Ta makes case to be area’s best point guard

Chase Ta was thrown right into the fire as a freshman and has continued to develop into the player Montgomery High boys basketball coach Kris Grundy always thought he could be.

”He has grown up and matured a lot,” Grundy said of his junior point guard. “The maturation process of him has been phenomenal. And probably over the last two or three weeks he has been exactly what I always knew he would be, which is the best point guard in the area. He can shoot it. He can handle it. He can drive and find his teammates. He is exactly what we need.”

Ta has been playing his best basketball down the stretch of the season and has helped the Cougars reach the Central Jersey Group IV final. He scored six of his 13 points in the final quarter on Saturday as the top-seeded Cougars topped East Brunswick, 47-46, in the sectional semifinals. With the win, Montgomery advanced to host Trenton in the sectional final tonight at 7 p.m. The second-seeded Tornadoes advanced with a 65-50 win over third-seeded Sayreville.

”When I was a freshman a lot of these people were on the varsity with me,” Ta said of the Cougars’ nucleus. “Tim (Youreneff) and Justin (Kovacevich) were big parts of that team. And Greg (Tarca) and Darren (Wallace) were always on the practice team to scout out things. I can’t even remember how long I’ve known my teammates.

”I was young at the time as a freshman but I was fortunate enough to get a lot more time.”

Kovacevich led Montgomery with 15 points in the win over East Brunswick. Youreneff added eight points in the win. As has been the case all season long with the Cougars, different players have stepped up and gotten the job done when needed.”Everybody has their role and contributes,” Ta said. “Whether it’s Darren Wallace with his rebounds or Alex Miller coming off the bench and giving us a lift everyone has their own role.

”I see myself as the primary ball handler and I do a lot of the background work for my teammates to help get them into their offense. We all have each other’s back.”

The Cougars had reached the semifinals with a 71-55 win over West Windsor-Plainsboro High South last Thursday. Kovacevich had 21 points and Tarca added 18, while Ta finished the game with 11 points. Tommy Hussong had 16 points and Danny Borup added 15 for the Pirates, who finished the season at 16-10.”You take one of the guys away and we have got four or five others that are ready to step up and hit shots,” said Grundy, whose team is 27-1 this season. “(Against Marlboro) Justin didn’t have his greatest game but Greg steps up and hits five 3s and has 25 points. (Against South) we had everybody firing. And we’re going to need everybody to continue to step up and play big minutes for us in order for us to get where we need to get to.