Daily Record from Morristown, New Jersey • 40

Daily record scholastic sports Dig deeper into Game. Log on to www.dal-lyrecord.com for more coverage of the Morris County area's high school sports scene. D6 Daily Record, Morris County, N.J., Sunday, February 26, 2006 Mlmm iismfii mmkmmi to Attorney MORRIS COUNTY TOURNAMENT BOYS BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP GAMES 1970 Mountain Lakes 53, Morris Knolls 38 1971 Dover 78, Mountain Lakes 75 1972 Morris Knolls 62, Morristown 60 1973 Morristown 46, Chatham Borough 42 1974 Morristown 41, Parsippany 39 1975 Morris Knolls 56, Mountain Lakes 40 1976 Morris Knolls 57, Morris Hills 34 1977 West Morris 63, Chatham Borough 57 1978 Morris Catholic 58, Delbar-ton 53 1979 Parsippany 42, Chatham Borough 40 1980 West Morris 78, Morristown 73, 20T 1981 Morris Catholic 71, Bayley-Ellard 44 1982 Morristown 70, Bayley-Ellard 48 1983 Morristown 65, Hanover Park 55 1984 Parsippany Hills 65, Parsippany 57 1985 Morristown 68, Parsippany 64 Morristown 65, Hanover Park BY STEVE TOBER SPECIAL TO THE DAILY RECORD To look at Pat Sullivan and John Twomey you see two very different looking players. However, each owes part of his success to the other in the course of helping Delbarton win a sixth Morris County Tournament title. The pair combined for 36 points and 24 rebounds in Delbarton's 73-55 victory over Randolph in the 37th MCT final and both earned spots on the All-Tournament team.

While the 6-foot-5, 235-pound Twomey (game-high 28 points, eight rebounds) utilized his strong and thick body to earn tourney MVP honors, he certainly also realized that his lean, 6-foot-6 sophomore teammate was instrumental in making life a little bit easier inside the paint against the Rams. played his game, coming through with a lot of offensive rebounds and put backs, and really doing a terrific job off the boards," Twomey said. "He really makes my life a lot easier when he plays like he did out there tonight." Sullivan scored nine points and hauled down a game-high 16 rebounds and none was bigger than his put-back of a missed Twomey free throw to give Delbarton a 35-33 lead three minutes into the third quarter. From that point on, the Green Wave seemed energized and proceeded to outscore Randolph (16-9) by a 19-10 margin in the third and 43-24 for the second half. Sullivan's second effort on another offensive rebound resulted in him scoring inside while drawing a foul with 3.3 seconds left in the third.

His conventional three-point play gave Delbarton a 49-41 lead heading to the fourth quarter. The game really began to open up with 5:40 left in the fourth when Sullivan canned a 17-foot baseline jumper to give the Green Wave a 55-43 advantage and they were on their way. But, while he did score one point above his season average of 8.3 per Sullivan's biggest impact was off the glass, and half of his 16 rebounds were of the offensive variety, which frequently gave Delbarton second and third opportunities to score. "I take a lot of pride in my rebounding," said the soft-spoken Sullivan, who was joined by Twomey and junior guard Justin Garris (17 points, six rebounds) as Green Wave representatives on the All-Tournament team. "If I can make a big put-back off a missed free throw, or off a missed jumper, it helps our team, and that's all I'm concerned about." And one of his prime teachers in the rebounding department, besides his coaches, is Twomey.

"Twomey has been my boy all year," said Sullivan with a wide smile. "He's helped me out with my post moves and has taught me a lot about the fundamentals of boxing out and hustling to the boards, which he does so well." Sullivan and Twomey battled all night against Randolph's strong inside people, including 6-foot-5 standout Andrew Cook (17 points, six boards), who was bothered by a high ankle sprain. The Green Wave's one-two punch off the glass was too much to deal with for the Rams as a whole. "If we can go out and dominate people off the boards it's going to make it easier for everyone on the team," Sullivan said. "And right now we're playing well in all facets of the game which is great to see as we head into the state tournament." Delbarton, the sixth seed in Non-Public, North opens up state tourney play on Tuesday, hosting 11th-seeded Roselle Catholic.

The winner travels to third-seeded Immaculata of Somerville for a second-round contest on Thursday, March 2. Speaking of tournaments, and the inherent pressure of playing in either the MCT or the states, another area where the elder statesman Twomey has nurtured Sullivan outside of the rebounding department is simply in helping him to handle all the aspects of being part of a tourney atmosphere. "Twomey's really helped me with pressure here (at CCM) because as a sophomore I'm not used to this," Sulli-; van said. "He calmed me down and we were able to go out and get the victories, which is the best part of it all." Delbarton, which started the season 0-3, then won 10 in a row before a loss to Mendham, then won 10 straight again before losing at Morris Catholic this past Thursday, is going on all cylinders now at 21-5 and with a sixth MCT championship trophy in its hands. "To be part of all this as a sophomore with so many outstanding seniors, like Twomey and John Chrin, who is another guy who has given me some great guidance, is just incredible," said Sullivan, who is a resident of Madison.

"And to win the Morris County Tournament title is a great feeling. "It gives me motivation to try and come back my junior and senior years and see if we can win it again." Meanwhile, as Twomey closes in on the end of his superb high school 1986 53 1987 1988 48 1989 58 1990 48 Mendham 50, Randolph 49 Pequannock 54, West Morris Delbarton 72, Mount Olive Delbarton 61, Pequannock 1991 Parsippany Hills 80, West Morris 56 1992 Delbarton 75, Morris Hills 69 1993 Mendham 61, Delbarton 53 1994 Delbarton 57, Boonton 40 1995 Kinnelon 51, Mendham 38 1996 Mendham 53, West Morris 47 1997 Mendham 63, Delbarton 44 1998 Parsippany 64 Delbarton 55 1999 Parsippany Hills 70, Mendham 69 2000 Mendham 58, Morristown 43 2001 Morristown 54, Mendham 52 2002 Morristown 51, Mendham 43 2003 Delbarton 58, Morristown 54 2004 West Morris 47, Randolph 40 2005 Par Hills 49, Randolph 43, OT 2006 Delbarton 73, Randolph 55 1 'l wfv I i "A i i i pp TYSON TRISH DAILY RECORD Delbarton's Pat Sullivan drives to the hole during Saturday's MCT final win over Randolph. For a photo gallery of this game, log on to www.dailyrecord.com. career, Sullivan's legacy is still in its burgeoning stages. "He's going to be the best player in the county, either next year or the year after," Twomey said.

"And, as a sophomore, he's already come up big for us. "He's long, he can jump high and he just kills on the boards." MORRIS COUNTY TOURNAMENT BOYS BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME MVPS 1976 Jamie Ciampaglio Morris Knolls 1977 Dennis Stanley West Morris 1978 Dave Halloran Morris Catholic 1979 John Baranowski Parsippany 1980 Greg Clay West Morris 1981 Greg Limon Morris Catholic 1982 Bob McCann Morristown 1983 Fred Blackman Morristown 1984 Derrick Bush Parsippany Hills 1985 Mark Huffman Morristown 1986 Mark Huffman Morristown 1987 Rob Patton Mendham 1988 Jim Hitchcock Pequannock 1989 Vincent Ferrara Delbarton 1990 Tom North Delbarton 1991 Glenn Sekunda Parsippany Hills 1992 Bill DiSpaltro Delbarton 1993 Kevin Nardi Mendham 1994 Bill DiSpaltro Delbarton 1995 Leif Olsen Kinnelon 1996 Kyle Helbig Mendham 1997 Kyle Helbig Mendham 1998 Troy Murphy Delbarton Delbarton celebrates in the locker room after its Morris County Tournament victory over Randolph on Saturday. TYSON TRISH DAILY RECORD Ellis Sherrod Parsippany 1999 Hills 2000 2001 2002 2003 Jeff Schiffner Mendham Jason Clarke Morristown Jahmar Thorpe Morristown Pat Featherston Delbarton 2004 Drew Burton West Morris 2005 Geoff Grivalsky Parsippany Hills 2006 John Twomey Delbarton Wave fourth-quarter foul trouble. "We pushed the ball on every play," Delbarton point guard Rob Delaney said. "It got us up the floor quicker and got them in foul trouble." "We have good big men free throw shooters.

Our guards are pretty good but Twomey and Sully are unbelievable free throw shooters and that's what really helps us out. Randolph had some strong performances by Mike Cardillo and Erik Burkhard off the bench to make up for the hobbling Cook and Corey Zindel, who missed most of the first half with foul trouble, but rebounding woes in the second half eventually got the best of the Rams. "We did a horrible job on the boards," Randolph coach Jim Dixon said. "They played harder than we did. You have to give them credit.

They got to loose balls. They made more foul shots than we took. We didn't look like the same team as last Saturday." A key play in the game occurred with 1:16 left in the first quarter. Sullivan went up for a layup and collapsed in a heap with Cook who stayed down on the floor for a few minutes before hobbling off with a sprained ankle. He would return in the second quarter but his effectiveness diminished in the second half as Delbarton pushed the tempo.

Garris got the Green Wave off to an early start. He scored eight first-quarter points to help Delbarton to an 18-13 first quarter advantage. "They have a lot of big men," Garris said. "I came out and ran as fast as I could and tried to beat them down the court. We wanted to get Cook and all the big guys in foul trouble and get them out of the game." "Justin is the X-factor," Twomey added.

"When he comes to play he's one of the best players in the county. He came to play today. He played hard on defense and offense." The Rams mounted a 6-1 rally to start the second quar-, ter with the help of a Burkhard layup. Jones, a junior guard, scored nine second-quarter points to help the Rams battle the Green Wave even up for the rest of the quarter. Twomey hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to cut the Randolph lead to 31-30 at halftime.

Delbarton decided it was time to make a push. "We knew that they were going to try and double down on me and Pat in the post," Twomey said. "If we pushed the ball up they couldn't have that much post pressure so we could get drive and dish for shots, layups and then we just got them in foul trouble." Delbarton had a 38-36 advantage with 2:45 left in the third quarter when they started to pull away with an 11-6 run. The spree included 3-pointers by Lazio and Twomey from the right side of the arc and a 3-point play by Sullivan. He was fouled while putting back a miss for a layup with :03.3 left in the quarter.

He sank his free throw to make it 49-41 going into the final period. "When we ran our halfcourt stuff very deliberately they were able to take Twomey away," Delbarton coach Dan Whalen said. "We needed to get it into transition and speed things up and get them in unsettled defensive situations and I thought we did a better job of that. Robbie Delaney did a good job of pushing the ball up the floor." Sullivan may have employed a back-breaking play with 6:35 left in the game. Delbarton led 49-43 when Jones fouled Green Wave guard John D'Angola on a drive.

D'Angola hit his first free throw but the second one bounced out and Sullivan grabbed the rebound. The ball eventually found Twomey's hands and he was fouled on his layup. His free throw completed a rare 4-point possession and gave Delbarton a 10-point lead. "Sully gets a lot of rebounds on offense," Twomey said. "He really helped us build that lead." "He's a lunch pail guy," Whalen added.

"He bangs and battles and plays hard and does those little things you need." The Green Wave maintained a double-digit margin the rest of the way by driving for layups and hitting enough of their free throws. The Rams only hit 3 of 12 shots from the field in the fourth quarter and couldn't catch up. The All-Tournament team included Twomey Sullivan, Garris, Cook, Jones and Madison's Dan Corvino. MCT Final Delbarton 73 Randolph 55 DELBARTON (73) -John Twomey 7-2-8-28, Ross Lazio 1-2-4-12, Justin Garris 6-0-5-17. Rob Delaney 0-0-3-3, Pat Sullivan 4-0-1-9, John D'Angola 1-0-2-4, Joe McLaughlin 0-0-0-0, Matt Leotti 0-0-0-0.

Totals 20-4-23-73. RANDOLPH (55) Darrell Jones 6-1-2-17. Corey Zindel 1-0-0-2 Chip Naddalf 2-0-0-4. Pat O'Brien 1-0-8-4, Andrew Cook 5-0-7-17, Zach Feinberg 0-0-0-0, Mike Cardillo 1-1-1-6, Chris Mastrangelo 0-0-0-0, Erik Burkhard 2-0-1-5. Totals Delbarton 18 12 19 24 73 Randolph 13 18 10 14 55 Records: Randolph 16-9, Delbarton 21-5.

Mark Kitchin can be reached at 973-428-6677 or mkitchingannett.com. CONTINUED FR0MD1 "It's the greatest feeling in the world," said Twomey, who was named tournament MVP. "We've been working toward this for three years. Ever since I started playing varsity basketball I knew that this was as big as it gets for us. We knew that we would win as a team or lose as a team.

We had that attitude." "It says a lot about how far these guys have come," Delbarton coach Dan Whalen said. "They've improved a lot from where we started. They worked really hard and stuck together and have done a terrific job as a group." After a close and entertaining first half, Delbarton started pulling away in the third quarter by pushing the ball to the basket and getting to the foul line. The Green Wave hit 23 of 33 free throws overall and eventual put the Rams in.