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Schools

Madison Boys Take Season Hoops Series From Chatham, 60-50

Dodgers now point to state tournament game Feb. 28.

There's always a little bit more than just a win at stake when the boys basketball team faces off against border rival Chatham High.

On Thursday night in Madison the Dodgers walked away with the rubber match of a three-game series, taking control early as they cruised to a 60-50 win and ever-important season's bragging rights.

Madison now looks forward to hosting Fort Lee in a first-round state tournament game Feb. 28.

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“[I feel] very good,” Madison head coach Bill Librera said after the win. “To take two out of three against a program like that, says a lot for the program that we have. I thought they played well and I thought we played well. It was a well-contested high school basketball game and I’m just proud of the character of the guys that we have.”

Junior Colin Brown would start Chatham off by netting five unanswered points and the early lead for Chatham, but it wouldn't last long as Madison began to heat up midway through the opening quarter.

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Using great ball movement and lock-down defense, Madison would go on a 13-3 run and establish a lead they would never surrender.  

With seniors Aaron Fant, Jake Meister and Mike Haughey leading the Dodgers' offensive charge, and fellow senior Matt McHale dominating in the paint, it was clear that the Dodgers didn’t want to experience the same outcome that they did two weeks ago in a 51-47 loss at Chatham.

“We just wanted to move around a little bit more,” said Fant, who finished with 11 points, eight rebounds and four assists. “We felt like the last time we played them, we were just standing around on offense. And they were getting open threes, so we had to tighten up on defense, too.”

In their previous meeting Chatham was able to hold the Madison trio of Meister, Fant and Haughey to 32 points combined, with Meister scoring 22 of those points.

This time around the Chatham defense didn't have as much success as Meister again went for 22 points, while Fant and Haughey combined for 26, leading an impressive Madison offensive attack.

“I started off pretty cold, my shot was off but they were giving me space so I was going to keep shooting until I started making them,” said Meister, who added six rebounds and two assists in the win. “Coach told me, don’t worry, they’re going to fall so I just kept shooting. I knew after a little while that they’d have to go in.”

While Chatham would struggle to hold on to the ball throughout the game, they never let the Dodgers run away with it.

Junior Jon Berntsen would open the fourth quarter with a three-pointer to bring the Cougars within five at 46-41, and it appeared that Chatham wasn’t ready to call it quits, as Chatham used a quick 8-2 run to get within two points of the lead.

But Fant and junior Matt Gilbert would quickly put an end to the Cougar attack, combining for six points and once again, extending the Madison lead.

“We wanted to relax on offense, we didn’t want too many quick shots and we wanted to take time off of the clock and look for good shots,” said McHale, who finished the game with three points, seven rebounds and one block. “We wanted to play good team defense. They’re solid on offense so we had to grab all of their misses.”

Gilbert would finish the night with 10 points and three rebounds, while Haughey would add three rebounds and two assists to go with 15 points.

Chatham senior Brendan Damodaran would sink a three-pointer from the corner with 2:45 remaining in the game to draw Chatham within five, but it wouldn’t be enough as the Dodgers took home a win in their final regular season game of 2011.

“It’s my last time ever playing Chatham, so it’s good to come out with the win,” McHale said.

Librera, who said after the game that he’ll begin studying film in preparation for Fort Lee, took something away from the Dodgers' two wins over Chatham.

“We can beat a very good shooting team,” he explained. “I don’t know if the jump shooters that we see in the state tournament will be like this, but it’s nice to know that we can survive those rushes and go from there.”

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