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CBA Basketball Rounding Into Form After Last-Second Thriller at Red Bank

LITTLE SILVER — Up until Saturday’s road test at Red Bank Regional, the Christian Brothers Academy had come up empty when given a chance to win a game with a basket in the final minute. Then again, Saturday was one of the few chances the Colts had to play such a game with a completely healthy starting lineup.

CBA’s healthy rotation carried the Colts to the brink of a key victory against the one-loss Bucs and 6-foot-8 sophomore David Buley pushed them across the finish line by putting back his own miss with 3.5 seconds left handing Red Bank just its second loss of the season, 51-49.

Prior to Saturday’s win, CBA was 2-3 in games decided by five points or fewer and in those two wins — over Ranney and Red Bank Catholic — CBA led for almost the entire game before holding on. In two of the three losses, the Colts played without at least one starter.

“It’s never easy,” CBA senior Justin Fuerbacher said. “Teams always want to come in and play their best against us. We have just stayed together, watched film, made adjustments, did a great job scouting and paid 100 percent attention to every detail. This was like a lot of those other close games that didn’t go our way, but we just those couple adjustments that led to better execution, which ultimately led to the win.”

Buley finished with 12 points and seven rebounds off the bench and his game-winner helped CBA escape Red Bank with a win after the hosts erased a 10-point second-half deficit to take the lead in the fourth quarter.

On the final play of the game, Buley defended the inbounder both before a foul by Red Bank and after with 1.1 seconds left, with the Bucs inbounding the ball from midcourt. Senior Zayier Dean got off a shot at the buzzer from beyond the three-point line, which came up short.

Fuerbacher led CBA with 13 points and six rebounds and hit a pair of three-pointers to slow Red Bank’s momentum after the Bucs to a 44-39 lead with a 14-0 run. Senior Charlie Messano then hit a midrange jumper to give CBA the lead back, 47-46.

“It was tough, but we never folded,” Fuerbacher said. “Being down on yourself is not something that you can ever do, so we had to believe in each other, I had to believe in myself and when there is a good shot, I have all the confidence in my teammates to take it, just like I have confidence in myself to take it.”

Senior Kevin Pikiell scored 10 points and converted a drive to the basket that stretched CBA’s lead to 49-46. After an empty possession, Red Bank forced a CBA turnover to get the ball back and Dean hit a three-pointer to tie the game at 49 with 59 seconds left.

CBA then ran the clock to 21 seconds and after a timeout, Buley got the ball in the high post and drove to the basket. After missing the first try, he grabbed his own miss and put it right back up for the go-ahead score.

“I got the ball and I knew I could get a shot off,” Buley said. “I’m confident in my abilities, so I went right to the hole. I missed the first one, but I knew I had time to get it back.”

Dean led the fourth-quarter comeback by Red Bank with 10 of his game-high 20 points in the final period. Senior Ryan Fisher added 15 points, but had to leave the game after injuring his head in a collision with teammate Will Galligan. According to coach George Sourlis, Fisher left the gym for the hospital and was being treated for a concussion.

Dean and Galligan hit three-pointers on back-to-back possessions to open the fourth quarter and tie the game, 39-39, and Red Bank took the lead on a five-point possession. After a CBA turnover, the Colts committed an intentional foul that gave St. Rose two free throws and the ball. Fisher hit both foul shots and Dean followed with a three for a 44-39 lead.

The back-and-forth showcased the best of both teams, with Red Bank nearly beating another top 10 opponent after trailing by double-digits in the second-half deficit — a stunt the Bucs pulled off a little more than a week earlier with an overtime win at Rumson-Fair Haven.

CBA, meanwhile, came out knocking down three-pointers thanks that established its lead, then asserted itself in the paint with its size across the board. Red Bank did not relent on the backboards, with the Bucs even getting the better of CBA on the glass before a halftime message from CBA coach Geoff Billet compelled his team to turn things around in that area. The Colts, however, took advantage of their size by feeding 6-6 junior Connor Andree and Buley in the post, with the sophomore serving as the go-to option with the game on the line.

“At halftime, (Billet) came in and wrote it on the white board: ‘We’ve got to be plus on the boards,'” Fuerbacher said. “We did that in the second half and that’s what I think was the biggest contributor to us being able to win. (Red Bank) is a great team, they don’t stop working on both ends, so we had to bring that same intensity.”

“Our bigs — Justin Fuerbacher and Connor Andree — we know that we are one of the best teams because of our size and our skill,” Buley said. “When the game is close, we want to do what we do best, so when it came down to the end, we wanted to get the ball inside.”

Saturday’s win marked CBA’s fourth straight game playing with its full cabinet of weapons. Fuerbacher missed only one full game due to a sprained ankle, but junior teammate Charlie Marcoullier missed one in December, then missed four consecutive games after aggravating the injury in the win over Ranney. Marcoullier returned in CBA’s Jan. 18 win over RBC and the Colts have looked closer to the team they expected to have all along since Marcoullier’s return.

“Justin Fuerbacher is a great leader and he and Charlie are two of our captains, so we all knew, when they went down, we were all going to have to step up and play our roles to the best of our abilities,” Buley said. “A lot of guys stepped up when those guys were out and now that they are back, we have a much deeper team where everyone knows their roles.”

All of CBA’s remaining games prior to the Shore Conference Tournament are against Class A North division opponents — Ranney, Colts Neck, Manalapan and Freehold Township — and while none of those teams currently has more than seven wins, CBA’s victory over Red Bank was a boon to its collection of power points. With Saturday’s win, CBA passed St. Rose for fourth place in the Shore Conference in power points and should have a chance to pass at least one of Central Regional and Red Bank for a top-three spot if the Colts can go 4-0 in their remaining division games.

CBA has not been to the Shore Conference Tournament final since 2016 and has not won the SCT championship since 2010, but this year’s team — when healthy — has shown promise as a potential challenger to defending champion and tournament favorite St. Rose. Although St. Rose is currently the fifth seed by power points, the Purple Roses have not lost to a Shore Conference opponent, which includes two wins over a Manasquan team that is No. 2 in the Shore Sports Insider rankings and No. 1 in power points.

Wherever the Colts end up in the seeding, they are just glad to be healthy as the tournament approaches and are hoping to keep it that way.

“That might not be the last time we see (Red Bank) this year, so we’re definitely going to go back and watch the film to see where we can improve,” Fuerbacher said. “We have some more important games coming up and there is still a lot more we want to accomplish this year.”