3/15/07
South Brunswick kept battling
Nobody expected South Brunswick to stay with Linden Sunday. Actually, nobody expected South Brunswick to be playing Linden Sunday.
With seven minutes left in the Group IV state championship game, South Brunswick was trailing by 14 points. With two minutes left in the game South Brunswick was trailing by four points.
The defending Group IV champions led a lot of teams by 14 points and then watched them roll over. Most of their opponents are beaten before the game even starts.
South Brunswick isn't most teams.
They proved that all season and certainly proved that Sunday, fighting to the finish at the Louis Brown Athletic Center.
The final score of 63-54 was not indicative of the type of game they gave the talented Tigers. The Union County champions (beating nationally ranked St. Patrick) just couldn't put away the Vikings.
"South Brunswick came at us with everything they had," Linden coach Phil Colicchio said. "I've always said players make plays. We've been here, and we went with our experienced players down the line."
The Vikings have been here, too, if you count their Group 1 title from 1968. Back then they were climbing hills.
Sunday they almost scaled a mountain, and 6,500 people were there for confirmation.
While South Brunswick coach Chris Balent expected his team to play their best, he did fear the worst.
"I woke up and my wife asked me if I was nervous. I really wasn't, not about coming in here and competing and even losing. My nervousness," the second-year coach said, "came from the fact that I knew it was kind of a spotlight game for Linden. My fear was that if they click on all cylinders, it doesn't matter who you put out there.
"They could take St. Pat's by 20," he noted. "That was my fear. If they really, really play well, it wouldn't matter how well we play. I really felt they could beat us by 20, and I didn't want my kids to leave on that note.
"I didn't want people saying, "Ah, they shouldn't have been here.' I didn't want my kids to leave with that in their heads, either how we couldn't compete with them, that we were good but we weren't that good."
South Brunswick is that good.
Sunday they had one of their worst shooting games of the season. Linden certainly had a lot to do with that, but the open looks that usually drop for threes were banging off the rim.
And they didn't have their best day boxing out on the defensive end. But even in defeat, they had one of their best days.
"Nobody ever felt we would make it this far," 6-foot-3 senior Devon Young said. "This was just a magical run."
For awhile it looked like they might be run out of the building.
South Brunswick was down 13 points just three minutes into the second quarter before going off at the half down 35-28.
With 6-foot-6 senior Muhammad Wilkerson grabbing every rebound and scoring underneath on some nifty passes by 5-foot-7 junior Desmond Wade, Linden was on the brink of embarrassing the kids from the suburbs.
But the yellow and gold refused to crumble.
They came into the final quarter down 12, and with only 3:30 to play were still down 11.
"I knew we wouldn't collapse," Balent said of his team's heart. "The only thing I worried about was if we were tiring, if we were wearing down. I knew (Linden) could go on a quick run."
Linden did not. But neither did South Brunswick.
"I knew we wouldn't give up," Balent said. "They've come too far to pack it in."
South Brunswick had come too far, and Sunday they went even further. But in defeat it was difficult for the players to recognize their accomplishment.
"If we would have won Group 4," senior Martin Soaries said, "I think that would have put us on the map."
South Brunswick High School basketball is on the map. Winning Central Group IV, playing Linden to the final minute, the Vikings are definitely on the map.
"It was a heck of a run," Balent said. "I hope the fans appreciated this. I think we gave them a good game."
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