By Brian Deakyne
LONG BRANCH – One of the oldest basketball rivalries certainly lived up to the hype on Sunday morning.
In the quarterfinal round of the Shore Conference Tournament, second-seeded Christian Brothers Academy (CBA) survived a late run from Neptune High School to win 50-47 to earn a date with third-seeded Lakewood High School on Wednesday.
Sophomore forward Pat Andree led the charge with 23 points – 10 in the third quarter – and to lead the Colts to the win and their first trip to the semifinals since 2010. CBA had jumped out to a comfortable 24-16 halftime lead, but Neptune pushed the pace in the second half and took advantage of its sharp shooting to climb back into the game.
In the final moments, trailing by two, Neptune’s Shakeem Richardson got a steal off the inbounds pass, but was called for charging. Less than a minute later, Andree put the momentum back in the Colts’ favor when he converted on a 3-point play to put CBA back up five.
Still, Neptune didn’t go away.
Neptune cut the lead to three points with 7 seconds left, and a steal from Cameron Calderon gave Myles Mooney an opportunity to tie the game. His 3-pointer came up short, but the ball glanced out of play off a CBA player with 3.6 seconds left. After a time out, Mooney had another opportunity to tie the game from virtually the same spot, but couldn’t get the shot to drop.
Mooney led Neptune with 20 points and Richardson finished with 19 as the shooting duo held the Fliers in the game throughout the day.
CBA got steady contributions from their lineup as Evan Gordinier added 10 points off the bench.
In the girls semifinals on Saturday, top-seeded St. John Vianney cruised past ninth-seeded Holmdel High School, 74-35, to head to the semifinal round. Emily Uribe led the way with 14 points for the Lancers and Katie Beriont added 13 in the win.
Third-seeded Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School used its depth as it received 10 points each from Grace Stant, Sam Sabino and Stephanie Lesko to edge sixth-seeded Middletown High School South, 46-38, for its first trip to the semifinal round since 2009.
Stephanie Karcz finished with a game-high 16 points for Middletown South.
In the final quarterfinal game, Red Bank Catholic High School, seeded seventh, fell to second-seeded St. Rose High School, 38-31, as the defending champions were eliminated from the tournament.
Red Bank Catholic took a momentary lead, 25-24, in the fourth quarter, but St. Rose came storming back to get the win.
Grace Fallon finished with six points and 12 rebounds to lead Red Bank Catholic.
