It took overtime, but in the end, the Montclair State men’s basketball team were crowned NJAC Champions after a hard-fought 91 to 85 win over Ramapo College on Friday night at the Panzer Athletic Center.
Ramapo’s Peter Gorman had the ball with the game on the line in the dying moments of regulation but missed a 3-point shot, which sent the game to overtime.
In overtime, the Red Hawks outhustled the Roadrunners and took a hard-fought victory on home court.
Jacob Morales led the way for the Red Hawks with 28 points and 4 steals. Mike Jackson contributed 25 points and nine rebounds while Kieran Flanagan chipped in 12 points and seven assists.
Shane Rooney led the Roadrunners with 22 points, while Gorman had 18 on 7-of-19 shooting and Jordan Myers chipped in 14.
The Roadrunners had the hot hand early, as they took a 20-9 lead after the halfway point of the first half. However, the Red Hawks responded with a 16-2 run on the backs of two consecutive 3-pointers from Morales and a game-tying three by Mike Jackson to take a 25-22 lead with just over six minutes remaining in the first half.
The teams went back and forth for the remainder of the first half, with Montclair State holding on for a 37-31 lead heading into the half.
Ramapo would cut into their deficit quickly in the second half, taking a 45-44 lead on a dunk by Tim Linton at the five-minute mark. Whenever it looked like Ramapo would pull away, Montclair State responded with a clutch basket. At 13:10, Morales hit his fourth 3-pointer to tie the game at 49.
The physicality hit fever pitch as Red Hawks’ Ahmad Robertson went up for a layup, got knocked down and the basketball went in. Then at the other end of the floor, Linton got another layup to go for Ramapo. Then Myles Primas hit a three to give Montclair State a 64-63 lead with just over seven minutes to go in the game.
Baskets became harder and harder to come by as the second half wore on. With Ramapo leading 71-70 with just under three minutes left, Ramapo’s Jordan Myers fouled Morales, who went to the free-throw line and hit both shots to give Montclair State a slim 72-71 lead. The teams traded baskets for the next two minutes until a 3-pointer from Anthony Corbo put the visitors up 78 to 76 with 1 minute left in the game. Mike Jackson found a lane to the hoop and got the layup to go to tie the game at 78. That’s how things stood heading into a five-minute overtime period.
Then, Montclair State’s versatile starting five shone through. First it was Flanagan driving the lane with his trademark speed on the dribble and drawing a foul. He missed both foul shots however and it was up to his teammates to pick him up. Primas would pick up the slack for the Red Hawks, blocking Myers layup attempt under the rim at the 4:39 mark. Ramapo got possession back and had a 3-pointer go in and out of the hoop.
At the other end of the floor, Jackson came up big for the Red Hawks, getting a layup and-one to go, giving the Red Hawks a three-point lead in overtime.
Mistakes ended up costing the Roadrunners, as on the next Ramapo possession, Myers was flagged for an offensive foul, which turned the ball over to the Red Hawks. Ramapo’s Tim Linton then fouled Morales and sent the Red Hawks’ leader in points-per-game during the regular season to the free-throw line where he made both shots to give Montclair an 83-78 lead, halfway through overtime.
Ramapo crept back into the game on two successful free throws from Rooney, but again Jackson made a layup for the Red Hawks right after to give Montclair an 85-80 lead with just over a minute left. With 49 seconds left, Rooney made a layup and-one to make it a 2-point game. Then Primas got a clutch reverse layup to go for the Red Hawks, making it 87-83 with 24 seconds left.
Morales fouled Corbo, who hit both shots to make it 87-85, but then Morales was fouled and hit two free throws to put his team up 4, with 13 seconds left on the clock. On the ensuing Ramapo possession, Justin Bladen missed a 3-pointer and a defensive rebound was made by Jackson for Montclair. He was fouled and hit both shots to put Montclair State up 91-85 with nine seconds left, and, by that point, the game was all but over.
The Red Hawks would hold on to avenge being swept by Ramapo during the regular season, by beating the Roadrunners 91 to 85 in the NJAC championship game.
After the game, Associate Head Coach Sean Rossi summed up his thoughts on this historic win for the program.
It feels really good. Most importantly, we’re so happy for our guys, they’ve worked so hard and even the guys that were here, the alumni that laid the foundation. Without them, we wouldn’t have been here, but again, credit to our guys, they woke up early, 6 a.m. workouts in the preseason. They’ve grinded every single day in practice and just to see the hard work and the commitment to what’s important in our program come to fruition and to see them cut a net down. They’re going to remember that for the rest of their lives.
– MSU Associate Head Coach Sean Rossi
On what he saw in the overtime period, Coach Rossi said:
Obviously in overtime, every possession is crucial at both ends of the floor and I did think that the pressure defensively would wear Ramapo out a little bit, but Ramapo is a really good defensive team, guys made some tough shots and I thought we had help from everybody that was on the floor. Kieran Flanagan made big plays, Myles Primas with a crazy backdoor layup, Mike Jackson with an offensive rebound, Jake Morales was making plays. Everyone contributed which is what it takes to win in overtime.
Jacob Morales described his emotions after the game.
Unbelievable, I’m so tired right now. It’s everything you work for, everything you dream of as a kid. We got it done. It was scary there, but it was a great game all around. I’m so happy for everybody, I can’t even describe it. – MSU junior forward Jacob Morales
Morales described how he was able to quiet his mind and hit the free throws in overtime that helped clinch his program’s first NJAC title since 2003.
It’s a lot of practice, I take free throws everyday, just focusing on and controlling your mind in big situations like that is something that I tried working on a lot, when I had some free time as a walk-on. It was a lot of practice.
Associate Head Coach Rossi described how his team fought through adversity in the second half to gut out a close win in overtime.
I thought we fought hard. We were a little bit quick around the rim and missed some layups that we usually make, which is expected the excitement of playing in a championship game is going to make you rush around the rim. We were up six, so we thought we were in a good spot, but there’s always areas you need to improve on. I give Ramapo a lot of credit, they came back in the second half, after we banged a shot early and fought back and took the lead but again our guys gutted through and stayed connected and ended up coming away with the win.
