Boys Basketball: Hopatcong Bounced From Playoffs, Tobin Ends Career

Matt Tobin played his final basketball game for Hopatcong on Wednesday night.

“It hasn’t really sunk in yet,” said Tobin, who scored 30 points and finished his career with a Sussex County record of 2,350. “When I’m not going to practice tomorrow, it’s going to feel a little different.”

No. 5 Hopatcong was unable to overcome Ryan Velez, who had a game-high 32 points, and No. 4 Elmwood Park, losing, 87-81, in the second round of the North 1, Group 2 playoffs.

It was also the last game for Hopatcong senior Joey LoBue.

The Chiefs were knocked out in the second round of the playoffs for the second straight year. Last season, Hopatcong, the tournament’s top seed, lost to No.8 Pequannock at home.

The Chiefs led 19-15 after the first quarter, but fell behind 38-28 at the half after Velez scored 10 points, including three straight baskets, to help the Crusaders’ (19-8) second-quarter surge.

“We were hoping to get to 20 wins,” Hopatcong head coach Jim Tobin said. “We played a tough opponent. I felt like we could come here and win. But the pace of the game from the second quarter on was not our pace.”

The Chiefs went into the fourth quarter down, 54-50.

Hopatcong (19-9) was within two points three times in the fourth, but could not regain the lead.

The game was very physically as over 50 foul calls were made. Two Hopatcong players, LoBue and Vinny Marinoni, fouled out in the third quarter. 

After the game, junior forward Hunter Guard (18 points) said the loss was "disappointing and demoralizing, but we’ll come back next year even stronger.”

“We tried to keep our composure,” Guard added. “We had to keep our heads in it. We just couldn’t pull it out in the end.”

“This was obviously not what we wanted,” said Tobin, who will play at Division II East Stroudsberg University next year. “We came out here we gave it our all. [Elmwood Park] is a good team. We could have beat them on any given night, but this was their night.”

Tobin recorded his eighth 30-plus point game of the season.

“Matt’s been playing at high level for a long time,” said his coach, who is also Matt’s uncle. “He doesn’t like to do it all by himself. Teams are double- and triple-teaming him and Matt’s getting the ball to the right spots. When he has to attack, he attacks.”

Dan Sullivan scored 11 points for the Chiefs. Marinoni added eight. Nick Krowl and Feyi Olugbenga chipped in with four. Jake Smith netted three points, Jon Parker tallied two points, and Pat McNamara added one.

Hopatcong defeated Pompton Lakes, 68-56, in the opening round of the playoffs behind 38 points from their senior standout, the game in which Tobin broke Chris Jent’s 1988 county record of 2,287 career points.

His father, Dennis, set the record with 2,091 in 1978, and was Jent’s head coach at Sparta when the former NBA player eclipsed the elder Tobin’s record.   

This season, the Chiefs won 19 games and the Northwest Jersey Athletic Conference Freedom Division crown, going undefeated in conference play. Hopatcong was also undefeated on the road prior to Wednesday’s loss.

“We beat some good teams. A lot of good things happened,” Jim Tobin said. “I just wish we could have made it to the next round at least.”

On the night Sussex County’s career points leader played his final game, his coach said, “Matt is a special player. We’re going to dearly miss him, but we have to move on.”