Boys Basketball: Hopatcong's Tobin Needs 6 Points For Sussex County Record

Not exactly how Jim Tobin wanted to enter the playoffs.

Hopatcong's head coach hoped the Chiefs would breeze past Morris Catholic as senior guard Matt Tobin finally put Sussex County's all-time scoring record behind him.

Instead, Hopatcong fell to the Crusaders, 55-54, Saturday afternoon on the road and Tobin finished six points shy of breaking Chris Jent's mark of 2,287 points.

"We just didn't come out with the right mindset today," Jim Tobin said.

No. 5 Hopatcong (18-8) will host No. 12 Pompton Lakes in the first round of the North 1, Group 2 playoffs Monday at 6 p.m. If it wins, it'll face the victor of No. 4 Elmwood Park vs. No. 13 Westwood on Wednesday.

Matt Tobin went into Saturday needed 31 points to pass Jent, a Sparta graduate and former NBA player. He went scoreless in the first quarter, but finished with a game-high 25 points and missed a buzzer-beater from the top of the key with the game on the line.

Jim Tobin didn't quite see Matt Tobin most likely breaking the county mark at home Monday as a positive.

"That's what everybody wanted, I guess," the head coach said. "I would have preferred if he got 35 [Saturday] and we won. But it didn't happen."

It's been a season filled with milestones for Matt Tobin, who will play at Division 2 East Stroudsburg University next year. He scored his 2,000th career point and beat his father's 33-year school scoring mark of 2,091. His dad, Dennis Tobin, was Jent's head coach when he set the Sussex record in 1988.

Last summer, Matt Tobin was a counselor at one of Jent's youth summer basketball camps. After the camp, Matt Tobin hung around and performed shooting drills with Jent.

On Saturday, Matt Tobin had a chance to win it with a second remaining.

Dylan Gallagher, who was fouled on a drive with seven seconds lelf, gave the Crusaders a one-point lead after banking the first of two free throws. But he missed the second, and after Jon Parker grabbed the rebound, Matt Tobin raced up the floor and fired a three-pointer, which bounced off the rim as time expired.

"He just didn't play well," Jim Tobin said. "Everybody looks at the points, but he just did not play well."

It didn't help that Matt Tobin, point guard Joey LoBue and forward Hunter Guard each played most of the fourth quarter with four fouls. Guard fouled out with 1:17 when he and a Morris Catholic player were hit with technical fouls for jawing at each other on the baseline.

But the call seconds before might have been the turning point for the Crusaders.
Guard pulled down a defensive rebound, put the ball to his chest and tried shaking two Morris Catholic defenders off him by pivoting at the waist with his elbows up. A referee blew the whistle, told the scorers' table Guard made a "violation" and handed the ball to the Crusaders without calling a foul.

On the next possession, with Guard out of the game, Robbie Drexel hit a three-pointer to tie things up at 54-apiece.

"Officials are part of the game," Jim Tobin said. "You have to play the game to the way it's being officiated, and every night is different."

Guard finished with 14 points for Hopatcong. Anibal Villa-Hernandez had 14 points, including 10 in the first quarter, for Morris Catholic, which jumped out to a 17-4 lead after six minutes. But the Chiefs bounced back as Matt Tobin had 10 second-quarter points, even going ahead by two with two minutes remaining in the half. Drexel led the Crusaders with 17 points.

Jim Tobin said he didn't think Hopatcong was looking past Morris Catholic, especially after winning its last three games.

"I don't think they're capable of thinking that, to be honest with you," Jim Tobin said. "I just think today's game is today's game and I don't think they came here ready to play today.

"I don't think they took them lightly or anything like that. The kids haven't seen them play all year. I really don't know. But I was just more disappointed in the effort today. i thought our overall effort was not where it should have been."

Hopatcong went ahead, 54-51, with 1:58 left on the clock when a driving Tobin hit Guard for an easy layup.

Jim Tobin said he wasn't worried about the team's mindset going into Monday.

"I think we're still capable of a turnaround, as far as getting to Monday," he said. "I've got to believe they're going to come in that gym Monday ready to play."

Morris Catholic 55, Hopatcong 54

Hopatcong                      12            15            17            10            — 54

Morris Catholic            19            12            14            10            — 55

Hopatcong: Matt Tobin 25, Hunter Guard 14, Jon Parker 2, Dan Sullivan 7, Nick Krowl 5.

Morris Catholic: Anibal Villa-Hernandez 14, Darius Osorio-Vega 9, Robbie Drexel 17, CJ Drury 5, Dylan Gallagher 10.

Team records: Hopatcong 18-8, Morris Catholic 9-3.