The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 8

2Kb Jnqutrnr SUNDAY March 13, 1988 13-C JERSEY SPORTS SOUTH Panthers' rally falls short as Elizabeth prevails v. ,7. Minutemen hold on for 68-67 victory if eV, (i i 'AS 1hffK- ii I Iv I If 1 1 urn ii i rir i nir I mi iiii mum mini! j6 r'itml foMTIMiMAiiiilwiii imp! 'Till 1 1 till Him liniiiii aW'Mi ii mi tin "i ill "i "1 1 1 A friend attempts to console Camden players Vic Carstarphen (left) and Arthur Bussie. Biirl. Township just misses Elizabeth's Alex Jones (left) fouled with 48 seconds to play.

He sank both free throws. Suddenly, Camden was within 68-67. Camden's Reggie Lawrence intercepted a length-of-the-court pass with 42 seconds left, and the Panthers charged down court with a chance to take the lead for the first time in the game. But Brown, who scored 12 of his 31 points in the final quarter, stepped over the baseline as he tried to drive toward the hoop. Thirty-seven seconds remained.

Alex Jones' short jumper was blocked out of bounds by Camden's Williams with 28 seconds remaining. With 21 seconds left, the Panthers' Burt stole a pass in the paint. Camden, with destiny apparently on its side, headed downcourt. Julius Davis, in heavy traffic, saw his six-footer roll off the rim. Brown and Williams both grabbed the re Sk.

iHl -tV- An obstacle too tall for Camden to hurdle By KeVlifi Tatum miuirer SUfl Writer LAWRENCEVILLE It wasn't one of those losses that was easy to accept. For the Burlington Township High basketball team, the feelings ranged from disappointment to disgust after a S9-S8 loss to Glen Ridge in the state Group 1 championship game at Rider College The Falcons (25-5), the defending champions, appeared to have all the necessary weapons to take their third title 'in the last four years. But Glen Ridge (24-3) played a patient, 'physical brand of ball that knocked Township off its game. "We didn't have any particular player "6 play an outstanding game," said Township coach Ken Faulkner. "When that happens, it's difficult for us.

What they had was muscle, and that hurt us a bit. But we beat a lot of good teams to get here, and we did a lot of celebrating. You have to take the good with the bad." Glen Ridge, a team of overachiev-ers that was smaller than Township and that played without a true center, had a defensive front line of 6-foot-4 Dave Kennedy (200 pounds), 6-4 Tim Liddy (180) and 6-3 Terry BrunneT(175). The Ridgers still managed to 25-23, and kept 6-9 center Brian Carlin (10 points and six rebounds) from being much of a factor. Carlin had only one basket in the last' jwo quarters.

Nevertheless, Township wasn't out of the game until it turned the ball over with one second left. Troy Jackson (13 points), the Falcons' 6-3 point guard who missed several minutes in the second period because of foul trouble, and 6-3 forward Shawn Williams (18) had brought their team to the brink of victory. Glen Ridge had wiped out a three-point halftime deficit to lead, 4645, entering the final quarter. AfteftThe Ridgers opened the lead to 48-45rJackson and Williams rallied the Falcbns to a 50-50 tie. Justus quickly, however, Glen Ridge scored five straight points to go up, 55-50, with 2 minutes, 44 seconds remaining.

But with 1:29 on the clock, a breakaway layup by Carlin knotted the score again at 55-55. Glen Ridge then ran some time off the clock before Williams sent By Sam Carchidi Inquirer Staff Writer WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. Despite one of the most remarkable fourth-quarter comebacks in the 70-year history of the NJSIAA boys' basketball tournament, Camden High's two-year reign as the Group 4 state champion ended yesterday afternoon. Elizabeth built a 66-51 lead with about three minutes left, then held off a frantic Camden rally and defeated the Panthers, 68-67, before a sellout crowd of 3,000 in reverberating Alumni Memorial Gymnasium at Monmouth College. The loss ended Camden's two-year tenure as the Group 4 state champion.

The Panthers (27-4) were trying to become the first team In 54 years to capture three consecutive Group 4 state crowns. Elizabeth (27-2) won its second state title. It also won the Group 4 crown in 1985, when it defeated Camden, 58-53. The Minutemen hardly finished with a flurry. In the last 3 minutes, 27 seconds, Elizabeth: Missed all six of its one-and-one foul shots.

Was outscored by 16-2. Camden, in fact, scored the game's final 11 points. "If we would have played the whole game with the same intensity we had in the last three minutes," said Camden forward Denny Brown, after finishing as the game's leading scorer (31) and rebounder (17), "we would have won. If we only had a few more minutes." And if only Brown and teammate Jamaine Williams hadn't both grabbed an offensive rebound with 12 seconds left but let's rewind the film a bit. When 7-foot sophomore center Luther Wright (17 points, seven rebounds) scored an inside bucket after taking a slick pass from the game's most valuable player, Marcus Badgett (21 points, five assists), Elizabeth held a 66-51 lead with 3:40 remaining.

Thirteen seconds later, Elizabeth's Ray Graham missed the front end of a one-and-one, starting the Great Free Throw Collapse. With 3:11 left, Camden's Vic Carstarphen who shot 5 for 20 from the floor and finished with 18 points buried a three-pointer. The comeback was under way. After Aaron Burt hit a jumper for Camden, Luther answered by nailing a 10-footer from the baseline with 2:23 to play. That gave Elizabeth a 68-56 lead.

It would be the Union County team's final basket of the season. In the next two-plus minutes, Elizabeth kept missing free throws, and Camden with its fans rocking the gym kept getting closer. And closer. Carstarphen hit two free throws with 2:16 left. Twelve seconds later after Elizabeth committed a turnover against Camden's suddenly effective full-court pressure Carstarphen canned an 8-foot bank shot, trimming the deficit to 68-60.

In the next minute, Elizabeth missed four one-and-ones, and Camden used two Carstarphen free throws and a Brown followup on Camden's third offensive rebound to climb within 68-64. With 1:04 left, Brown was fouled as he put up a follow-up shot. The 6-5 Vi senior made the first free throw but missed the second. No matter. Camden's Julius Davis grabbed the offensive rebound, starting a sequence in which Camden would attempt four follow-up shots.

None went in, but Brown was final, 74-53 Eillison, a short jumper by McKee and a nice double-pump move to the hoop by Ellison made it 16-6. At the end of the first period, Del-ran led, 18-10. In the second period, the Tornadoes picked up their intensity under the boards and on defense. Where they rarely got more than one shot in the first quarter, the Tornadoes began getting multiple shot opportunities. After Delran increased its lead to 25-14 wiili ovtr three luinutcs left in the quarter, Grant was fouled on a follow shot and hit two free throws.

And 6-0 guard Micheal Boyd powered to the basket and cut Delran's lead to 25-18. Sacca hit a free throw and followed that with a dunk off an assist from his brother, John. When the teams left the floor at halftime, Delran was ahead, 30-22. "A team like lOrange is dangerous coming from behind," Petrino said. "They weren't 27-1 for nothing." Delran 18 12 14 9 53 10 12 17 36 74 Orange T.

Sacca 26. J. Sacca 8, Ellison 4, McKee 4. Vognl 3. Murphy 8.

Robinson 8, Grant 23. Charles 8. Hurt 12. Boyd 18, Powell 34, Shelton 1. Special to The Inquirer MIKE PLUNKETT Special to The Inquirer BOB HILL on the bench after the game.

Williams said. "Last year, we did the job for four quarters. This year, we took breaks." Township was clicking on all cylinders at the beginning of the game. The Falcons played turnover-free ball, hit their first four three-point shots and got points from four players in building a 22-16 lead. Glen Ridge showed mostly zone in the opening period but switched to strictly man-to-man in the second quarter.

The change in defense, along with Jackson's going to the Township bench with three fouls, turned things around for the Ridgers. "Their changing from the zone to a man was a key," Faulkner said. "We can hurt a zone, but in the man, the matchups were in their favor." With defensive pressure that would hold Township to just 11 second-quarter points, the Ridgers began to peck away. Burl. Twp.

Glen Ridge 22 11 12 13 B8 16 14 16 13 59 BT: King 5. Williams 18, Carlin 10, Morgan 12, Jackson 13. GH: liddy 1 1, Kennedy 15, Brunner 9, Melito 8, Cutlip 12, Venwa 4. in Group 2 quarter lead when the Tornadoes got off to a frigid start. "Our shots were off, and we weren't rebounding," said Grant, a 6-5 forward, who scored 23 points and was voted the game's most valuable player.

"We were losing our heads and rushing our shots." The Bears, like Orange, went half-court man-to-man the whole game. Orange's full-court zone press didn't bother Delran at all until the fourth period. Mike McKee, Delran's 5-6 point ..1 Kntl UdlU, IcpwaiCuijr OL UiV. iu" court or into the middle of the floor, where another Bear could advance it toward the basket. As a result, Delran rarely had to deal with Orange's halfcourt man.

Most of the Bears' first-half points came in transition. And when they had to go into a halfcourt set, they found Sacca, who had little trouble getting to the hoop, scoring 16 first-half points. After a free throw by Sacca tied the game at 4-4, Orange missed six of its next eight shots, and Delran capitalized on every miss. Sacca did most of the damage. His six straight points midway through the period gave Delran a 10-6 lead.

And a follow shot by guard John i i out Special to The Inquirer MIKE PLUNKETT defends Camden's Denny Brown. bound. Traveling was called. Twelve seconds remained. "We both wanted the ball it's a natural instinct to go for it," Brown said.

"I don't think it was a travel but the refs called it." With 10 seconds left, DeWaren Wat-kins missed a free throw. Camden's Burt clutched the rebound and fed Carstarphen, who tried to hit Brown at midcourt. But Ray Graham intercepted the pass and dribbled away the seconds. Carstarphen finally stole the ball with one second left. It didn't matter.

Camden had run out of time. Camden Elizabeth 8 16 18 27 67 15 18 17 18 68 ELIZAlex Jones 15. Luther Wright 17, Marcus Badgett 21. Jimmy Davis 1. DaWaren Watkms 6.

Ray Graham 6. Alon Wright 2. CAMVic Carstarphen 18. Denny Brown 31, Jamaine Williams 4, Aaron Burt 8. Julius Davis 2, Arthur Bussie 2, Fred Williams 2.

By SAM CARCHIDI left, Elizabeth led by 66-51. With 48 seconds left after a breathtaking 16-2 Camden burst the lead had been trimmed to 68-67. "They were so far behind, they had nothing to lose. They just kept crashing the offensive boards," said Candelino, whose team was outrebound-ed by 28-6 off the offensive glass. "And then we didn't hit our foul shots." Elizabeth survived despite missing the front end of its last six one-and-ones and despite being outscored by 11-0 at the end of the game.

One of the reasons the Minutemen survived, according to Camden coach Clarence Turner, was the officiating. After the game, Turner, using language you won't hear on network TV, was highly critical of referees Jerry Salvato and Bob Pugh. Elizabeth shot 30 free throws (making 16); Camden shot 16 (making 10). Turner was particularly upset about a technical foul assessed Camden's Arthur Bussie with 6:50 left in the game. Fred Williams had just scored on a follow-up shot to trim Elizabeth's lead to 55-44.

After the ball went through the hoop, Bussie tossed it at an Elizabeth player. Technical foul. Badgett hit both free throws. At the time, the free throws didn't seem important. That, of course, was before Camden rallied and lost by a point.

"Bussie shoveled tne ball to tneir guy and he gets a technical Turner said. Pause. "A bush call," he said. "A bush call." But Camden didn't lose because of the officials. It lost because it was badly outshot from the floor, because it was only 3 for 12 from three-point range (Elizabeth was 4 for 7) and because it couldn't score on three possessions in the final 42 seconds.

And, yes, it lost because the family of a certain 15-year-old 7-footer happened to move from Jersey City to Elizabeth recently, thus enabling Luther Wright, a future Division I player, to transfer from national power St. Anthony. SO lit Burlington Township players Ridgers guard Justin Cutlip (12) to the free-throw line for a pair of foul shots with 48 seconds left. Cutlip's free throws were good, and when Township's Otis King went down the other end to try to tie it once more with a jumper from the lane, his shot was blocked by Kennedy. Kennedy, voted the game's most valuable player, was fouled during the scramble for the loose ball.

He added another pair of free throws to give Glen Ridge a 59-55 lead with 27 seconds left. Township then got a three-point shot from guard Monte Morgan (10) that made it 59-58 with 11 seconds to play. The Falcons' last chance to win came when they were awarded the ball with four seconds remaining after a jump ball, but on the inbounds play, Jackson was called for stepping out of bounds as he attempted to beat a Glen Ridge trap on the sideline. The Ridgers got possession with one second left. "Our intensity wasn't what it should have been for this game," Delran led by eight points at half-time and answered several challenges by Orange to take a 44-39 advantage into the fourth period.

Orange evened the score for the first time in the game at 30-30 with 5 minutes, 40 seconds left in the third period and again at 36-36. A three-point jumper by Sacca gave the Bears the lead again, and he scored three of his team's last five points in the period. But Orange, which pressed from 4i. i UiC Urciilllg tup, nuuuj ULguii leading dividends in the final quarter and running the ball downcourt for layups. The Tornadoes wound up outscor-ing Delran, 35-9, in the period.

Forward Al Grant's three-pointer with 4:51 left in the game gave Orange its first lead of the game, 53-51. In what seemed like a heartbeat, Orange had stretched its lead to 62-51. And with just over two minutes remaining, it was 66-53. "I told the guys that we had worked hard all year, and that the fourth quarter was the sum total of it all," Orange coach Al Thompson said. "It was now or never, and we had to go get it." Delran jumped out to a 16-8 first- Delran falters and loses WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J.

They won one game that had to be stopped at halftime it was resumed the next day because rain was leaking through their ancient gym roof. They won another game their 81-80 victory over bitter rival Atlantic City in Tuesday's South Jersey Group 4 final with their fans literally locked out of a gym because of a threat of violence. Nope, neither the rain nor the insane could keep the Panthers of Camden High from delivering. But a 7-foot sophomore crane? Well, that's a different story. Meet Luther Wright, the 240-pound center who helped Elizabeth defeat Camden, 68-67, in the NJSIAA Group 4 state final at Monmouth College yesterday.

Wright scored 17 points equaling his season high and showed a surprisingly soft touch from outside. More important, his inside presence altered dozens of Camden shots, and the Panthers went a dismal 27 for 72 (37.5 percent) from the floor. "How can you not be conscious of him?" asked Ben Candelino, the Elizabeth coach. Camden's defense was conscious of him. The Panthers used a 1-3 zone Aaron Burt shadowed Alex Jones, Elizabeth's leading scorer in an effort to keep Wright bottled up.

The defense worked. Sort of. Jones managed only eight shots and was held to 15 points two below his average. Wright? He took only 10 shots he hit seven and collected seven rebounds (only two offensive) in 24 minutes. But when Camden sagged to help out on the lefthanded-shoot-ing Wright, Elizabeth, displaying excellent ball movement, frequently found the open man for the short jumper.

It wasn't just luck that Elizabeth shot 24 for 40 (60 percent) from the floor. A 7-foot center, you see, has a way of creating easy shots even if he's not the one taking them. Marcus Badgett, a 6-1 forward who is headed to Maryland on a football scholarship, was one of the main benefactors of Wright's presence. Badgett, unanimously voted the game's MVP, shot 8 for 10 from the floor and scored a team-high 21 points 14 above his average. "They came out in a diamond-and-one defense and gave him the wing shot," Candelino said.

Despite Elizabeth's torrid shooting, Camden made one of the most furious comebacks in the 70-year history of the state finals. With a little over three minutes By Kkvin Tatum Inquirer staff Writer LAWRENCEVILLE Most observers gave the Delran High basketball team only a slim chance of winning yesterday when it met Orange in the state Group 2 championship game at Rider College. Orange was considered to be one of the best teams in any group in the state, while Del-ran was a long shot to even reach the title game. But for over three quarters, Delran had its more highly regarded opponent 'chasing the lead. That's wny Orange's 74-53 victory, while convincing, was not as thorough as it may appear.

The Tornadoes (28-1), in winning their'Tirst state crown since 1979, took the game away from Delran (19-8) in the last five minutes. The loss spoiled a superb 26-point performance by 6-foot-6 forward Tony Sacca, as well as an excellent effort' for three quarters by the "W' played good basketball and then ran out of gas," Delran coach Jim Petrino said. "At the end of the third period, we lost our composure and they got the tempo. We did everything we wanted to for three quarters.".