For the last three seasons, the St. Peter’s Prep basketball program has definitely been on the rise. In 2008, the Marauders went from being the eighth seed in the HCIAA Coviello playoffs to winning the league championship. Last year, they steamrolled the county en route to a 23-3 record and the last-ever HCIAA crown, being the first team to repeat as county champs since Marist more than a decade earlier.
Those achievements and accomplishments are certainly nice and definitely memorable, but in the grand scheme of things, they really don’t matter that much.
Because the Marauders hadn’t had their true defining moment under head coach Mike Kelly.
It was the fourth year that the respected Jersey City police lieutenant is in charge of the hoop team at Grand and Warren, but there had yet to be that one shining victory for the Marauders, one that would raise them above the local basketball scale and give them the respect they deserve on a statewide level.
The Marauders had three previous chances this season to gain that sort of win, but they failed all three times. They had a fourth-quarter lead against Paterson Catholic, then watched the whole game unravel before their eyes. They had local giant St. Anthony dead in the water, holding a nine-point lead with two minutes left and let that chance slip away. And they had a close battle with legendary New York powerhouse Christ the King at the Prudential Center in Newark, only to drop that one as well.
When Kelly was designing the Marauders’ 2009-2010 schedule, he wanted to make sure that his team had as many chances as possible to play the best teams.
When organizers for the famed Prime Time Shootout, held every year at the Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton – a tournament that once featured LeBron James a few years ago and usually always includes St. Anthony – called Kelly and asked if the Marauders would accept an invitation, Kelly gladly agreed.
“I jumped at the chance,” Kelly said.
But the people at the Prime Time were giving Kelly the option to play only one team – namely perennial national power Oak Hill Academy of Virginia, a school that has produced countless NBA players over the years, like superstars Grant Hill, Jerry Stackhouse, Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony and Rajon Rondo. It has won seven national championships over the years (in comparison, the fabulous Friars have only won three) and was national runner-up six more times, including last year.
It’s a program that has its own basketball website, its own spot on Facebook, its own national following. If the Marauders wanted prime time at the Prime Time Shootout, then a game against Oak Hill was definitely it.
“When I scheduled Oak Hill, my athletic director Rich Hansen said, ‘Are you out of your mind?’ ” Kelly said. “I first thought that we were going to be able to grab one of the other three this season. I was glad to play Oak Hill. I was like a little bit of a kid, jumping at the chance, saying, ‘Yeah, we’ll play them.’ I had trepidation, sure, but it was trepidation with excitement.”
The trepidation had to turn to pure fear just 24 hours before the Marauders were set to face Oak Hill, when the powerhouse from Virginia toppled New Jersey’s best team, St. Patrick’s of Elizabeth, in a nationally televised game at Kean University in Union.
“We carefully crafted that schedule to put a heavy hitter, a big-name team, there every two weeks or so,” Kelly said. “We knew that this was the toughest of all of them. My staff and I watched the game against St. Pat’s. We knew that we had our hands full.”
And Kelly also knew that if the Marauders wanted to gain that respect statewide, one that comes with being among the top five teams in the Garden State, well, you better get a win. Coming close in the big ones can only go so far.
“We played three quarters against Paterson Catholic, we played 30 minutes of great basketball against St. Anthony and we played well against Christ the King,” Kelly said. “All three were different scenarios and provided different hurdles. I think we had a bunch of lessons that we needed to learn. We had to finish a big game. We were being competitive in big games. We needed to finish. There are only so many times that you can tell the kids they’re playing great. You need to get the win.”
The Marauders got it.
Led by sensational junior guard Myles Davis, who scored 33 points, and St. John’s-bound forward Ronald Roberts, who had 23 points and 13 rebounds, the Marauders shocked the No. 7-ranked team in the nation, getting an 84-81 victory.
“The timing was just perfect,” Kelly said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better scenario to play out. It’s the most significant win in the history of the school. It’s a national powerhouse with a storybook program. The win was great, but not if it ends there.”
Added Kelly, “I think it definitely helps our team’s confidence. It was a breakthrough from a confidence standpoint. I think it certainly puts us in the mix in the [Non-Public A North] state tournament. It’s going to be a real grind, but we have to concentrate on bigger things now. It’s not going to be easy for us to get through that bracket.”
The Marauders also have the current Hudson County Tournament to contend with. The Marauders are the top seed in the tourney and face Union City in the quarterfinals this weekend.
“We’re back to earth already,” Kelly said after the Oak Hill victory. “We played High Tech [Tuesday night, a 90-72 Marauder victory] and they were skilled, talented and well coached. They pushed us very hard. It wasn’t because we played soft. They played us tough. On any given night, one of these teams can knock us off. We know that.”
Davis has been a key. Since returning from an early season concussion, the junior guard has been unconscious, averaging better than 22 points per game.
“They’re all calling and asking about him now,” Kelly said of Davis, referring to big-time college coaches. “The bigger the stage, the better the game Myles plays.”
Roberts has also been great of late.
“I’ve reminded him of where he’s going to be playing in the future,” Kelly said. “I think that’s motivated him to play at a higher level. He’s making shots, doing all the little things.”
Roberts followed up his Oak Hill performance with 30 points and 15 rebounds against High Tech.
So now the Marauders are definitely on the statewide map for good. They have their defining moment. Now, they need to define themselves more with a county championship and a solid run in the upcoming state playoffs. q
Jim Hague can be reached at OGSMAR@aol.com.