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ASBURY PARK PRESS I MONDAY, MARCH 17, 2003 "1 ir fc 0)7m ii i i 1 1 i LnJ ILJ NJSIAA BOYS AND GIRLS BASKETBALL GROUP CHAMPIONSHIPS mm mmw mm Mustangs get to run 'n' gun, and run away with Group IV crown By NEIL SCHUMAN STAFF WRITER ELIZABETH It barely took a minute for Marlboro to begin exploiting the opportunity, an opportunity it rarely received this season. So when the Mustangs saw that they were going to be able to run the floor at the MARLBORO 84 EAST ORANGE 69 a triple double. Engineering the break, Zoll had 10 assists. She pumped in 11 points and hustled her way to eight rebounds. Add in a handful of daggers in the form of jumpers administered by Christie Kastner (10 points) and Jenna Gatto (nine points) and the Jaguars were on the receiving end of a Mustang offense operating on all cylinders.

"We had chemistry on the court today," Zoll said. "Everyone was hitting stuff. Even if we did something bad, there were four other people on the court to say, 'Hey, don't worry about I give all the credit to my teammates for moving. I was lucky to be able to get up and down the court today." "I came here because I really wanted to be a part of something special," said first-year assistant coach Ed Zucker. "I said to the girls in the locker room that I've been around basketball a long time and coached a lot of teams, but I've never been more proud of a team than this one.

"They went through a lot of Marlboro seeded 2nd, Vianney 4th ELIZABETH Shabazz, which electrified the crowd at the Dunn Sports Center in yesterday's 77-67 Group III championship victory over previously undefeated Willingboro, was awarded the top seed in the NJSIAA Tournament of Champions, which begins tomorrow at the Dunn Center. Marlboro, which defeated East Orange yesterday 84-69 to win its first Group IV title, was seeded second. Along with Shabazz, Marlboro received a first-round bye. The Mustangs will be making their first TOC appearance on Friday at 6 p.m., when they take on the winner of tomorrow's 6 p.m. game between No.

3 seed Sacred Heart, the Parochial champion, and No. 6 seed Northern Burlington, the Group II champion. St. John Vianney, which defeated Immaculata 54-46 on Saturday to win its first Parochial A title since 1999, received the No. 4 seed.

Vianney will be making its 10th TOC appearance tomorrow at 8 p.m. against fifth-seeded Butler, the Group I champion. The Lancers will be looking to add to their state-record total of five Tournament of Champions crowns. The winner of the Vianney-Butler game advances to an 8 p.m. semifinal on Friday against Shabazz.

The championship game will be played on March 25 at Continental Airlines Arena at 6 p.m. Neil Schuman GIRLS ROUNDUP Shabazz tops Willingboro Shabazz, which lost the girls Group HI title to Willingboro last year, returned the favor yesterday, posting a 77-67 win before a capacity crowd of 4,200 people at the Dunn Center in Elizabeth. Junior point guard Matee Ajavon had 24 points, hitting 15-for-16 from the free throw line. Shabazz held a 45-23 halftime lead on a team that had previously beaten everv cms of its pace they enjoy so much, they were like children turned loose in a candy store. They had no answer for for Al-Nisa Buckner, East Orange's senior scoring machine, because nobody does.

But with East Orange continuing to press, the Mustangs continued to run their lethal transition game. And with the return of the run 'n' gun Mustangs yesterday, Marlboro was able to return home from Elizabeth High School's Dunn Sports Center with its first Group IV championship trophy in tow after an 84-69 victory. They'll return to the Dunn Center on Friday for a Tournament of Champions semifinal, after receiving a first-round bye. It started with a Chakhia DARYL STONBStalT Photographer Marlboro's Brina Pollack jumps into the arms of teammate Chakhia Cole, who holds the trophy she received as team MVP after the Mustangs won the Group IV title. adversity.

Buckner is incredible and there was no way to stop her. But, when we got rebounds, we were able to score with no problem," he said. "Rebounding and defense wins championships." Marlboro 84 East Orange 69 Marlboro (84): Zoll 4 2-2 11, Kastner 3 3-4 10, Pollack 10 6-7 27, Gatto 3 3-4 9, Cote 8 11 13 27, Zrto 0 0-0 0, Rosenblatt 0 0-0 0, Ban- 0 0-0 0, Tanen 0 0-0 0, Stevens 0 0-0 0, McManon 0 0-0 Totals: 28 25-30 84. East Orange (69): Thomas 1 0-0 2, Woolaston 2 0-0 4, Peace 6 0-0 IS, Buckner 10 14-15 36, Beatty 1 1-2 3, Dunbar 0 0-0 0, Damley 0 0-0 0, Ward 0 0-0 0, Barnes 0 0-0 0, Walker 0 0-0 0, Barkley 0 0-0 0, Taylor 0 3 4 3, May 2 2-4 Totals: 21 20-25 69. Marlboro (26-3) 21 17 23 23 84 East Orange (25-3) 15 19 14 21 69 3-pomt goals: (M) Zoll, Kastner, Pollack; (E) Cole rebound, the first of the 11 boards she gathered, an outlet pass to Sharnee Zoll and a feed to Brina Pollack for a layup.

Every subsequent rebound or steal sprung the Mustangs (26-3) into motion. "A lot of teams had the scouting report on us to pack it in on Chakhia and have us hit outside shots," Zoll said. "Today we got a rare chance to get out in transition and we had a lot of fun with it." Buckner scored her game-high 36 points at a consistent pace, helping the Jaguars (25-3) to remain within single digits through most of the first three quarters. "(Buckner) is amazing," Zoll said. "Her body control is outstanding.

As soon as she would get up in the air, our coaches would tell us, 'Don't even try and jump with her, just try and box her out' was 10-for-19 from the floor and dished out five assists. Cole dominated the low block, shooting 8 of 11 from the field and was ll-for-13 at the free throw line. "I really had to work on tny free throws over the summer," Cole said. "I had to keep my elbow a little tighter, like Brina told me." would climb within striking distance, the Mustangs would answer. Pollack and Cole both enjoyed the return of the running game, as each had season-high totals of 27 points.

"I guess it's like riding a bike," Cole said. "It's always going to be there," Pollack added. With a mixture of sprinting drives and jumpers, Pollack But every time the Jaguars Zoll was two rebounds shy of Peace 5, Buckner 2: Neptune's dream of TOC return shattered opponents by at least 20 points. Lateisha Wade had 20 points for Willingboro, which cut its deficit to nine in the fourth quarter, but never got closer. BUTLER 43, WILDWOOD 37: Jessica Smith scored 19 points to lead Butler past Wild-wood in the Group I championship game.

Butler (23-3) will play in the Tournament Of Champions tomorrow. Lana Harshaw had 19 points to lead Wildwood (24-3). NORTHERN BURLINGTON 47, NEWTON 40: Erica Davis scored 20 points to lead Northern Burlington to a past Newton in the Group championship game. Davis also had 16 rebounds and three blocked shots for Northern Burlington (23-6). Sheakia Jackson led Newton (18-10) with 17 points.

The Associated Press Roselle overcomes a 17-point deficit to claim the Group II championship. BOYS ROUNDUP By SCOTT STUMP STAFF WRITER PISCATAWAY Neptune lost three scholarship players to graduation before this season and had two starters who weren't even on the team last season. However, the name on their jerseys did not change, which meant unfairly or not the expectations at one of the state's perennially strong programs didn't change either. Especially for a team returning a player of the caliber of Monmouth-bound senior forward Marques Alston. That's why the row of dull stares and red eyes on the faces of Neptune's seniors after yesterday's devastating 54-53 loss to Roselle football scholarship but also plans to play basketball for the Tar Heels.

"We just wanted to get two (points) here, three there, get a stop or two, and just chip away, chip away." The reason the Rams had to chip away was because Neptune seniors Marques Alston (15 points) and Zenon Quiles (14 points) combined for 21 first-half points to give the Scarlet Fliers a 33-20 lead at the break. However, that lead was up to 30-13 with 3:02 left in the first half before Roselle went on a 7-2 run to end the half. "Towards the end of the second quarter, we felt a little comfortable, but we knew they would come back," said Alston, who was named Neptune's MVP for the game. "We knew they wouldn't quit." Roselle hammered the offensive glass to fuel its comeback, eventually outrebounding Neptune 22-5 on the offensive boards and scoring 23 second-chance points to only two by Neptune. Roselle denied the Scarlet Fliers their fourth group title while winning its 11th group title overall and state-record seventh in Group II.

"They started Dlavins their in me jnjmaa uroup 11 championship showed that their im- ROSELLE 54 Passive run to a sec-NEPTUNE 53 ond straight group hmhm final doesn't mean anything to them right now. It hurts even more because Neptune (24-5) had a 17-point second-quarter lead and watched it slowly drip away. There will be no return to the Tournament of Champions final, which the Scarlet Fliers reached after winnine Oronn rrr lact Bloomfield Tech wins Courtney Nelson went coast to-coast with six seconds remaining and scored on a floating bank shot in the lane at the buzzer as Bloomfield Tech came from behind to earn a 61-59 victory over Paulsboro in the NJSIAA Group 1 Boys Basketball Championship yesterday at the Louis Brown Athletic Center at Rutgers University. Nelson finished with 28 points as Bloomfield Tech (22-4) won its first state group title despite trailing by 15 points with 6:51 left in the third quarter. It trimmed the gap to 44-43 heading into the fourth quarter against Paulsboro (25-4), and the lead then changed hands five times.

FRANKLIN 66, CRANFORD 59: Kevin Bent had 19 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and five steals as Franklin (27-2) won Group III, its first state group title. Cranford (18-11) trailed 60-56 with 40 seconds left when Brian Zuravnsky drained a 3-pointer, but a 3-point play from the paint by Brown sealed the contest for Franklin with 31 seconds remaining. TEANECK 68, TRENTON 56: Willie Irick had 19 points and 11 rebounds as Teaneck won the Group IV title. Keon Riggins led Teaneck (23-6), which won the Group IV title in 1999, with 22 points. He hit 12 of 14 from the foul line.

The Associated Press started rebounding the ball," O'Donnell said. "They got second and third shots and that killed us." Neptune also got away from what had been working offensively as Alston and Quiles each only took three shots from the field in the second half. "They started double-teaming us and trapping on us," said Quiles, who also had a team-high nine rebounds. "Their help defense was also tough." Roselle took its first lead when Jonathan Hart (nine points) scored on a putback to make it 44-43 with 6:08 left in the game. The Scarlet Fliers briefly recovered when senior Jerome Hubbard threw down a one-handed slam to give Neptune a 49-46 lead and get the crowd of 4,500 at the Louis Brown Athletic Center at Rutgers on its feet.

However, Holley scored seven of Roselle's final eight points to put the Rams over the top. Hostile 54, Ntptunt 53 ston 6 3 4 15' Ha 3 2 7 Hubbarl1 4 01 9. Montgomery i8" 0 1-2 Simms 0 0-0 0, Humpbrey 0 0-0 0, Lodge 0 0-0 0 Qu'les 5 3-4 14; Totals: 20 10-15 53. iVS4 Gullla" 0 0-0 0, Paige 3 0-0 7, Dominique 3 0-0 6. Henoer- r3, 4- Holle 7 7 9 23' Han 4 1-2 9, Jesse Menus 0 0-0 0, Learners 1 0-0 Totals: 20 10-14 54 Boselle (23-3) 9 1118i654 3-point goals: (N) Hams, Hubbard, Quiles; (R) Holley 2, Paige, Henderson l.

UVUOUll to become the first Shore Conference boys basketball team to reach the TOC championship. Neptune did that with Division I-A recruits Terrance Todd (Fairfield) and Taquan Dean (Louisville) and Division II signee Robert Layton (Philadelphia) leading the way. "Last year was one of those dream years, and we lost three top players," said Neptune coach Ken O'Donnell. "That was a tough act to follow. (This season's team) stepped up in almost every situation." Except for yesterday, when Roselle star Jesse Holley lived up to his reputation by scoring 11 of his game-high 23 points in the fourth quarter to lead the charge for the Rams (23-3) on his way to winning most valuable player honors for his team.

Holley scored on a layup off a steal to tie the game at 52 with 1:01 left and then made it 54-53 when he hit a turnaround jumper with 35 seconds remaining. Neptune then missed a short jumper and a 3-point attempt down the stretch to seal its fate. "We've been down in a lot of games," said Holley, who is headed to North Carolina on a ft A-J(? -4 AUGUSTO F. MENEZESStafT Photographer AoseUe's Jonathan Hart puts up a shot that Neptune's Zenon Quiles tries to block as Neptune's Eugene Harris watches. 12 MO.

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