Mustangs Fall in Season-Ending Thriller to Jackson Memorial

JACKSON -- The Mustangs did all they could.

Trailing throughout the entire game, Brick Memorial, seeded 13th, fought to the final whistle, but it simply wasn't enough.

Tim O'Shea scored eight of his team-high 12 points in the fourth quarter as Memorial rallied, but came up short, in a 41-36 loss at Jackson Memorial high school in the quarterfinals of the Central Jersey Group IV NJSIAA sectional playoffs.

"It's devastating," Mustangs head coach Ed Sarluca said. "It ends our season and some guys' careers."

The Jaguars, seeded 5th, ended the first quarter on a 7-0 run for an 11-4 lead and simply never looked back.

In the defensive battle, the Mustangs trailed 16-8 at the half and, despite making several bids at a comeback, never seemed to be able to get any offensive rythym in the low-scoring affair.

"We just never got going," Sarluca said, "We didn't get going until about five minutes left in the game. To our guys' credit, they battled back and never gave up and gave us a shot at the end."

O'Shea was the only Mustang to finish in double figures, but juniors Vince Lombardi and Justin Oakley had solid games as both finished with eight points and three rebounds.

Brick Memorial cut the deficit to four on two seperate occassions -- first at 36-32 with 1:30 remaining, then at 38-34 -- but were never able to reach the Jaguars.

The lead was cut to two at 38-36 with 15.4 ticks left on the clock, but Jackson Memorial hit a couple of late free throws to seal the win and their trip to the sectional semi-finals.

O'Shea hit a late three-pointer with a little over three minutes remaining to draw the 'Stangs within five at 34-29, essentially starting the dash to the finish.

With the loss, the Mustangs ended their season with a record of 12-10.

"I'd like to think that we're at a level where we are not just happy with qualifiying for the conference tournament and state tournament," Sarluca said. "We won more games than we lost, there are a few things we could have done better, but all-in-all we had a great group that put a lot of hard work in and it was a pleasure to coach them."