http:\/\/highschoolsports.nj.com\/news\/article\/7093414282871454344\/bridgewater-raritan-56-at-montgomery-63-boys-basketball\/<\/a><\/p>\nMontgomery coach Kris Grundy gave Alex Miller a crucial piece of advice before the season started: No matter how many 3-pointers the junior guard may miss, he must keep shooting from deep.<\/p>\n
Yesterday, Miller didn’t make a single basket in the first 30 minutes of a Somerset County showdown with Bridgewater-Raritan. But he followed his coach’s rule, and it paid off in a big way. Miller hit two 3-pointers in the final two minutes to send the game to overtime and Montgomery came from behind for a 63-56 first-round victory at the Cougar Classic in Skillman.<\/p>\n
“Coach Grundy kept supporting me, he told me to keep shooting. I finally did, and it felt good and I made it,” Miller said. “It’s the greatest feeling in the world, there’s nothing better. The whole crowd’s going crazy, it’s what I love.”<\/p>\n
Though he finished with only eight points, every single one of Miller’s baskets were crucial. After his 3-pointers tied the score at 50-all, Miller hit two free throws at the start of overtime to help Montgomery grab control. It was Tim Youreneff who hit the key baskets in the extra period, though, including a layup with 45 seconds remaining to give Montgomery the lead for good.<\/p>\n
“Once Mills hit those two threes and got us to overtime,” Grundy said, “it was just a matter of imposing our will.”<\/p>\n
Forwards Greg Tarca and Justin Kovacevich had 12 points apiece in the first half to help Montgomery take a 31-25 advantage into halftime. But for the second game in a row, Montgomery struggled in the third quarter. Bridgewater-Raritan outscored Montgomery, 13-5, in the period, led by Ben Miller who finished with a team-high 21 points. Suddenly the Bridgewater squad had a two-point advantage heading into the final stanza.<\/p>\n
“We kept losing shooters,” Miller said. “We kept leaving shooters open, and they took advantage of it.”<\/p>\n
Bridgewater-Raritan held a seven-point lead late in the fourth quarter before Tarca hit a 3-pointer to make it a two-possession game. Two possessions were all Miller needed.<\/p>\n
“I told him, ‘You know what, Mills? Over the next two years, any 3-pointer you take is a good shot. You’re not going to take a bad three for the next two years. So if you’re open, shoot it. If you miss 10 in a row, you’re shooting the eleventh. You miss 11 in a row, you’re shooting the 12th,'” Grundy said. “That’s the type of shooter he is. When he gets hot, he’s going to run off seven, eight, nine, 10 in a row. That’s not even an exaggeration.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cougars go to 3-0 http:\/\/highschoolsports.nj.com\/news\/article\/7093414282871454344\/bridgewater-raritan-56-at-montgomery-63-boys-basketball\/ Montgomery coach Kris Grundy gave Alex Miller a crucial piece of advice before the season started: No matter how many 3-pointers the junior guard may miss, he must keep shooting from deep. Yesterday, Miller didn’t make a single basket in the first 30 minutes of a Somerset County showdown with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1082"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1084,"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1082\/revisions\/1084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}