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Nelson leads Pequannock boys over Mountain Lakes

Dan Canova
@DanCanova

MOUNTAIN LAKES—Trailing entering the fourth quarter, Pequannock head coach Jeff DeBell took out the board used to draw up plays and wrote “eight minutes."

“We had eight minutes left to our season or it keeps going,” he said.  “That’s what I told them.”

Senior Derek Nelson propelled the Panthers in the fourth quarter to a come-from-behind victory over Mountain Lakes, 50-45, in an NJSIAA North 1 Group II opening round game on Tuesday night.

“We really came up and played hard at the end,” DeBell said.  “The way they came back and fought.  Mountain Lakes is a great team and to win here, it’s a tough place to play.  I’m just so proud of them.”

The Panthers trailed 41-33 entering the fourth quarter.

On Pequannock’s first defensive possession, Nelson forced a turnover of Mountain Lakes and completed the layup in transition to bring the Panthers within, 41-37.

Mountain Lakes junior Tom Gleeson hit a jumper at the elbow with 3:03 left in the quarter to extend the Lakers’ lead back to four points, ending Pequannock’s 7-1 run to the start the period.

With 1:43 left, Nelson got to the foul line and hit 1-of-2 free throws.  After a defensive stop, Grant Borovskis got to the line and hit both free throw attempts to bring the Panthers within 44-43.

The Lakers turned the ball over on the following inbounds pass.  Nelson came up with the steal and got to the line once again.  He hit his first free throw to tie the game at 44, but he missed his second attempt, which landed in the hands of senior Jamie Morella, who finished the layup to give Pequannock its first lead with 1:23 left in the game.

“Our defense has been working hard and on offense things have been clicking,” Nelson said.  “I wasn’t comfortable with the face guarding, but I had to adjust.  At the start of the fourth quarter, I wanted to win as much as everyone else on the team did, so I did everything I could to make that happen.”

Nelson went on to hit 4-of-6 shots from the foul line with under one minute left to ice the game. Defensively, the Panthers held Mountain Lakes to four points in the fourth quarter.

“We knew we were in it the whole entire time,” Nelson said.  “Fighting back is not what you want, but it was huge to only hold them to four points and to not stop fighting offensively.”

Nelson finished with a team-high 20 points followed by Morella and Borovskis who scored 10 points apiece.

Gleeson led the Lakers with a game-high 25 points and senior Chris Boyhan added nine.

The 11th-seeded Panthers will take on No. 3 Manchester Regional on Thursday.

“It’s going to be tough over there,” DeBell said.  “We are going to enjoy this one, and prepare tonight and be ready for practice tomorrow and go play Thursday.”

Staff Writer Dan Canova: 862-240-2878;dcanova@gannettnj.com