The Records: The boys’ basketball team entered its North 2, Group 3 semifinal game Saturday night against Mendham as the seventh seed with a record of 20-8. Mendham, the defending state champion, came to the game as the third seed with a 19-7 record.
The Final Score: Mendham 78-69. The Minutemen ousted the Raiders, and will host eighth-seeded Plainfield in Tuesday night’s final. It was a convincing win, with Mendham leading at the end of each quarter, and taking its biggest lead during the fourth with a 15-point difference.
All of Mendham’s scoring was produced by its starting five, but senior forward Tore Vicarisi proved particularly potent on offense. He went to the basket for eight field goals and also made 11 free throws for a team-high 27 points. Senior guard Colin O’Donnell scored 17 points, including three 3-pointers that killed any Scotch Plains momentum. His first 3-pointer made the score 29-22 midway through the second quarter. O’Donnell’s second came right after a 3-pointer by Scotch Plains senior guard Charles Oliver that pulled the Raiders to within 29-28. His third – from the right side – came after a big offensive rebound by senior forward Kyle Dennis, giving the Minutemen a 46-36 advantage with 3:15 to go in the third quarter.
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Mendham also worked their offense to perfection on several occasions with four to five passes setting up the open man underneath.
“They ran their backdoor plays well,” Scotch Plains head coach Dan Doherty said.
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Oliver led all scorers with 29 points, including his first five field goals on layups, four of them in the first quarter.
“He’s the best player we’ve played against all year,” Vicarisi said of Oliver. “In the second half we tried to slow him down and he still made baskets.”
Vicarisi had eight points in the first quarter after he dished off three times for assists, once to junior guard Andrew Jacobs and twice to Dennis. He produced 14 points by halftime.
“[Tore] was tough to guard,” Oliver said. “He’s strong and he was able to get good position. He gave us trouble the entire game and made it a nightmare for us.”
The Heroes: Two of the top players in all of North Jersey produced special performances with senior forward Tore Vicarisi leading Mendham with 27 points and senior guard Charles Oliver pacing Scotch Plains with 29.
The Quotes: “This hurts right now,” Oliver said. “We can look back on our season in a couple of weeks and be proud about what we accomplished. I love my teammates and we left everything we had on the court.”
Doherty added, “The kids don’t feel it now, but they’ll realize was a great season they had.”
NORTH 2, GROUP 3 BOYS’ BASKETBALL
SEMIFINAL AT MENDHAM
7-SCOTCH PLAINS (20-9) 16 14 10 29 - 69
3-MENDHAM (20-7) 22 12 18 26 - 78
SCOTCH PLAINS-FANWOOD RAIDERS
20-Tim Bonacum 1-3-2-13
15-Patrick Dougher 4-0-0-8
1-Charles Oliver 8-3-4-29
25-Matt Jegede 3-0-5-11
5-Dominick Gonzalez 0-1-3-6
23-Brandon Langston 1-0-0-2
Starters: Langston, Jegede, Oliver, Dougher, Gonzalez.
Totals: 17-7-14-69.
MENDHAM MINUTEMEN
3-Kyle Dennis 3-0-7-13
22-Colin O’Donnell 3-3-2-17
30-Alex Vicarisi, 1-2-1-9
21-Andrew Jacobs 2-1-5-12
31-Tore Vicarisi 8-0-11-27
Starters: Alex Vicarisi, Tore Vicarisi, O’Donnell, Jacobs, Dennis.
Totals: 17-6-26-78.
