UPDATED: Alley-Oop Dunk Highlight as Ridge Hoops Bow to Gill

For two-plus quarters, went toe-to-toe Thursday night with Gill St. Bernard’s, one of the state’s premier basketball teams this season.

Eventually, however, Gill pulled ahead to take the game 61-48 in the private school's home gym in Peapack-Gladstone. That team now has a record of 21-2, while Ridge now has dropped to 10-11 for the season.

Ridge’s first basket in the second half was the Red Devils' best executed offensive play the entire game—an alley-oop lay-in by senior center J.B. Kole off a nice feed from junior guard Dylan Kerwin. The highlight reel bucket brought Ridge to within three points of Gill at 27-24 with a minute elapsed in the third quarter.

But as soon as Ridge's Jack Kerwin got a steal on the following possession, Ridge missed it's best shot to get closer.

Gill then proceeded into a back-breaking 15-1 run to break the game open.

The loss drops Ridge to 8-6 in the Skyland Delaware Division. Gill, which defeated Ridge 62-56 earlier in the season, built upon a winning streak of 19 games in a row. That team now is 15-0 in the Skyland Delaware Division.

“It happens. Everything they (Gill)  threw up went in,” Ridge coach Mark Taylor said. “It’s part of the game.

"We got cold again in the third quarter and I thought we came out with good energy.

“We played good defense the first two possessions and had a nice play on the alley-oop and next thing you know we didn’t score for a few minutes,” Taylor said.

The alley-oop, which was a play called coming out the locker room, was perfectly executed by Dylan Kerwin and Kole. Kerwin had the ball on the wing and Kole slipped through the opening on the backside, corralled the ball and in traffic, was able to complete the play.

“It was a play (Conor) Skea and I decided on," Kole said. “At the half, we wanted to get some momentum going; so we have that design play where he’ll screen down and come up, then I’ll come off the back screen and it worked pretty well.”

Ridge played its best basketball during the second quarter. After entering the second trailing 16-9, the Red Devils pulled to within two right away when Skea drained a 3-pointer and Jack Kerwin followed up with a jumper.

Gill responded with a 6-0 spurt. But Ridge battled back and when Dylan Kerwin drained a 3-pointer with seconds remaining, the Red Devils trailed just 24-22 entering halftime.

“I thought we played them tough,” Skea said. “We beat them in the second quarter but in the third quarter, after we ran that set play, we didn’t get any offense so we couldn’t build any momentum.”

Skea led Ridge with 17 points, 12 of which came in the second half. Kole chipped with 10, six came in the second. Jack Kerwin added eight and junior J.D. Moore had six.

UPDATED: For Gill, junior guard Alex Mitola of Florham Park tallied 19 points and four assists to spark the Knights to their 19th straight win. Sophomore guard Jaren Sina of Lake Hopatcong chalked up 15 points and eights assists and junior forward Dominic Hoffman of Hawthorne posted 14 points and 10 rebounds for Gill during Thursday's game, according to information from Gill St Bernard's.

Despite the loss for Ridge, Taylor said he expects his team to finish the regular season strong next week with three games—Monday against Hunterdon Central, Tuesday against Franklin and Thursday on the road against rival Somerset Hills at Bernards High School—before playing at North Hunterdon on Monday, Feb. 28 in the first round of the North Jersey Section 2 Group IV state tournament.

“Tonight’s game was a learning experience and it was meant for us to get better,” Taylor said. “We are now focused on the state tournament—the next three games is all about us getting ready for the states.”