Bridgemen Season Ends In Madison

The Fort Lee High boys basketball team's offense never really got going in their 61-36 loss at Madison High on Monday night, eliminating a young Bridgemen squad in the first round of the North II, Group 2 State Tournament.

While Fort Lee struggled to find the hoop for much of the game, their most notable drought came in the first quarter as Madison limited them to just one point, which came on a Tondi Muhndeu foul shot with ten seconds remaining.

“We came out very tight,” Fort Lee head coach John Ziemba said after the loss. “I thought if we could have just made a couple of shots early we could have hung around, but we weren’t going to hold them down the whole way.”

The Fort Lee struggles would continue in the second frame, as the Bridgemen managed just eight points. But with Madison netting only seven, the Bridgemen saw themselves still in the game at halftime, 18-9.

In the second half, it was all Madison.

Fort Lee would put together just seven points in the third quarter, with Muhendue accounting for five of his game-high 14 points, and Madison would pull away, going up 30-16 heading into the fourth quarter, on their way to the lopsided win.

“The guys we needed to have big games didn’t have them, but it’s a learning experience for us,” Ziemba said of his young team. “I think we can be in this position, on the right side, in the future, but against a senior team like that, it’s tough if you don’t make those shots early.”

With ten lettermen returning next season, Ziemba is confident that this experience will help his team mature and improve.

“We’ve never been in a game like that,” he said, “but now we’ve been here, got our feet wet and now with a full offseason and some summer work, hopefully next year we’re the two seed and they’re coming to us.”