Owens, Holy Cross Prep give Lancers 1st South Jersey Non-Public title
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MEDFORD — Before the warmups even began, Marcus Bullock muttered, mostly under his breath, a mantra: We have to find a way to stop Dillon.
The Holy Cross Prep coach was successful enough in that goal to lead his Lancers to a 55-42 South Jersey Non-Public B championship game win against Bishop Eustace. The Lancers will meet Gill St. Bernards at Rutgers University on Thursday for the NJSIAA Non-Public B state title.
By enrolling the entire roster in the effort Eustace forward Dillon Adomanis scored a game-high 25 points. A lot, to be sure, but not enough to determine the final outcome.
"It was very tough," Cross senior Tristan Ganges said. "He's a good player, but I just had to make him uncomfortable and make it harder for him to score. He scored, but I just had to stop most of his scoring. He had 39 points last game. II had to limit that. I had to stop him so we could win."
Mission accomplished.
Holy Cross Prep built and early lead and kept Eustace at arm's length the rest of the way. The Eustace offense was off balance most of the way.
"That was a team effort," Cross senior Jordan Owens said. "We talked about it for a couple days in practice. We established that Tris was going to be the guy to be on Dillon and the rest of us were going to buckle down and play help. Tris did a hell of a job being physical with him, making him uncomfortable. We just caught up on the weakside."
Owens led the Lancers' attack with 20 points. Nine of those points came after Eustace knotted the score at 12 each midway through the second-quarter. Owens drilled three straight 3-pointers to close out the half.
"It's an amazing feeling," Owens said. "You know, when you have teammates that trust you — regardless whether you missed the first couple shots — they are going to keep hitting you. It motivates you to just be better for them. That's all I felt. just got hot and we rode it through the game."
Bishop Eustace scored the first seven points of the second half to cut their deficit to just two points. That was as close as the game ever got. Lancers' senior Josh Swain scored 15 of his 17 points after the break.
The relief was evident on every player's face. Owens flashed another emotion. More than half an hour after the final whistle, he was still lugging around the Lancers' first-ever sectional championship trophy. There was no prying it away from him.
"I've never touched anything like this before," Owens said. "This took a ton of work. I mean, every day, summer, fall, winter, all through the year, weight room, all that. The bond we built with these guys, just what we all put in since June is different. And it paid off."
Crusaders see season end just short of sectional title once again
The unexpected Bishop Eustace run to a sectional final shouldn't have surprised anyone. The Crusaders were making their third sectional final appearance in four years. The eight seniors on the roster had been a part of all of them.
"It was a great run," Adomanis said. "I mean, nobody saw us being here, coming in as a 5-seed. I'm proud of all my guys. I mean, 1 through 10. It was a great job by everybody from the first guy to the last guy on the bench. I'm just proud of everybody in the in the season that we had."
Adomanis averaged just shy of 23 points per game, scoring 709 points this year and 1,553 for his career. For all his personal accomplishments, the senior left with different memories.
"It was a great feeling," Adomanis said. "Every year, we shocked some people. We pulled off some great wins. You know, today sucks. We couldn't do it tonight. i didn't want my career would end like this. I'm just proud of my guys. We had great time together."
Tom Rimback grew up reading the Burlington County Times and Courier Post sports sections and began writing for the BCT in 1996. He has covered everything from Super Bowls and Final Fours to Tri-County Swimming but he’s happiest on a sideline interviewing South Jersey scholastic athletes. Follow him on twitter @Rimbacksports. Email him with story ideas at [email protected] and, most importantly, support local journalism with a subscription to the Courier-Post.
This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Owens, Holy Cross Prep stop Bishop Eustace, win SJ Non-Public B title