By Rich Fisher | Correspondent
When it comes to late February in West Long Branch, one thing is certain – the Mater Dei boys’ basketball team owns the fourth quarter of games being played at Monmouth University’s Ocean First Bank Arena.
For the second straight year, the Middletown-based program won the Shore Conference Tournament as the Seraphs slowly pulled away from upset-minded Malboro for a 54-41 victory.
Last year Mater Dei overcame an 18-point deficit with a 32-7 run over the final nine minutes to stun Christian Brothers Academy. This time around, in the role of the favorite, top-seeded Mater Dei (24-3) was having trouble shaking the deliberate Panthers (17-6).
The Panthers led 32-29 with fewer than three minutes left in the third quarter before a 9-2 run gave Mater Dei a 38-34 lead at the break. Three-pointers by Mater Dei’s Yasin Pretlow and Kyle Cardaci opened a 10-point lead to start the fourth before Marlboro cut it to 44-39 with less than five minutes left.
But another 3-pointer by the suddenly torrid Cardaci launched a 10-2 run over the final 4:20 as Mater Dei finally pulled away and wore down a Marlboro team that goes just six players deep.
“This is a big floor and we’ve been conditioning better than anybody in the state right now so they were tired at the end,” said senior guard Elijah Mitchell, who won the MVP award with 12 points, five rebounds and a strong defensive effort.
“We take a lot of pride in conditioning,” said Coach Ben Gamble, who coached Mitchell at Cardinal McCarrick before the two came to Mater Dei. “We prepare, we do a lot of game situations in practice and after some of the tough losses we had early in the year, we got better as the year went on with those losses. We lost leads and we were able to come back as the year went on and make plays.”
Marlboro did an outstanding job of moving the ball and getting open looks over the first three quarters, but the Panthers could not connect consistently and shot just 17-for-46. With the pace slow, the Seraphs were not able to get out and run early.
“In the Shore games we got used to it,” Mitchell said. “Everybody tried a slow pace, so we just come out and try to speed it up.”
“I don’t know if they took us out of our game,” said Princeton University-bound Elijah Barnes, who had seven points and seven rebounds. “They’re just great shooters and they know how to spread the floor so well, especially on a court this big. It’s hard to contain a great guard like (PJ) Ringel when he’s moving around so quick. They played a great game, we played better.”
Barnes correctly pointed out that this year’s fourth-quarter spurt was a little different than last year, which was more out of urgency considering the huge deficit.
“Last year we came together and had to get it done,” he said. “This year we had the lead. We just knew we had to keep it, not give it up, and just get that win.”
The second-half catalyst was Cardaci. After missing his first five shots, the junior guard made his final five to finish with 14 points. He scored all his points in the second half and 11 in the fourth quarter, when he drained two 3-pointers and had a three-point play.
“That’s just what he does, he’s big time player,” Barnes said. “He put up big time shots and he made them and he just did a great job for us.”
“I missed a couple shots and coach Gamble still believed in me,” Cardaci said. “He said just keep on shooting, the shots will fall in. Just stay calm and shoot. I felt it, but I couldn’t have done it without my team.”
Pretlow finished with nine points, Kenny Jones had five and Marvin Pierre four to round out a balanced Mater Dei attack.
“We’re extremely hard to play defensively,” Cardaci said. “We have a lot of talent on our team and when we’re playing together we can’t be beat.”
Mitchell said there was no way the Seraphs were looking past Marlboro, despite the fact the Panthers were a big-time underdog.
“We came out playing like we never won a championship before,” he said. “We just came to play hard and pick it up on defense. This just feels great. This is senior year, might as well go out with a bang.”
As for winning MVP, Mitchell said “I wasn’t too worried about that. I just wanted to win.”
Mater Dei will try to keep winning as they begin the NJSIAA Non-Public B Tournament as the eighth-seed hosting ninth-seeded Gloucester Catholic on Mar. 1
“We definitely want to win the states,” Barnes said. “We’re going to do our best in states and hopefully get a ring.”
“I’m trying to get a ring,” Mitchell added. “Our chant is, ‘Seraphs are a powerhouse.’”
That chant has certainly rung true in the Shore Conference the past two years.