BASKETBALL

Boys basketball season in review

Dan Canova
@DanCanova

Two of the elite programs in Morris County — Chatham and Morristown — were the only teams to reach their respective sectional final games this season, which is the first time two Morris County teams reached a sectional final since 2010.

There were many other accolades to go around.  Here is the season in review.

Best team: Chatham.  The Cougars finished with a 28-2 overall record and went undefeated in Morris County on their way to a third county championship in the program’s history.  Sophomore Jack Rooney and seniors Colin McKenna and Tristan LeMon were by far the best trio in the county.  Senior Stefan Goles played big in the MCT quarterfinal and final, which earned him the tournament’s Most Valuable Player award.

Best coach: Matt Tighe, Randolph.  The easy choice is Chatham head coach Todd Ervin, but Tighe turned around a team that went 7-17 last year.  The Rams returned all of their starters and finished 21-7 without any clear-cut star player.  Tighe used a nine-man rotation on a nightly basis and got the best out of each of his players.

Best turnaround: Randolph.  The Rams made a Morris County Tournament final appearance for the first time in 10 years.  They also reached the NJSIAA North 1 Group IV semifinal before falling to Morristown.

Best county game: Hanover Park over Morristown, 68-62, in MCT quarterfinal round.  Hornets senior John Crown hit a layup at the final buzzer to send the game into overtime.  Senior Donny Dattolo tied a career-high with 21 points, and junior Matthew Winschuh scored 17 points — eight of which came in overtime — to guide the Hornets.

Best state game: Warren Hills over Chatham, 52-46, in NJSIAA North 2 Group III final.  Chatham jumped out to an early 10-0 lead, and it looked as if the Cougars were going to win their first sectional title in nearly 10 years.  But Warren Hills clawed back and eventually pushed the game to double overtime, where they would upset the Cougars on their home floor.

Best offensive performance: Dover over Kinnelon, 101-70 in MCT preliminary round.  Senior Dwayne Brown led the Tigers with 26 points, and Dimitri Brouard finished with 17.  Dover’s 101 points was the highest output for a team in Morris County.

Best defensive performance: Randolph over Pequannock, 55-29, in MCT first round.  The Rams holding Pequannock to 29 points wasn’t the lowest in a game, but the fact that they did it in the first round of the county tournament against a solid Panthers team was remarkable.  The most Randolph allowed in a single quarter was 10.

Best comeback: Pequannock over Mountain Lakes, 50-45, in NJSIAA North 1 Group II first round.  The Lakers held an eight-point advantage over Pequannock on their home floor entering the fourth quarter.  But behind senior Derek Nelson’s team-high 20 points, Pequannock scored 17 points in the final quarter and held Mountain Lakes to four points to pull out the come-from-behind victory.

Biggest upset: Morristown-Beard over Mendham, 53-45, in MCT first round.  Junior Brian Monaghan led No. 11 Morristown Beard with 25 points en route to an upset victory over No. 6 Mendham in the first round of the MCT.  Sophomore Justin Rodriguez was second on the team with 18 points.

Best atmosphere: Dover over Morris Hills, 54-49.  The 63-year-old rivalry between Dover and Morris Hills lived up to the hype on a Saturday afternoon in early January at Morris Hills High School.  With the game tied at 42 late in the fourth quarter, Dover used a 9-0 run behind seniors Dwayne Brown and Dimitri Brouard to take a commanding lead.  Dover’s fans made their presence felt and helped their Tigers defeat the Scarlet Knights, who at the time were undefeated.

Surprise team: Jefferson.  The Falcons finished 17-8 and had big wins over Delbarton, Mount Olive, West Morris, Pequannock and an MCT preliminary-round win over Montville.  Jefferson gave Chatham a run for its money in the first round of the MCT, but fell, 38-37.

All-senior team: John Crown – Hanover Park; Ryan Gaynor – Whippany Park; Stephen Clapp – Delbarton; Colin McKenna – Chatham; Amir Allen – Morris Catholic.

All-junior team: Kevin Hoehn – Morristown; Brian Monaghan – Morristown-Beard; Matt Winschuh – Hanover Park; Alex Landis – Montville; Luke Nathan – Randolph.

All-sophomore team: Jack Rooney – Chatham; Brandon Lessig – Roxbury; Justin Rodriguez – Morristown-Beard; Steve Breeman – Jefferson; Brad Bundschuh – Mendham.

Surprise player: Rob Birstonas, Morris Catholic.  A transfer from Toronto, Birstonas was a key contributor to Morris Catholic’s success.  The senior averaged 16.9 points and 6.2 rebounds per game for the Crusaders.

Best dunk: Stephen Clapp, Delbarton.  Late in the fourth quarter, Delbarton senior Dan Cimaglia ran a break in transition.  Cimaglia missed the layup, but Clapp flew in the air out of nowhere and completed the one-handed put-back dunk over two Roxbury defenders.

Best pure point guard: Chris Boyhan, Mountain Lakes.  Boyhan is your traditional point guard.   He’s an excellent distributor and makes everyone around him better.

Best 3-point shooter: Jason Drury, Mount Olive.  Drury has the sweetest stroke from beyond the arc in Morris County.  Nine times Drury finished with three or more 3-pointers in a single game.  His biggest output was nine against North Hunterdon, where he finished with a season-high 35 points.

Best post-player: Colin McKenna, Chatham.  McKenna in the post is as dominating a thing you will see.  The 6-foot-4 senior averaged 15.3 points per game and was a key reason why Chatham finished with a 28-2 record.

Best sixth man: Andrew Sciancalepore, Randolph. Sciancalepore was instrumental in Tighe’s nine-man rotation.  The senior finished second in scoring for the Rams in two key county tournament games.  He scored 14 points against Delbarton in the quarterfinal round, and he finished with 16 points in a semifinal game against Morris Catholic.

Best scoring performance: Stephen Clapp, Delbarton.  Clapp only needed three quarters to score 42 points against Montville on Delbarton’s Senior Night, which was the highest output by a single player in Morris County this season.

Best defender: Tristan LeMon, Chatham.  LeMon held some of the county’s best scorers well below their averages in several games.  Morristown-Beard’s Brian Monaghan scored only 10 points in their regular season meeting, Morristown’s Kevin Hoehn finished with seven and 12 points in each of their two meetings, and in the Morris County Tournament semifinal, LeMon held Hanover Park’s John Crown to seven points.

Best buzzer beater shots: Mendham.  The Minutemen hit not one, not two, but three buzzer beater shots this season.  Junior Kevin Skehill hit the game-winner on Jan. 12 vs. West Morris in a 48-47 victory.  Seven days later, junior Vince Falvo hit the buzzer-beater shot in a 47-46 win over Morris Hills.  And on Feb. 11, Ben DeJong put the ball through the hoop off an inbounds pass from senior Jamie Conklin to lift the Minutemen over Montville, 50-48.

Clutch performance: Rohan Walker, Morristown. The way Morristown head coach Bill Connolly put it, “Rohan played like a senior who didn’t want his season and his career to end.”  Walker scored a season-high 29 points, which included 17 in the fourth quarter alone, but the Colonials lost a heartbreaker to Hackensack, 67-64, in the NJSIAA North 1 Group IV sectional final.

Player to watch next year: Kevin Hoehn, Morristown.  Hoehn was the top junior in Morris County.  He finished with 400 points on the season and averaged six rebounds, four assists and two steals per game.  Barring any setbacks, Hoehn will reach the 1,000-point milestone as a senior and will look to lead a Morristown team that will return starters Luke Haralampoudis and Josh Szott.  The Colonials will be among the top teams in Morris County next year.

Team to watch next year: Morristown-Beard.  The Crimson fell to Morris Catholic in the quarterfinal round of the MCT, but Morristown-Beard will return all of its starters next year.  Brian Monaghan will enter his senior season and be a Player of the Year candidate, and Justin Rodriguez, Zachary Dees, and Raphael Castillo were all sophomore starters this year.  With another year under their belts, the Crimson have the potential to be the county’s most dangerous team.

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

Dan’s Final Dozen

  1. Chatham (28-2)
  2. Randolph (21-7)
  3. Morristown (19-8)
  4. Morris Catholic (18-8)
  5. Hanover Park (21-8)
  6. Morristown-Beard (17-10)
  7. Jefferson (17-8)
  8. Whippany Park (15-9)
  9. Morris Knolls (16-10)
  10. Mountain Lakes (16-8)
  11. Delbarton (11-15)
  12. Mendham (10-14)