by Alex Schwartz

I went over to the Iron Palace tonight to watch the Trenton Catholic (NJ) Iron Mikes host the Rancocas Valley (NJ) Red Devils. It was a big night for TCA basketball, as it was senior night—this was the final regular season home game of the year—and also the game in which Dondre Whitmore '10 was expected to reach the 1,000 point mark of his career, as he entered with 998 points. Fred Falchi's squad has three seniors, Daquan Basnight, Lafayette Smith, and Reggie Coleman, all of whom provide valuable minutes, with Basnight as the lone senior starter. Needless to say, there were a lot of people in attendance at TCA for this one, as it was not only a big night, but the opponent, RV, was a solid team. The Red Devils entered the game with a great record and the number one seed in the South Jersey Group IV sectional tournament, which they won last year. Before the game, it was announced over the PA system that RV superstar American-bound Mike Bersch '09 broke his wrist on Saturday and would end his high school career with an impressive 1,158 points. The announcement was made to honor the sharpshooter for his tremendous career.

Whitmore's big moment came just 2:34 into the game, when he scored on a layup in transition. The game was paused, and Dondre was met at halfcourt by his family and presented with a basketball commemorating his impressive feat. His mother, who had been waiting between the bleachers, had about 10 balloons to present to her son. Whitmore's bucket made it 4-0 TCA, and the Iron Mikes never looked back. After jumping out to a 9-2 lead, including a three by Reggie Coleman, the home team gave up five straight points and led 9-7 entering the second quarter of play. It was then that TCA began to dominate the game. Led by a trio of treys from Frantz Massenat '10, the most highly recruited player on the team at this point, the Iron Mikes outscored the Red Devils 23-5 in the second period of action and took a 32-12 lead into the intermission.

In the third quarter, TCA came out sluggish and Rancocas Valley was the better team for much of the period, but that changed in the final minute when threes from Coleman and Whitmore extended the lead to 23 points with just eight minutes to go. Up until that point, RV had outscored TCA in the quarter, but the threes put a dagger in any comeback attempt that RV had planned. TCA would continue to dominate the game and wound up with an impressive 57-27 victory.  While the Iron Mikes reached double-digit point totals in each quarter, RV never got above eight points in a single period and averaged under seven points per quarter. It was the Iron Mikes' defense and three-point shooting that won them the game this evening.

Congratulations to Dondre Whitmore on scoring his 1,000th career high school point, to Mike Bersch on a great career, and to the TCA seniors on a fantastic four years that have not ended yet.

STATS

Rancocas Valley
Kendall White: 10pts
Nnmandi Njoku: 4pts
Isaiah Martin: 3pts
Steve MacLendon: 3pts
Kenny Johnson: 2pts
Tariq Jett: 2pts
Dom Twitty: 2pts
Darreck Bender: 1pt

Trenton Catholic
Frantz Massenat: 20pts (4 threes)
Reggie Coleman: 8pts (2 threes)
Lafayette Smith: 6pts
Khalid Lewis El: 6pts
Dondre Whitmore: 5pts (1 three)
Daquan Basnight: 4pts
Markese Tucker: 4pts
Brandon Taylor: 2pts
Chris Lewis: 2pts