Asbury Park Press from Asbury Park, New Jersey • Page 47

PAGE D10 ASBURY PARK PRESS MONDAY, MARCH 25, 2002 imam the tournament of champions: neftpnf. NJSIAA BOYS CHAMPIONSHIP ST. ANTHONY 69, NEPTUNE 49 O'Donnell's glad he stayed for this ride No. 1 St. Anthony simply too much -r -A, 'ft (tr )K mm v-s A JV- game.

Neptune coach Ken O'Donnell has a rule where if a player picks up his second foul during the first half, he'll be sitting until after the start of the third quarter. With St. Anthony's guards shooting the ball at a torrid pace and 6-foot-8 center Terre-nce Roberts giving Neptune problems inside, it wasn't much of a surprise that Neptune was down 37-24 at the break. "I don't know if we could have beaten them today the way they played," said Neptune coach Ken O'Donnell. On defense, St.

Anthony took senior point guard Terrance Todd out of his game. Hurley slid one extra defender after another over on Todd, refusing to let the Fliers' sparkplug set things in motion. "I'm the one that starts the offense," Todd said. "It was hard for me." It was a somber ending to what had been a thrilling playoff run for the Fliers. Dean, dressed quietly in the locker room, getting ready for a postseason all-star tournament in Kentucky.

Todd talked about putting his future in order this week, trying to settle on where he'll be next autumn. Marques Alston was ready to run back into the weight room as early as today. Colleges will be calling, but Alston's more concerned with next year's run. "We didn't win the gold," O'Donnell told his team. "We won the silver.

There's nothing wrong with that." Nothing wrong with that, no. But it doesn't make the loss go down any easier. St Anthony 69, Neptunt 49 Neptune (49): Todd 4 2-2 10, Hubbaid 2 0-0 5. Harris 2 0-0 4, Dean 2 2-2 7, Johnson 1 0-2 2, Alston 5 0-0 10. Layton 1 0-0 2, Jones 1 0-0 2, Gadaleta 1 0-0 2, Holman 1 0-0 3.

Simms 1 0 0 2. Totals: 21 4-6 49. St. Anthony (69): Ingram 7 1-2 18, Rooerts 5 3-3 13. Copeland 5 4-4 16, lee 3 2 2 10, Williams 2 2 2 6, Nwadike 2 0-0 4, Bostock 1 0-0 2.

Totals: 29 12 13 69. Neptune (29-3) 11 13 10 15 49 St Anthony (29-1) 19 18 11 21 69 3-pomt goals: (N) Hubbard, Dean, Holman; (S) Ingram 3, Copeland 2, Lee 2. Fouled out: None. Above: Marques Alston, the Most Valuable Player of the game for Neptune, drives past Patrick Reed of St Anthony in the second quarter yesterday. While this may have been the last shot for seniors Taquan Dean and Terrance Todd, among others, Alston, a junior, ontinentair; (on Airlines' up.

a EAST RUTHERFORD It could have been some other coach lugging that silver runner-up trophy back from center court after yesterday's NJSIAA Tournament of Champions final. For that matter, it could have been another team accepting it. I Last spring. Ken O'Donnell was wrestling with the idea of hanging up the clipboard as coach of a Neptune boys basketball team that had the potential to be one of the best in school history. But then he did the same fhing he always does.

He didn't go on any long walks or plan a trip to India for some deep soul- searching or something. He trusted his gut feeling. "A coach wants to coach," O'Donnell SCOTT STUMP said. "I didn't want to come back just to coach this team, but to keep coaching again. I realized coaching is a big part of my life and I would miss it too much.

I figured I'll know when it's really time to give it up." Without O'Donnell at the helm for his 12th season, the man who had been with there for every step of this team's maturation, what would've happened to the Shore's most talented team? "Who knows?" O'Donnell said. "I sure don't know." Luckily, Neptune fans will never know, but with O'Donnell kneeling beside the bench all season, here's what we do know: Neptune won the Shore Conference Class A North title, the Shore Conference Tournament title, its third straight Central Jersey Group III title and the Group III title, the Scarlet Fliers' first state title in 21 years. I They also handed the state's best team its only loss of the season. Unfortunately, it wasn't yesterday. St.

Anthony ended Neptune's 24-game winning streak one Step short of the most coveted trophy of all with a 69-49 win before 10,069 at Continental Airlines Arena. Sizzling shooting (61 percent), harassing defense, the experience of having won TOC title last season St. Anthony just had too much. However, no other Shore Conference boys team can say it even had the opportunity to play for No. 1.

"I had a lot of fun," O'Donnell Handleman From Page Dl come out fired up because of what happened last time," Neptune's Terrance Todd said after the 69-49 drubbing yesterday in the Meadowlands. "But we never thought they were gonna come out that fired up. "We never were in the game, really." Bob Hurley, the legend, had devised a defense to stop Todd specifically. Neptune coach Kenny O'Donnell countered by having Taquan Dean bring the ball up, to take some of the pressure off Todd, but by then the Fliers were already buried, trailing by double digits early in the second quarter. So much for the parade down Route 33.

St. Anthony-37 12 C)3 12) 15 4-6 9-15 12 15 13-21 i On a By MIKE KERWICK STAFF WRITER EAST RUTHERFORD Honest all the way to the last whistle of his career, Taquan Dean didn't have cheery words for this one. No way, no how. Dean wasn't going to sweep this 20-point loss under the 29 other basketball games Neptune won during this landmark season. This one hurt.

Dean picked up on what the 10,069 spectators at yesterday's Tournament of Champions final noticed five minutes into the game: St. Anthony was the gold standard, is the gold standard, and until someone finds a more consistent way to outduke Friars coach Bob Hurley, St. Anthony will continue to be the gold standard. The Friars (29-1) won their eighth title in the tournament's 14-year history yesterday afternoon, crushing Neptune 69-49 at Continental Airlines Arena. St.

John's-bound guard Elijah Ingram led St. Anthony, the No. 1 team in the state and the No. 2 team in the nation, with 18 points, one of four Friars to hit double figures. Nobody from Neptune (29-3) had more than 10 points, just four days after every Scarlet Fliers starter had at least 13 points.

"We didn't come here to lose," Dean said. "You could say it's been a nice ride and it's a privilege to be here, but that's not good enough. "We came here to win. Not to lose." It got away early. It was 4-0 after 51 seconds, 9-2 after four minutes, and 19-11 by the end of the first quarter.

Ingram, Donald Copeland and Dwayne Lee were carving up the Fliers' matchup zone defense. Ingram hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give him 10 for the quarter. It didn't help any that Neptune senior center Robert Lay-ton picked up his second foul less than three minutes into the Neptune From Page D9 to clip past. At 5:13 after the bus rumbles through the Asbury Toll Plaza two Neptune police cars, their lights flashing in the gathering twilight, form an escort. The players and coaches are adamant that they do not want a parade around the community.

Parade phobia mounts when fire trucks greet the bus as it passes the Jumping Brook Plaza on Route 33. "Home, home, home," the biggest game in Neptune history besides the Camden game," he said, referring to the 1981 victory that stands above all others. But while a game played in January at Neptune made the Fliers' season, it stuck in St. Anthony's craw, the lone blemish in an otherwise perfect run. So Elijah Ingram hits a jump shot three seconds into the game, and Terrence Roberts gets a couple of quick fouls on Robert Layton, another senior, and next thing you know the Friars are up 11-2.

Todd was right, Neptune never was in the game. They got to the game, though, and that should count for something. Bill Handleman is an Asbury Park Press columnist. E-mail: St. Anthony-69 12 12 21 0 12 () shotmade team chants.

To everyone's relief, Moro-zowsky turns left at Neptune Boulevard and, moments later, the vehicle rolls to a halt where the day's journey began, at the rear of the Neptune gymnasium. "No practice tomorrow," says O'Donnell. Fans and a pizza party hosted by the Red and Black Booster Club await the team in the gym. Todd is gratified by the welcoming reception. "Even though we lost, it still feels good to know we have the town behind us," he says.

"It was behind us all year. "It helps out a lot." It's 5:35 p.m. Neptune's season is over. Ford's 23 lift Trenton to girls tide THE ASSOCIATED PRESS will be hoping for another shot next year. Left: Eugene Harris (left) and Todd show their disappointment during the postgame press conference at Continental Airlines Arena.

DARYL STONE Photographer by two points at the buzzer (while at Neptune) and we lost by 20, but a loss is a loss." "Any team that plays together can go really far," said Alston, Neptune's Most Valuable Player yesterday. "We'll use this as motivation and work harder for next year." They can rest easy knowing that O'Donnell will still be the one holding the whistle in that first practice next year when they try to to it all over again. "I'm not ready for the rocking chair yet," O'Donnell said. Scott Stump is an Asbury Park Press staff writer. it, they'll understand that the Friars had a huge advantage.

They had been here before. In fact, they had already won the Tournament of Champions seven times in only eight tries. Bob Hurley owns this tournament. Matter of fact, they might as well go ahead and start making plans to rename this thing in his honor. The Neptune kids didn't know this, though.

They were sure they were going to win the game yesterday, so sure they could taste it. They had lost to the Friars once, in December, but they had avenged that loss in January and they were confident they could do it again. More than confident. Maybe too confident. "When we beat St.

Anthony, that was the biggest moment of the season for me," said Todd. Dean agreed. "That was the t' 1 1 nnriinii ii i iitunii iiinaj Imimi said. "I'm glad I came back. The pressure built as the season went along.

The kids stepped up to the challenge because they wanted to prove how good this team is." The vise started tightening from Day One as Neptune returned three starters and up-and-coming juniors Marques Alston and Eugene Harris, meaning that a season without a couple of titles would've been deemed a failure in many eyes. "The kids had a lot of goals," O'Donnell said. "They won Central Jersey and got to the final of the Shore Conference Tournament last year, which gave "They were just fantastic," O'Donnell said of St. Anthony. "There's no reason for our team to feel any shame." No, there isn't.

Not that this stopped the kids from feeling bad afterward. "It's really tough for me to end it this way," said Todd, a senior. "Knowing I'm not ever going to put on this uniform again, that's tough. Maybe in a week or so I'll look back and see what we accomplished. "I imagined me and my teammates out in the middle of the court, holding up a trophy.

I definitely pictured that a lot. "It didn't happen." So this was it for Todd, who still doesn't know where he's going to school next year. Richmond, St. Peter's, Monmouth, Tennessee Tech are the ones he mentions, but there are details yet to be ironed out, grades that need to be improved over the Neptune 24 1 iiiwuki A them a taste. They wanted more." The sting of yesterday's loss is felt hardest by the seniors, such as Louisville-bound guard Taquan Dean and backcourt mate Terrance Todd, but it also might have been the best shot at the ultimate prize for the returning players.

"It's finally hit me that this is the last time I get to play with all these great players," Harris said. "You try to take the opportunity when it's there," said junior sixth man Jerome Hubbard. "Maybe next year we won't get this far. My dad lost a state title next few months. Taquan Dean knows where he'll be in the fall.

He'll be at Louisville, playing for Rick Pitino. While his immediate future may be clearer, this didn't make it any easier for him yesterday. "Getting this far and not finishing it up, that's hard," Dean said quietly, sitting in a cold, cramped locker room. "You don't want to go to your grave thinking you're second best." At this point in their lives, these kids might be tempted to think that losing a game like this is the end of the world. They'll get over it.

They'll come to their senses soon enough, realizing that just getting to a game like this took a monumental effort, something they can be proud of for the rest of their lives. Also, when they think about (14, 55 20 shot made 14 Tjh 55 VJH 4 55 Neptune-49 4 14 55 EAST RUTHERFORD Mykeema Ford led Trenton to the NJSIAA girls Tournament of Champions title with a little help from her friends. Ford scored 23 points and Trenton closed the game with a 9-2 spurt to defeat Will-ingboro 53-46 in the championship game held before a crowd of more than 8,000 at the Continental Airlines Arena. Ford, who was 5-for-26, added six steals and six assists for the top-seeded Tornadoes, who were playing in the school's first trip to the TOC. She finished her career with 1,786 points.

Sophomore Crystal Lan-ghorne had 17 points and 12 rebounds for second-seeded Willingboro, which started one freshman, two sophomores and a junior. Willingboro (46): Langhome 8-1-17, Ratliff 0 (D-0-3. WarJe 6 1 13. Oaddams 3 2 8, Meyers 2 1-5, Travm 0-0-0. Totals 19 (11-5 46.

Trenton (53): Darby 2-(l)-2 9. Dowling 2-2-6, Dowling 2-2-6, Charlene Phelps 2-0-4, Ford 3-(2)-ll-23, Charnetre Phelps 5-1-11, Bwra 0-0-0, Anderson 00. law 0-00. Totals 14(3)1653. Willmgtxxo (28 2) 11 11 10 14 46 Trenton (30-1) 11 12 13 17 53 13 55 13 55 55 A 55 Ail 55 W55 3pt 2pt 2-10 3pt 9-18 2pt Total 11-28 Total 33 1 1-10 3pt 9'13 2pt 10-23 Total 3-7 3pt 9-14 2pt 12-21 Total.