Hunterdon Central boys basketball falls to Montgomery, 60-53
MONTGOMERY – Hunterdon Central led for much of the game, but the last three minutes belonged to Montgomery.
A late surge led by Chase Ta pushed Montgomery to a 60-53 home win on Tuesday night.
“We knew this was going to be a tough game,” Hunterdon Central coach Mike Falco said. “They’re the No. 1 team in our section, Central Jersey, Group 4, and they’ve been playing really well. So as much as we wanted the victory and we don’t want to say there’s any moral victories, I’m happy with our effort.”
“It was a gut-check for us,” Ta, a senior, said. “It was Senior Night, we started off slow, we were lacking mentally because of the festivities. It was a big game for us, I think it was our best win so far this season.”
With the score tied at 48-48, Ta took over, scoring eight of his 22 points over the final 2:54. The senior guard started with an and-one layup to break the deadlock. On the next possession, he stole a pass and ran the length of the floor to put the Cougars up five, a lead they would never give up.
“After the and-one I felt like the momentum was totally changed,” Ta said. “That’s probably the loudest our gym’s been all year and I could tell they were starting to get scared, starting to get stagnant on offense.”
Early on, it was all Hunterdon Central, as the Red Devils hit two of their first five 3-point attempts and raced to an 11-4 lead. Six of those points came from Tucker Richardson.
But a string of turnovers and fouls quickly let Montgomery back in the game. The Cougars responded with a 9-2 run of their own to tie the game at 13-13 after one quarter.
“We knew that (our team) was going to respond,” Montgomery coach Kris Grundy said. “Obviously we didn’t want it to be as close as it was, but the response was spot on, right where we needed it to be and what I expect from our senior group.”
The second quarter began more evenly, with the teams trading baskets for most of the frame. But a late spurt – led by Colin McNeil, who finished with 15 points – gave Hunterdon Central a three-point edge at the half.
That lead would last for the next 13 minutes, but in the end, the Cougars’ surge was just too much for the Red Devils to handle.
“I thought we played well as a team,” McNeil said. “It was a collective effort, guys off the bench gave good minutes. It came down to the last two minutes and they pulled it out.”
Max Johnson added 11 points and Cole Hanntz had 10 for the Red Devils.
