Mendham 70 - Mo Cath 44

Mendham hits from downtown

Mendham exploded for 43 first half points and responded as well as anyone could hope coming off their 13 point loss DePaul.

George Twill opened the scoring for both teams with a bucket 35 seconds into the game. The Crusaders responded 25 seconds later matching the score at 2. The next 3 minutes and ten seconds turned into a series of unrewarded trips back and forth down the court. That is, unless you forget about the defensive rebound. Both teams managed to take advantage of the cold streak and bring the ball back down the court, working for that all important next basket. Mendham had the answer. Twill nailed a three followed by a bucket from DelTufo. The Minutemen up’d the lead to 10-2 when Andrew Bernstein hit a three. But it wasn’t until near the 2:00 mark when the score-fest began. The Crusaders hit three baskets from outside the arc in the final 2 minutes and 8 seconds, but Mendham answered with a basket from DelTufo with 30 seconds left and a three from Burnstein with only 4 seconds left.

The Bernstein show was only getting started. The senior guard seemed locked on the orange rim as he nailed three more hoops from downtown, finishing the first half with 16 points. Twill also added 16 points, all but 4 coming in the opening half. Both squads had emptied their benches and rested their starters after the minutemen took 58-22 lead early in the third. Morris Catholic was hindered by poor shooting, even from inside the key. The Crusaders ended the first half shoot less 20% from the field, most misses in the second quarter. Conversely, Mendham hit 15 of 32 from the field, many conversions on offensive rebounds and 8 out of 13 from beyond the arc. A highlight of the game occurred early in the third quarter when George Twill, who just fed DelTufo to up the lead to 31, stole the ball at mid court and trotted in for the crowd pleasing slam dunk.

Mendham will play sister school West Morris at Delbarton tomorrow. Morris Catholic will face Delbarton in the final game tomorrow night. MorrisCountyVarsity.net has Delbarton and Mendham tied for the #1 team in Morris County. But the Crusaders will look for the upset and avoid their second loss of the season in as many days.

MENDHAM (4-1): Andrew Burstein 0-1-5-16, George Twill 5-0-2-16, Nick Deltufo 7-0-0-14, Rob Berish 3-1-0-7, Connor Tinquist 1-2-0-4, Kent Poges 2-0-0-4, Shane Atha 0-0-1-3, Bob Ciampaglio 1-0-0-2, Mark Cisco 1-0-0-2, Chris Hanson 0-2-0-2

MORRIS CATHOLIC (4-1): A. Bially 1-0-4-14, Pendergast 4-0-0-8, Tim Williams 2-2-0-6, B. Bially 0-0-2-6, Bennett 0-1-1-4, Fisher 0-0-1-3, Travis Williams 1-0-0-2, D. Kreuder 0-1-0-1

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Final
MENDHAM	15	28	17	10	70
MORRIS CATHOLIC	11	8	7	18	44