On Tuesday, January 24th, the Boys’ Colonia basketball team faced off against Sayreville in a match up of the two top White Division teams. With a win, Colonia could start making a real push at their first division title since two years ago.
The Patriots had been struggling quite a bit in their last few match ups, losing four in a row. This is not how you want to be playing coming in to possibly their biggest division game of the year. Sayreville holds the top spot in the White Division with Colonia sitting right behind them. The difference between them being only two games. The Bombers took the first game against Colonia, in a very exciting match up. Sayreville was able to pull it out by just two points then in what was one of their toughest games so far this season. Colonia was ready to get revenge for their last match up and inch closer to taking down this powerhouse.
According to Junior guard Tim Meehan, “The attitude this team had going into the game was a lot more locked in than usual. We knew that we had to beat this team to give us a shot at winning the division.”
This attitude showed, but not until after the first quarter. Colonia was only leading by two points going into the second quarter. This is when the Patriots really found their groove and went on a 19-2 run. This means they scored 19 in a row compared to only Sayreville’s two.
Colonia was now leading 29-10 and in full control of the game before the first half even ended. The Patriots refused to slow down, and gave Sayreville no chance to even attempt a comeback. Even when Sayreville was able to score a few points in the third quarter, Colonia was able to take the momentum right back with a few key plays. Meehan said, “Although we were leading by so much, the play that got everyone at the game excited was the poster dunk by Connor. Most of us had never seen anything like this and it was probably the play of the year for us.”
What he is referring to is the massive dunk by Senior, Connor Bevilacqua. It happened on a fast break after one of many Colonia steals, and Bevilacqua was not letting anyone get in his way, even if it meant dunking right on them. This play put the exclamation point on an already outstanding game by Colonia, and also got the crowd even more into the game than they were before. Junior Guard, Tim Rodriguez said, “The energy of the home crowd was a huge advantage for us. This rattled the opposing team and our team feeds right off the energy. We play better when there is an energetic atmosphere. Being at home, especially that night gives us that much more adrenaline.”
It was a good night for the Colonia seniors as three of them found themselves scoring double digits. The leading scorer, Frank Lehman, was able to score 14 points and get a few steals, leading to some fancy fastbreak buckets. The other two, Connor Bevilacqua and Kristian Chapmann, found themselves scoring ten points each, with some big-time scores.
Other than outstanding offense, the defense for Colonia was some of their best all season. Rodriguez said, “There wasn’t anything different about out scheme for this game. We played our usual man to man principles the way Colonia always has. The only difference was our intensity on the defensive side of the floor. We made sure that we were locked in because we knew that if we could limit them offensively, we would win this game.”
And win they did. Their high intensity definitely paid off for the defense of the Patriots. For a large portion of the game is seemed as if Sayreville could not even maintain possession of the ball. The final score being 37-58, in favor of the Patriots.
Colonia currently sits only one game behind Sayreville for the division lead and has put themselves in a very good position to compete for a title. They easily have the talent to win, and great coaching along with it. If they can keep up their good play, they should be able to dominate every team in the white division. Just as they did to Sayreville.
