Madison Boys Basketball Rolls to 16th Straight Win

DENVILLE – The Madison High School boys basketball team had won its last three games in relatively comfortable fashion, but not because the Dodgers were shooting the ball particularly well.

The unbeaten squad was a combined 6-for-38 from 3-point range, dating back to the Jan. 26 win at Mountain Lakes.

Thursday night, Madison broke out of that slump in a big way, hitting nine of 16 3-pointers and cruising to a 73-49 win at NJAC-Independence rival Morris Catholic.

Four Dodgers scored in double figures, led by Jake Meister's 17. The junior guard also led Madison with eight rebounds. Matt Gilbert and Robbie Savacool added 16 points apiece.

"We had some great ball movement, and we just got hot," Savacool said. "The shots were dropping for us, and the rims here are soft, which always helps."

The 3-point shot played a big role in lifting Madison out of a  first-half deficit.

Gilbert erased a 17-13 Crusader lead with 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions midway through the second quarter. He scored 10 first-half points as Madison earned itself a six-point halftime advantage.

And then in the third quarter, it appeared as if the Dodgers (16-0, 9-0 Independence) simply could not miss. Morris Catholic pulled within 33-28 with 6:23 left in the third, following Robbie Drexel's transition layup.

But Madison answered with a 19-2 run, led by nine points from Meister, to bury the Crusaders (4-13, 2-7).

"I felt like we weren't missing by much in the first half," said Madison coach Bill Librera. "We were too rushed. But things definitely clicked in the second half."

The points came fast and furious, with the Dodgers scoring on eight consecutive possessions. Meister and Savacool each hit a pair of 3-pointers in the run.

Morris Catholic had no answer and, after Mike Haughey's offensive rebound and putback layup with 1:57 left, the Dodgers' lead was 52-30.

"Everyone was just moving around, and someone would get open," Gilbert said.

It was a brilliant series of events for Madison, which used a similar third-quarter run to take charge of Tuesday's win against Pequannock.

"It's been like this for the last few days," Savacool said of Madison's recent second-half supremacy. "We play down a little bit in the first half, and then we pick it up."

Madison's 16th straight win was a team effort, with four starters scoring at least 12 points, and four picking up at least six rebounds.

Gilbert, in particular, did a little bit of everything to help the Dodgers. The 6-foot-4 sophomore picked up six rebounds to go with his 16 points–both season highs. He also recorded a team-high five assists.

"Matt's an explosive player," Librera said. "He can take big shots, he can make big shots. He's really been tremendous for us as a sophomore."

Point guard Aaron Fant finished with double-figure points (12) for the fifth straight game, dishing out three assists as well.

The Dodgers have shown a tendency of letting opponents hang around until late in the fourth quarter - including these two teams' last meeting, a 58-51 Madison win on Jan. 7.

But Librera said that the Dodgers have grown up during the course of the season, so he was not surprised by Madison's easy win.

"We're still a team of mostly juniors, and we're still learning and growing as a team," the coach said. "It's nice to be winning games while we're learning."

NOTES

• Junior forward Matt McHale (7.5 ppg, 4.3 rpg) missed Thursday night's game after rolling his ankle in practice Wednesday. Librera is hopeful McHale can play in Saturday's county tournament game against Morris Hills.

• Senior Tony Napolitano was one of two Dodgers–along with Martin Horn–to score his first career varsity points Thursday. Napolitano, a first-year player, sent the Madison bench into a frenzy when he hit an off-balance 3-pointer with 10 seconds remaining.

NEXT UP
The Dodgers open up Morris County Tournament play Saturday (5 p.m.), when they play No. 14 seed Morris Hills (10-8) in a first-round game at Madison High School. Madison, seeded third in the tournament, defeated Morris Hills, 56-45, Jan. 23 in Madison. The Scarlet Knights defeated 19th-seeded Mount Olive, 55-47, last Saturday. If the game is snowed out, it will be made up Monday night.

SCORING SUMMARY
Madison                    9  20  25  19  -  73
Morris Catholic   13  10  12  14  -  49

INDIVIDUAL SCORING
MAD- Jake Meister 17, Matt Gilbert 16, Robbie Savacool 16, Aaron Fant 12, Mike Haughey 6, Tony Napolitano 3, Martin Horn 2, Brian Williams 1
MC- Robbie Drexel 18, Brett Bially 7, Steven Fisher 7, Dylan Gallagher 7, Darius Osorio-Vega 6, Jeff Rogers 4