Basketball: St. Joseph wins third-straight GMCT title

PISCATAWAY - It was déjà vu for the St. Joseph (Met.) High School basketball team.

Two days after winning its Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament semifinal with a 3-pointer at the buzzer, top-seeded St. Joseph found itself in the same position against seventh-seeded Colonia in the final. 

With two seconds remaining and the game tied 43-43, the Falcons' Luke Fresco inbounded the ball to a streaking K-Shawn Shulters, who hit a 3-pointer as time expired to give St. Joseph a 46-43 victory at the Rutgers Athletic Center. 

GIRLS BASKETBALL: PISCATAWAY WINS GMC TOURNAMENT TITLE

BOYS BASKETBALL: RUTGERS PREP ADVANCES BACK TO SCT FINAL 

BOYS BASKETBALL: COLONIA MAKES HISTORY, ADVANCES TO GMCT FINAL

"It felt good, hitting the game winner, I've never done that before, so it felt good," said Schulters, who was named tournament MVP. "I knew it was going to come to me, I had no choice but to shoot it. Those shots you do at the end of practice, you practice shots counting down, so a shot at the end of the game, let it fly."

It was the third-straight GMC Tournament title for St. Joseph (21-4) and eighth in nine years. Colonia (15-9), which snapped a seven-game win streak, was looking to win the first-ever championship  by a seven seed and its first county title since 2015.  

The Patriots came close as St. Joseph let a 19-point lead slip away in the second half. After a first quarter that saw the game tied 12-12, the Falcons outscored Colonia 17-2 in the second quarter and didn't allow a field goal to take a 29-14 lead at halftime. 

The Falcons opened a 35-16 lead with 2:56 remaining in the third quarter after a 6-0 run, but Colonia closed out the quarter on a 8-0 run to climb to within 35-24. 

After a free throw from Ryan Granito gave the Falcons a 36-24 lead to start the fourth quarter, the Patriots went on a 9-0 run with four points from Kristian Chapmann and five points from Luke Valeriano to cut St. Joseph's lead to three, 36-33, with 6:42 remaining. 

"I think we just kind of got tired and stopped playing together, but we came together," St. Joseph's Tyree Taganeca-Ford said. "We just wanted to play our game. We knew they were the seven seed, but they've got some fight in them so we just wanted to keep our composure and play together."

A basket from Fresco pushed the Falcons' lead to 38-33, but a 3-point play from Chad Baker cut it back to 38-36 with 5:06 to go. 

With 4:25 remaining in the game, St. Joseph led 41-36 after a 3-point play from Howard McBurnie, but the Patriots went on a 9-0 run that culminated with a basket from Baker that gave Colonia a 43-41 lead with 2:04 to play. 

With 1:12 remaining Schulters stripped the ball and scored to retie the game 43-43. 

"I think we just let our guard down, we didn't think about how hard they were going to fight to come back," Schulters said of Colonia's comeback. "We just let our foot off the pedal for a second, and they took advantage of it."

Despite a tumultuous offseason in which St. Joseph completely overhauled its coaching staff and saw two players transfer, the young Falcons managed to overcome all obstacles and again dominate in the GMC. St. Joseph only lost one conference game, to Piscataway in the second game of the season, en route to the Red Division title despite a number of underclassmen on the roster. 

"We're very excited, we've been dreaming about this," Taganeca-Ford said. "Coming here with new coaches, it means a lot. We just had to play together. We've been playing since last year, so we already knew how to play together, adding a new coaching staff we just worked it out."

Taganeca-Ford led St. Joseph with 14 points while Schulters finished with 13 points. McBurnie recorded nine points and five rebounds. Fresco added nine rebounds and five points.

Chapmann and Valeriano each scored 11 points for Colonia, which advanced to the final with wins over 10th-seeded Woodbridge, second-seed Piscataway and a dominating 17-point win over third-seeded Old Bridge in the semifinals. Baker scored 10 points, all in the second half, while Frank Lehmann contributed eight points. 

"We knew they were going to be a tough team, we knew they've been fighting hard all season so they were going to be a tough team to play, but we knew we could beat them," Schulters said. "(This win) shows that even though we're young, we still have a lot of heart and we still have the composure to win these games." 

Staff Writer Lauren Knego: lknego@gannettnj.com; on Twitter: @laurenknego