2 OT)

Jackson Memorial (43): Gino Palummo 1 2-4 4, C.J. Blue 3 2-2 11, Eric Carter 7 1-2 16, Jesse Hill 4 0-0 8, Jimmy Markham 2 0-0 4, Marcus Ademilola 0 0-0 0, Eddie Landi 0 0-0 0, Ryan Omslear 0 0-0 0. Totals: 17 5-8 43

Three-pointers: Blue 3, Carter

Fouled Out: Carter

Point Beach (51): Matt Farrell 8 5-6 24, Noah Yates 4 2-2 13, Jeff Bryant 0 0-0 0, Dom Uhl 4 6-9 14, Chris Schifano 0 0-0 0, Matt Van Nostrand 0 0-0 0, Mike Frauenheim. Totals: 16 13-17 51

Three-pointers: Farrell 3, Yates 3