Cougars go 10-0 with 36-33 win vs Ridge!

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BERNARDS TOWNSHIP — The boys basketball players from Ridge and Montgomery will wake up with floor burns, welts and bruises after Thursday’s battle of the unbeatens turned into a defensive meat grinder.

Only one team will roll out of bed still perfect, however, and that’s Montgomery.

The Cougars held Ridge to 1-of-17 shooting from 3-point range and squeezed out a 36-33 road triumph to improve to 10-0 and gain the upper hand in the Skyland Conference’s Raritan Division.

“We knew coming into the game that Ridge had really good shooters, really good players,” Montgomery coach Kris Grundy said. “We wanted to defend the 3-point line hard. Our focus all week was chasing people off the 3-point line. Fortunately for us we were effective in doing that.”

For Ridge (9-1), it marked the first loss to a Skyland Conference foe since Feb. 15 of 2013, when it fell to Gill St. Bernard’s at home. The Red Devils avenged that loss in the Somerset County Tournament final two weeks later. This one should factor heavily into the SCT seeding, with another seismic local clash—Hillsborough vs. Gill St. Bernard’s—on tap for Saturday.

“I know Montgomery has been kind of running and gunning this year, but they went back to their old style as far as defending,” Ridge coach Brian Feath said. “You’re not going to be able to trap like they do for the whole game against good teams. It was going to come down to half-court defense and that’s what happened—it was a battle.”

Montgomery seized control of the nip-and-tuck affair with an 11-0 run to close the third quarter, turning a 23-19 deficit into a 30-23 advantage. Junior point guard Chase Ta scored five points in the spree, hitting a 3-pointer and converting a layup off a fine pass from Greg Tarca.

Ridge fought back, opening the fourth quarter with a 6-0 run to pull within one. But Montgomery never relinquished the lead. A frenetic endgame sequence offered the Red Devils one final chance. With 11 seconds left and his Cougars up three, Ta missed the front end of a one-and-one. Ridge’s Derek Lyons got a good look at a straightaway 3-pointer but it rattled out. Teammate Ryan Byrnes put back the layup and Feath called an immediate timeout.

It appeared as though one or two extra seconds ticked off the clock as the timeout was granted, leading to an eruption of boos from the packed gym. The way Montgomery was defending it probably didn’t matter, and senior forward Justin Kovacevich calmly sank two free throws with 1.9 ticks left to close it out.

Ta paced Montgomery with 10 points, four assists and four steals and was tenacious on both ends of the floor. Kovacevich (8 points, 6 rebounds), Tarca (7 points) and Tim Youreneff (8 points) pitched in for the balanced Cougars.

“Chase had a great game tonight,” Grundy said. “We’ve been waiting for this. Chase would be the first to tell you he hadn’t played his A-game yet . . . tonight he showed everybody how good he can be.”

Ridge was led by Byrnes, who posted 10 points and seven rebounds and did a fine job defending the versatile Kovacevich. Derek Lyons and Dan McCreesh scored six points apiece for the Red Devils.

“I believe nerves got the best of some of my kids who were on that big stage for the first time,” Feath said. “We missed a ton of chippies, we missed a bunch of free throws, a couple of our turnovers in transition were just awful. I think we can learn and grow from this so the next time we’re on this stage, the intensity and the atmosphere won’t get the best of us”

The stage is set for a rematch, which is scheduled for Feb. 11 at Montgomery. Mark your calendar—and get the bandages ready.