by Alex Schwartz

Friday night I made my way to Mercer County Community College for the Mercer County Tournament championship game, which pitted the number one seed West Windsor-Plainsboro (NJ) Pirates, who came in at 20-2 with the top seed in the Central Jersey Group IV sectional tournament all locked up, and The Pennington School (NJ) Red Raiders, who were seeded third and entered with a 20-6 record, a day after losing the Prep B state title game by seven points to Rutgers Prep (NJ). With coaches from schools such as Lafayette—Pennington's Harold Spears '10 holds an offer from the Leopards—and TCNJ on hand, a packed house full of students and other fans, and a prime venue, the game, which was broadcast live on the Mercer County Community College channel, was sure to be a great one, and indeed it was. Chris Johnson '09 led WWPS in the first quarter, knocking down two treys, but he couldn't outshine Pennington's Chandler Fraser-Pauls '11, who scored all 13 of the Red Raiders' points in the first eight minutes of action. The 5'11 sophomore point guard's dominance continued into the second quarter as he scored seven more in a row to make it 20-10, as he still had all of his team's points. The Pirates, led by the shooting of Jack Dennehy '10 and the all-around play of Dan Balevski '09, cut the lead down to five, 28-23, entering the break. Fraser-Pauls had 22 points in the first half, 20 of which came in the first 11 and a half minutes of the game. The main reason for South's struggles was the defensive pressure that 6'3 Dontae Johnson '10—the safety in football picked up his sixth offer on Saturday, this one coming from Virginia, where he went immediately following the MCT title game—put on the Pirates' Austin Witter '09, arguably the best player in Mercer County. Johnson held Witter to zero points in the half, though the 6'7 combo forward did have his fair share of rebound and had some big-time blocks. The game really slowed down in the third quarter, with Pennington outscoring South 7-6 in the third period of play en route to taking a 35-29 lead into the fourth quarter, with Witter still being held scoreless. The Pirates slowed down Fraser-Pauls a great deal though, as he too did not score in the third quarter. Witter finally got in the book with a three early in the fourth quarter to cut the lead in half, making it 35-32. Pennington though, would not let it get too close, as Harold Spears and Quashon Nolan '09 stepped up to extend the lead. Although Witter scored eight points in the fourth quarter—this was just the third time all season he was held to single digits—it was not enough for the Pirates. The Red Raiders forced some turnovers down the stretch and hit their free throws and ended up with a 59-43 victory. Fraser-Pauls ended the game with 31 points, while Spears had a double-double of 14 points and 10 rebounds. Balevski, Dennehy, and Johnson were the main scorers for South, as Dennison-commit Dan Block '09 and Witter were both held under 10 points.
Congratulations to The Pennington School Red Raiders on winning the Mercer County Tournament.

On Saturday I headed out to Burlington to check out the top two teams in South Jersey battle for bragging rights, as Trenton Catholic (NJ) traveled to Life Center Academy (NJ) for the Scholastic Play-by-Play, where the Iron Mikes took on the home LCA squad, which was without both Rider-bound Dera Nd-Ezuma '09 and Syracuse-pledge Dion Waiters '10. The latter of the two has missed most of the season due to injury. The Warriors did have Binghamton-bound Dylan Talley '09 and St. Joseph's-commit Daryus Quarles '10, amongst others, though. TCA led 14-11 at the end of the first quarter and then stretched its lead out to seven, 21-14, but LCA stormed right back to tie it at 21. The visiting Iron Mikes would take a 30-29 lead into the intermission. The third quarter is when things started to get really interesting at Life Center—by the way, that school is beautiful and the facilities are fantastic. Life Center started the second half on a 10-1 run to take a 39-31 lead, and did not stop there, as that became a 17-4 lead, putting the home squad up 46-34. It was 50-38 when the Iron Mikes finally fought their way back into the game, ending the quarter on a 9-2 run to cut the lead to five, 52-47. Trenton Catholic, which has already suffered narrow losses to top notch teams St. Anthony's (NJ), St. Patrick's (NJ), and Paterson Catholic (NJ), could ill afford to lose its last game before the South Non-Public B tournament began. The Iron Mikes came out firing on all cylinders in the final quarter, and stretched their run to 33-18, taking a 71-68 lead late in the game. It was TCA's full court pressure, which forced a number of turnovers, along with the three-point shooting of Dondre Whitmore '10 and Khalid Lewis El '11—he was the one who hit two huge threes and a deuce to really put TCA back in it—that made it such a tight affair. Trenton Catholic would not relinquish the lead once it gained control, and with coaches from schools such as UMass, Rider, St. Joseph's (Head Coach Phil Martelli was in attendance), Rutgers- Camden, Burlington County Community College, and Salem County Community College on hand, the Iron Mikes pulled out an impressive come-from-behind win, 77-74. Khalid Lewis El received the MVP trophy for TCA was it was the Oscar Griffin '09 that was the honoree for the Warriors.

TCA VS. LCA BOX SCORE

Team                                        1          2           H           3           4           F    
Life Center Academy           11        18         29        23         22        74
Trenton Catholic                   14        16         30        17         30        77

Life Center Academy
Dylan Talley- 20 points (all in 2nd half), two 3Ps, 6/7 FT
Oscar Griffin- 19 points (10 in 4th quarter), one 3P
Chris Thompson- 17 points, 4/5 FT
Daryus Quarles- 8 points
R. Cunningham- 7 points, one 3P
D. Pitter- 3 points, 1/2 FT

Trenton Catholic
Dondre Whitmore- 19 points (14 in 4th quarter), three 3P, 4/4 FT
Daquan Basnight- 15 points, 5/9 FT
Markese Tucker- 14 points, 6/7 FT
Reggie Coleman- 9 points, three 3P
Khalid Lewis El- 8 points (all in 4th quarter), two 3Ps
Lafayette Smith- 8 points
Frantz Massenat- 4 points (all in 4th quarter), 4/8 FT

Note- the photo on the left is of Chandler Fraser-Pauls and the photo on the right is of Donde Whitmore; both are from http://njhoops.rivals.com/default.asp