Linden boys basketball advances back to Group IV final

ELIZABETH - The NJSIAA Group IV final might be familiar territory for coach Phil Colicchio and the Linden High School boys basketball team, but that didn't make getting there any easier.

The Tigers (25-4) defeated Bloomfield 56-50 in a Group IV semifinal on Thursday night at the Dunn Center in Elizabeth to advance to their seventh Group IV final under Colicchio, and fourth in five years. Linden will face Shawnee on Sunday at the Rutgers Athletic Center at noon. Shawnee defeated Hunterdon Central 54-49 in the other Group IV semifinal on Thursday night.

"They made it here for a reason, it was a dog fight," Linden's Tavon Jones said. "To be honest we weren't expecting it to be this close, but give them credit, they fought hard. They executed but we played a little smarter and that's how we came out with the win."

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Linden will be looking to gain entrance to the Tournament of Champions with a win on Sunday, after falling in the ToC final last year to St. Anthony. The Tigers are looking to win their first ToC title, and last year's loss in the final has been fueling the team this season.

"It fuels us, gives us that fire," Linden's Khalief Crawford said. "We didn't like that feeling last year of losing to St. Anthony, we just want to get back there and hopefully win it all."

Along with advancing to the Group IV final, Jones scored his 1,000th career point on Thursday night. He scored it on a 3-pointer with 2:26 left in the first half, which put Linden ahead 28-21. Jones finished with a game-high 21 points.

"No I didn't, I kind of knew the range I was in but it was the win first and then the 1,000," the junior said when asked if he knew he could reach the milestone on Thursday. "It feels good, it's special but we're not done, we still have to get ToCs, Group IV, and my career will be solidified."

Linden led Bloomfield 32-23 at halftime after closing out the second quarter on a 7-2 run, which included five points from Jones. Bloomfield (24-6) opened the third quarter on a 3-pointer from Kyle Barrow, which cut the lead to 32-26, but another 7-0 run put Linden ahead 39-26 with 5:01 remaining.

Back-to-back 3s from Francis Lorenzo and Myles Toppin pulled the Bengals within 39-32 with 4:02 remaining, but Jones hit the back end of a pair of free throws to put the Tigers ahead 40-32. Two more 3s from Lorenzo pulled Bloomfield within two, 40-38 with 1:29 left, which was the closest they had been since 2:57 of the first quarter. Marcellus Livingston hit a free throw and Jones scored to give Linden some breathing room, 43-38, at the end of the quarter.

In the third quarter, all of Bloomfield's 15 points were on 3-point baskets, with Lorenzo scoring nine of his 12 points.

"I think it's from last year, us being in the ToC championship against St. Anthony, I think we've pretty much seen everything, the big crowd, the tough games, I think we've seen it all, and we were just prepared," Jones said of Bloomfield's comeback. "Over the course of the game you get cold, so that's when they made their run and we just had to take their punch and we had to counter."

Jones scored again to start the fourth quarter for Linden, 45-38, but Bloomfield stayed close as Toppin connected on a three-point play to get back within 45-41 with 7:26 left. Two free throws from Crawford and a three-point play from Livingston pushed the Tigers' lead back to nine, 50-41, with 5:59 remaining, but another 3 from Michael Ramos cut it to 50-44 with 5:27 left.

Bloomfield then went cold, going almost four minutes without scoring, but Linden was also held to only one free throw in almost the same amount of time, and led 51-46 with 1:59 to go.

Barrow was fouled on a 3-point attempt with 55.8 seconds remaining and hit two of three shots to cut the lead to 51-48, but Linden went to the line eight times in the final 53 seconds, outscoring Bloomfield 5-2 for the 56-50 final.

"We're not new to this, we've been in tight games all year, we know they're going to give us all they have, making shots, we just have to keep our composure, listen to coach and execute," Crawford said. "I feel like we played, in the first half, we came out really good, sharing the ball, we got a little bit away from that towards the second quarter, we picked it up in the third and fourth, trusting each other, sharing the ball, finding spots, so it was good."

Crawford finished with 15 points for Linden, while Livingston added nine points and eight rebounds. Mikey Watkins chipped in nine points.

For Bloomfield, which won its first sectional title in 40 years with a win over Ridgewood in North 1 Group IV on Tuesday, Barrow scored 11 points and pulled down five rebounds.

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