Blair junior forward Akoldah Gak barreled towards the basket looking to tie the game and force overtime against St. Benedict’s in the Prep A final.
With the seconds ticking closer and closer to zero he stormed through the paint and exploded towards the rim. Waiting for him midair was St. Benedict’s senior forward Zaba Bangala. The two nearly seven-foot forces clashed and Bangala got a hand on the ball to redirect the shot.
He instinctively grabbed the rebound as the final buzzer sounded to secure St. Benedict’s the Prep A championship in a thrilling 68-66 victory over Blair Academy at Dalton Gym in Newark on Thursday.
“I just wanted to go hard and do what I had to do to win,” Bangala said. “This is what we’ve been practicing so hard for all year. This might’ve been the biggest block of my life. I just felt like I did what I had to do to win the game.”
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Redemption was on the mind of St. Benedict’s after it got blown out by Blair 86-64 in last year’s final in Blairstown. Although there are some new faces on this year’s St. Benedict’s roster, senior guard Adetokunbo Bakare made sure they knew exactly how it felt to lose this game last season and how important it was to defend the Grey Bee’s home court.
“I made sure every day that everybody knew that this was the game that we needed to win,” Bakare said. “Without the intensity that we all came out with today, we wouldn’t have gotten the win. We came into this year wanting to take back what was ours. We had our home crowd out here, so we figured why not give them a show.”
St. Benedict’s appeared to have the game exactly where it wanted it midway through the third quarter when it pulled ahead by 13 points on a basket from senior center Mounir Hima.
But Blair wasn’t done fighting.
It went on a 8-0 run to cut the score to 52-47 and trailed 55-49 heading into the fourth.
Behind a 9-5 run, Blair cut the deficit to 60-58 after senior guard Michael O’Connell drilled a 3-pointer, but St. Benedict’s gained separation with a 6-1 run of its own to pull ahead 66-59. From there Blair battled back and cut the deficit to 68-66 before Bangala’s secured the school the state championship.
“We stayed cool and came together as a team,” senior guard EJ Evans said. “We had to stay focused. We all connected as one and when we all connect as one, we play beautiful basketball together. It really warms my heart when I talk about it because it’s like a brotherhood over here.”
Evans led St. Benedict’s with 20 points, while Bakare finished with 17. Alagie Barra Njie added 11 points and six assists, and Bangala finished with 11 points and 15 rebounds. O’Connell led Blair with 20 points, while Kyle Cuffe finished with 15 points and Jaylen Blakes scored 14.
Richard Greco covers boys basketball for NJ.com and may be reached at rgreco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @Richard_V_Greco. Find NJ.com on Facebook.