Patriots hope to rebound from loss to St. Joe's
Colonia still among GMC's best teams
BY SHAWN LAYTON
Staff Writer

SCOTT PILLING staff Colonia's Brendan Wagner shoots over Woodbridge's Kirk Zambrana during the Patriots' 70-32 win in Colonia on Thursday.

COLONIA - The Colonia High School boys basketball suffered just its second loss of the season and fell to 7-2 on the year after a 55-53 overtime defeat at the hands of St. Joseph.

"It was one of those games that could have gone either way," Colonia head coach Chris Chiera said. "Both teams are defense oriented and very similar in other ways. We just came up a little short this time."

St. Joe's led the entire game until the Patriots stepped up their defensive effort in the fourth quarter to rally from a six-point deficit to force the game into overtime.

"I was happy with the way we fought back and were able to send it to overtime," Chiera said. "St. Joe's is always a good team and well coached, as Dave Turco is one of the most respected coaches in the area. It was our first big test of the year because St. Joe's is a team that is always around when the county tournament gets down to the quarterfinals and the semifinals."

Junior Brandon Hall was a big reason the Patriots kept things close and had a chance to win the game in extra time. Colonia's point guard struck the Falcon defense for a career-high 26 points.

"Brandon is known for his defense, but he did a great job shooting the ball for us in this one," Chiera said. "He hit five three-pointers and just played a phenomenal game. Unfortunately, he fouled out in the closing seconds."

Senior Joey LaSala also had a solid game for the Patriots in the loss. LaSala chipped in 11 points.

"He usually gets the toughest defensive assignment," Chiera said. "St. Joe's has a good kid named Carroll who can score some points. We put Joey on him and Joey did a pretty good job of holding Carroll in check. Joey's a hard-nosed kid who always plays hard."

Earlier last week LaSala was instrumental in the team's 70-32 win over Woodbridge finishing with 15 points. Teammate Kevin Edmonds, a 6-foot-8-inch senior forward, chipped in 12 points and sophomore forward Nnamdi Usuwa finished with 10 points.

"We're pleased with our start to the season," Chiera said

"We have two sophomores and a junior in the starting lineup and they've played well. It's also a nice thing for the future of our program to have some key younger players getting a lot of experience."

The Patriots will look to regroup from Saturday's loss with road games against Sayreville and Monroe this week. Sayreville heads into this week's action fresh off a 71-48 victory over Perth Amboy, while Monroe ended its week with a 63-55 win over Spotswood.

"Sayreville has been playing well as of late and Monroe will be another tough challenge for us," Chiera said. "That will be good for us because we need to be challenged. I keep telling the players that everything is geared toward the post-season. We'll watch film of the St. Joe's loss and see our mistakes. The key will be to try and not make the same mistakes later in the year."

Coming into the week, Colonia was sitting atop the GMC's White Division standings at 4-0 in divisional play, with Monroe just a game back at 3-1 (8-3 overall). South Plainfield, who improved to 5-3 overall with a win over Old Bridge on Saturday, was also just a game back in the White Division standings when the week began, while Carteret (3-3, 2-2 in the division) was two games back.