Haughey Leads Madison Boys Hoops Over Chatham

MADISON – Mike Haughey has turned out to be a pleasant surprise for the Madison High School boys basketball team. In his first year as a varsity player, he's stepped up and made some of the biggest shots in Madison's season-opening unbeaten run.

Haughey, making his third start, led Madison with 16 points as the Dodgers upended rival Chatham, 49-47, Thursday night at Madison High School to improve to 8-0.

The Dodgers (8-0, 5-0 NJAC-Independence) led by as many as 11, but Chatham pulled within three on Jonathan Bernstein's 3-pointer with 9.5 seconds left. At that point, Robbie Savacool–returning to the lineup after missing the previous two games–hit the second of two free throws to give Madison a two-possession lead. Bernstein made a layup at the buzzer to provide the final margin.

Point guard Aaron Fant tallied seven points, 10 rebounds and five assists for Madison. Bernstein led the Cougars (6-3, 3-2) with 16 points.

"Chatham has been one of, if not the best, programs in Morris County over the last 10 years," said Madison head coach Bill Librera. "For us to beat them is a statement of our arrival–and hopefully our staying–as a really good team."

Haughey scored eight points in the first quarter as the Dodgers jumped out to a 15-6 lead. And when Chatham made its inevitable run, the guard hit a crucial 3-pointer late in the third quarter to extend a one-point lead.

"He's made big plays," Librera said. "He made a huge 3 against Morris Catholic (last Thursday), a huge 3 against Hanover Park (Tuesday). We knew he had it in him."

With Savacool unavailable for the last two games, Haughey has provided much-needed production on offense and intensity on defense. But at the end of Thursday's game, it was the returning senior who came up with important plays.

"It was nervous and exciting at the same time for me," Savacool said. "It felt like it had been a while since I'd played. Very nervewracking."

Savacool said he struggled early due to those nerves, missing several shots over the first two quarters. But that changed soon enough. After Chatham made an 11-0 run in the last two minutes of the first half to tie the game at 19-19, Savacool hit a turnaround hook with four seconds left in the second quarter, giving Madison the lead once again.

Savacool scored four straight points at the end of the third and beginning of the fourth quarters, as part of a 15-2 Dodger run that proved decisive. And it was the senior who put the Madison lead out of reach in the final seconds with his free throw.

"I was scared as hell (before the free throw)," Savacool said. "Everyone was staring at me, I was shaking a little bit. But after I made it, I just felt great. It's like, I've personally never beaten Chatham. So it was a big deal for me."

The Cougars appeared to have all the momentum at halftime, rebounding from a 19-8 second-quarter deficit to tie the game on Chris Conroy's offensive rebound and putback with 20 seconds to play. Chatham began to hit their shots and get out in transition, which gave Librera plenty to talk about at halftime.

"A little bit of that was effort," the coach said. "I told them, 'that's not us,' that's not how we play. And the kids knew that. But sometimes you need to articulate that to them."

Haughey and Jake Meister (13 points, 10 rebounds) hit back-to-back 3-pointers to open the second half, but Chatham made their second big run of the game immediately after. The Cougars scored 10 straight on five straight layups, the last of which–Bernstein grabbed a defensive rebound and streaked up the court, beating the Dodgers back for the easy bucket with 2:46 left in the third–gave Chatham a 29-27 lead.

The lead would be short-lived–Meister hit a 3-pointer to restore the Dodgers' lead 32 seconds later. Haughey hit a big shot to extend the lead to four, 33-29. By the time Fant hit back-to-back jumpers early in the fourth quarter, the lead was 11 and Chatham could not pull within one possession until the final seconds.

For Librera, who preaches taking a season in four-game segments, the end of Madison's second segment–four wins over NJAC-Independence teams–has the Dodgers set up very well for the future. And the Dodgers, one of two unbeaten teams remaining in Morris County, are making a strong case to be among the top seeds as the county tournament seeding meeting looms next weekend.

"We'd rather be No. 1 at the end of the season of course," Librera said. "No one remembers who was No. 1 on Jan. 14. But if it's the case that we were to be ranked No. 1, we'd take that as a compliment and go forward."

UP NEXT

The Dodgers will look to improve to 9-0 Saturday afternoon when they step outside of league play to take on Livingston. Tip time is set for 1 p.m. at Livingston High School. The Lancers evened their record at 4-4 Thursday night with a 49-47 win over West Essex. A Madison win would clinch an NJSIAA Tournament berth with three weeks to spare. Last year, the Dodgers won a must-win game over Delbarton on the cutoff date to qualify for the state playoffs.

SCORING SUMMARY

Chatham     6  13  12  16  -  47

Madison   15    6  15  13  -  49

INDIVIDUAL SCORING

MAD- Mike Haughey 16, Jake Meister 13, Robbie Savacool 8, Aaron Fant 7, Matt Gilbert 4, Matt McHale 1

CHAT- Jonathan Bernstein 16, Chris Conroy 15, Kevin Giannattasio 6, Brendan Damodaron 6, Sam Carson 2, Adam Kovanuk 2