By Andy Loigu

Ninth-year head coach Mike McDonagh is looking forward to a big quarterfinal game at Delaware Valley, after his resolute band on the run shot the lights out at Hackettstown on Saturday night. The sharp shooting Tigers defeated an up-tempo Pope John squad 60-54, advancing in the Hunterdon/Warren/Sussex boys basketball tournament brackets. They visit the tenacious Terriers on Saturday, with the tip-off time yet to be determined.

The winning Tigers hit the mark on nine three-point shots from beyond the arc. They got open looks by working a fluid motion offense and getting the ball to the open man, in the same fashion the Princeton Tigers do it at the collegiate level.

Tyler Gorczyca led the Hackettstown scoring parade with 24 points, which included three treys and seven free throws.

The Tigers trailed the pressing and trapping Pope John Lions 43-39 at the end of three periods, but Gorczyca, in Michael Jordan fashion, took over the game in period four, hitting a three and then scoring twice on drives to the hoop to tie the game at 46-46. Shawn Morgan then drained a three-ball which gave the Tigers the lead for good. Morgan finished the game with eight points, all of them coming within the framework of a well orchestrated offensive system.

Gorczyca helped preserve the lead by making four of four free throws, giving the Tigers a 56-52 edge with 1:14 left to play. The Tigers’ defense forced two turnovers in the final minute to thwart the Lions’ last-ditch push.

Kevin Magnotta contributed four three-point bombs while scoring 19 points. He landed two consecutive threes to give the Tigers a 34-29 lead and one more to make the lead 39-35, but the relentless visitors then went on an 8-0 run to close the first half, creating mayhem with a trapping 2-1-2 zone press.

“Each time they took the lead on us, we answered,” McDonagh said. “We needed perseverance to win tonight.”

He said he liked how the Tigers kept their heads when pressured and trapped by the Lions, who kept trying to make it a high-speed transition game. “They remembered everything we’ve worked on in the practices. When the guys know where they should be, they can pass their way out of traps.”

Hackettstown’s man-to-man defense contested every Pope John pass and shot, forcing the visitors into various mistakes and violations. McDonagh does not like zone defenses because he believes zone teams become lazy and sloppy. The help and recover man to man defense he teaches puts pressure on dribble-happy guards and closes passing lanes. As a result the Tigers are 12-5, division leaders in the Northwest Jersey Athletic Conference and moving on in the tri-county tournament.

***Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has left the building.