A little more than a year ago, legendary St. Anthony boys’ basketball coach Bob Hurley sat in the bowels of the Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton, just a few minutes after his team had suffered its second setback in as many days at the Prime Time Shootout tournament.
The losses were the seventh and eighth that Hurley’s Friars had endured that season, easily the greatest amount of losses that the Friars had ever accumulated in a single year. In fact, there was a time when the fabulous Friars would lose eight games in about eight years. Last year’s 17-8 record represented the worst basketball season at the tiny school on Eighth Street in downtown Jersey City in more than 20 years.
At the time, most coaches would have been despondent and depressed over the fact that they’d lost two games in a span of 18 hours, in a tournament where his teams would have once easily dominated. Albeit an unfamiliar role, Hurley took his lumps like a champion.
“Just wait until next year,” Hurley promised last year. “We have a young team with everyone coming back and we have a very talented freshman coming in who will play right away. We’ll be back next year. I promise.”
Last Saturday, at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, Hurley made good on his promise. His team made it back. All the way back.
The Friars of St. Anthony made six standout defensive plays in the final 3:27, enabling the school to earn a 48-47 victory in the NJSIAA Tournament of Champions title game over Shabazz of Newark.
It marked the seventh time that St. Anthony had earned the prestigious title as the state’s premier team overall, joining similar championships won in 1989, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1996 and 1997. No other school has won more than one T of C title in the 13-year history of the tournament.
St. Anthony has also won 22 Parochial state crowns, which is two shy of a national record. Twenty of those championships have come during Hurley’s amazing tenure as the head coach, a career that has earned him New Jersey Sports Hall of Fame honors. The school’s 1989 and 1996 teams won mythical national champions, courtesy of the nationwide newspaper USA Today.
However, through all the championships and all the accolades, there probably wasn’t a happier moment ever for Hurley. He had watched his own two sons emerge into high school All-Americans and had coached countless players into major college basketball and even the professional ranks. But winning the Tournament of Champions with this team, a year removed from being considered dead in the water, is probably the coach’s proudest moment.
“Over the course of time, we’ve had some great moments,” Hurley said at a post-game press conference, flanked by his six top players. “But these six kids I have here with me [Donald Copeland, Dwayne Lee, JonPaul Kobryn, Marcus Williams, Pedro Cipriano and Elijah Ingram] have been an absolute joy to coach. I don’t know if I’ve ever enjoyed a win more, a team more. This team has been a lot of fun. I’ve enjoyed this. I don’t know if I ever had a chance to enjoy them before. I was always worried about winning the next one.”
Added Hurley, “This has been more fun than anything else. And it’s because of the kids’ enthusiasm. They’re wearing hats, doing the dances before the game. And it’s become contagious. They’ve allowed me to loosen up a little. Maybe it’s their naivety, maybe it’s their enthusiasm. But this has been a real fun group and way different from any other team we’ve had.”
On the court
The Friars (26-3) capped their brilliant season with a stifling defensive stand down the stretch, displaying their truest strength, which is keeping the opposition from scoring. After junior guard Copeland hit his only shot of the game, a 14-foot jump shot from the far left corner, giving St. Anthony a 48-47 lead with 3:27 remaining in the game, the Friars buckled down on defense and didn’t allow Shabazz (29-2) to score a single point the rest of the way.
“We didn’t have a defensive stop to win a game this season,” Hurley said. “We had the defensive stop today.” Like six of them, to be precise. One possession after another, the Friars had to turn on the defensive heat to keep the lead. And they were successful, six straight times.
“We had to play defense to win the game,” Hurley said.
Ingram, the brilliant junior guard, led all scorers with 22 points, but didn’t score a point in the final quarter. Again, it was the defensive unit, with each player playing a significant role, that saved the day.
Cipriano collected a blocked shot. Kobryn altered a shot and gathered two rebounds. Lee was the one who made the biggest play, stripping Devonne Giles of the ball as he went in for the apparent game-winning shot with less than one second remaining. All key plays, all instrumental in the victory.
“We all needed each other down the stretch,” Hurley said. “We all put our time in and we all grew together. This is the result and the rewards of hard work. And this is just the beginning of the rewards. Next week, we will receive a trophy as the best team in the New York tri-state area [from MSG Network] and we’ll walk onto the floor of Madison Square Garden and people will applaud for us. [Knicks coach] Jeff Van Gundy will clap for us, because he appreciates hard work. And Allan Houston will applaud for us, because he knows what it takes as well.”
Added Hurley, “I know that we’ve won this tournament seven times and no other school has won more than once. That says a lot.”
The Friars’ senior players were enjoying their moment in the sun.
“This is the icing on the cake and we got the ice,” Cipriano said. “It’s the most fun I’ve ever had. Last year was really tough on us, because people were laughing at us, thinking we were so bad. We proved them all wrong this year.”
“But I have mixed emotions,” Kobryn said. “I’m happy we won, but I’m real upset that it’s over. I’ll never be on a team like this ever again, never feel this same way again. I’m going to miss it.”
But the coach won’t miss the feeling of being on top again.
“People said that we were done, that I was old and couldn’t relate to players anymore,” Hurley said. “If you believe that, then it’s rather surprising that we’re here, celebrating another championship.”
No one believed any of it for a single minute. And everyone will now expect St. Anthony to be a contender for an eighth T of C title next year.