Monmouth stuns Piners in classic SCT quarterfinal
Lakewood blows
13-point lead with
five minutes left
By Mike White
Staff Writer

VERONICA YANKOWSKI Lakewood’s Dyquan Randolph dribbles around Monmouth Regional’s Pat Barnette during Monday’s Shore Conference Tournament quarterfinal game in Tinton Falls.

No lead is safe. The Lakewood High school boys’ basketball team learned that lesson the painful way Monday afternoon in the quarterfinals of the Shore Conference Tournament.

Monmouth Regional High School overcame a 13-point fourth-quarter deficit to post a 48-45 overtime victory against visiting Lakewood in what many predicted to be the best game of the tournament.

"We’re very disappointed with the outcome," Lakewood coach John Richardson said. "It was a great game. We had a bunch of opportunities to win this game. We let it slip away from us. We were in command of the game and gave it back to them

"I tried to tell the kids that no lead would be big enough. I knew a 20-point lead was not enough with the flow of this game. They’re a young aggressive team, and they hung in to the end. They didn’t let up and they made good things happen. We had our chances and failed to put it away."

Both teams were tight in overtime. Yet it was a 3-pointer by Monmouth’s Jim Dalton with 1:15 remaining in the extra period that sealed the fate of the Piners. Dalton, who finished with eight points, took a pass from Carlos Lee and drained a trey from the right wing.

Following Dalton’s 3-pointer, Lake-wood still had time to tie.

But a couple of off-balance 3-point attempts by senior lead guard Dyquan Randolph failed, setting off a wild celebration by Monmouth Regional players and fans.

Lakewood built a 42-29 lead early in the fourth quarter on a basket by Randolph.

But Monmouth Regional stormed back. The Falcons went on a 14-3 tear to pull within 45-43 with 17 seconds remaining in regulation.

Monmouth’s Carlos Lee then converted a running one-hander in the lane to knot the game at 45-all with two seconds left. Lee scored eight of his 12 points in the final eight minutes.

Lakewood’s three-quarter court shot at the buzzer missed setting up Dalton’s heroics in overtime.

Lee said that his team didn’t settle into its rhythym until late in the fourth quarter.

"We’re weren’t playing our game; we were playing like we were scared," he said. "We had no intensity on the floor. We didn’t even have any intensity in the locker room.

"All we had to do was shut J.R. down, and we knew we could get back in it," he added. "Once we contained him, we knew we could play our game."

Richardson cited his team’s inability to cash in on easy points as a key to the loss.

"We failed to convert on a couple of put backs; we missed foul shots and lay-ups at key times; we didn’t take advantage when we should have," Richardson said. "We were not smart with the ball in key situations, and it came back to haunt us."

At first it appeared Lakewood would be in trouble. Monmouth raced out to a 9-0 lead to open the game.

But the Piners settled in and solved Monmouth’s scrappy 2-2-1 press to take a 27-16 lead at the half. Lakewood outscored Monmouth 16-5 in the second quarter behind the play of Randolph and junior swingman J.R. Smith.

"We dug out of a hole in the first quarter," Richardson said. "I told the kids to remain calm and they did. Once we started playing our game, we were able to take the lead. The press gave us some problems for a short time. But we figured it out and good things started to happen."

Randolph finished with 10 points and eight assists. Smith, who leads the Shore Conference in scoring at nearly 26 points per game, tallied 15 points, including four 3-pointers.

But Smith cost Lakewood a couple of buckets when he missed three separate dunk attempts.

"The second quarter was probably the highlight for us," Richardson said. "We wanted to keep the ball in Randolph’s hands so he could penetrate and score or dish out to the wings. We seemed to get away from that in the fourth quarter."