By Sean Simmons
Middletown – Will Boman poured in a team-high 12 points and teammate Mike Barber added 11 points to help lead Middletown North past Monmouth Regional, 56-35 in a Shore Conference non-divisional contest last Friday.
“Barber is a role player and he did a nice job for us,” Middletown North head coach Mike Iasparro said. “The kids played extremely hard.”
The Falcons (0-1) and Lions traded baskets during the first quarter with the Lions jumping out to a 9-6 lead.
With North holding onto a 19-15 lead at halftime, Monmouth Regional started off the third quarter with consecutive baskets by Kenwyn Peters (10 points) and Justin Argyriou to tie the game at 19-19. Argyriou was the leading scorer for the Falcons with 12 points.
The Lions took a 22-19 lead on a 3-pointer by Boman and then reeled off the next five points to increase their lead to 27-19.
The Falcons soared back with a trey by Argyriou to close the gap to 27-22.
A basket by Peters helped Monmouth Regional narrow the margin to three points.
Boman then buried a shot to put Middletown North in front 29-24.
Kyle Bradshaw helped the Falcons pull to within three points by knocking down a shot and consecutive baskets by Eric Youncofski and Boman made the score 33-26 at the end of the third quarter.
The Lions drew first blood during the fourth quarter with a basket by Tim Frawley (10 points) and then the Falcons answered back with a 3-pointer by Peters to close the gap to 35-29.
North upped their lead to 37-29 on a basket by Barber and then Boman sank a layup off of a beautiful pass from Youncofski to give the Lions a 10-point advantage.
A jump shot by Barber and two free throws from Huelbig (10 points) extended the Lions lead to 43-29.
The Lions then outscored the Falcons, 13-6 to make the final score 56-35.
“It was an ugly game and we didn’t shoot the ball very well,” Iasparro said. “We need other players besides Huelbig and Youncofski to step up for us.”
On Monday, Manalapan’s Anthony Firkser fired a pass to Bryan Adams for a layup with 2.1 seconds left to lead the Braves (2-0) to a stunning 56-54 win over the Lions (1-1) in a Shore Conference A North Division game. Firkser scored six of his game-high 26 points during the fourth quarter and Jason Huelbig led the Lions with 25 points and also knocked down five 3-pointers.
