Hightstown Boys Basketball Has a Win and a Loss in County Tournament

Hightstown had lost its lead. It didn't have the ball. It was in an opposing gym, filled with fans cheering wildly for Hamilton. In other words, the boys basketball team had Hamilton right where it wanted it.

With the score tied in the final seconds and Hamilton setting up for a possible game-winning shot, Hightstown guard Qwanza Harper stole the ball and went in for the winning basket at the buzzer.

Harper's shot gave Hightstown a 27-25 win in the opening game of the Mercer County Tournament on Feb. 14.

"Those were the only points we scored in the fourth quarter," Hightstown Coach Don Hess said. "We didn't score in the first 7:59 of the fourth quarter, but we got that basket in the last second."

Well, this was a play Hightstown had perfected with practice. Amazingly, Harper had stolen the ball in a similar situation during a regular season game at Hamilton on Feb. 10. The only difference was Harper's basket in that game gave Hightstown a 36-34 win.

"I never saw that before," Hess said, laughing. "It's unbelievable. The two games were almost exactly the same. We had the lead. They tied it up. Hamilton had the ball  at the end of the game for the last possession, and we steal the ball."

In the win on Feb. 10, Sam Lopez had 14 points and eight rebounds for Hightstown. Ryan Borden had eight points and three assists. Harper had eight points and four steals.

In the win on Feb. 14, Taylor Chappelle had 11 points and six rebounds for Hightstown. Lopez had eight points and nine rebounds. Harper had only four points, but a memorable encore performance.

Unfortunately for Hightstown, Ewing High School made sure Harper wouldn't get a chance to pull off any last-second heroics in the MCT quarterfinals. Ewing, the top seed, won 61-35 on Feb. 16.

"They are really good and really fast," Hess said of Ewing. "They get the ball up the court as fast as you can imagine."

Sam Lopez had 18 points and 11 rebounds in the loss. Ryan Borden added seven points, four assists and two steals.

Hightstown, now 11-10 on the season, will play a MCT consolation game today, Friday. That will be followed  by two very big games. On Feb. 25, Hightstown will host Hamilton's Nottingham High School with a chance to win the Valley Division. On March 1, Hightstown will open play in the Central Jersey Group III Tournament against Monmouth Regional High School.

"We haven't beaten Monmouth Regional since I've been involved in basketball at Hightstown," Hess said.

In addition to a few regular season losses, Hightstown has been eliminated from the state tournament by Monmouth Regional in 2006, 2008 and 2010. At least this time Hightstown has the home floor advantage.

"It's a big game," Hess said. "I don't know their record, but they have given everyone a good game."