High School Sports |

CVC Boys Basketball Tournament: Lawrence, Ewing face off at WW-P North for championship

For the second straight year, a tournament champion in local boys basketball will be crowned at West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North.

But this time, it will be a definitive Colonial Valley Conference champion.

Second-seeded Lawrence (19-5) and fifth-seeded Ewing (17-6) are set to face off Saturday at 5 p.m. in the first-ever title game of the CVC Tournament, which replaced the Mercer County Tournament after 42 years.

The new event meant that all 15 CVC schools became part of one single bracket instead of having an MCT with one upper and one lower bracket that included Pennington and Trenton Catholic (now Thrive Charter). Pennington defeated Hopewell Valley in the final MCT last year.

Ewing had not won the MCT since 2011 and Lawrence never won it (one title game appearance in 2006), so this will be an especially meaningful trophy for whichever school hoists it at the end of Saturday’s game.

Lawrence got here with home wins over Steinert and Hightstown by double digits last week and then a two-point nailbiter over Notre Dame on Wednesday in the semifinals.

Ewing, meanwhile, held off pesky Princeton High at home by five points in the first round, then won on the road by 10 points at Trenton, and finally outlasted Robbinsville at home by eight points.

Lawrence and Ewing did not meet in the regular season because they played in opposing divisions and opted not to schedule each other.

All signs point to their first matchup being a dandy when you consider that they are separated by only one loss with nearly identical point differentials on the season (+234 for Lawrence and +244 for Ewing). Lawrence beat six out-of-area squads while Ewing toppled five.

In order for Lawrence to win, the Cardinals will almost certainly need a big game from Marvin McNeil. The senior guard leads all players in this game with 16.8 points per game and has gone over the 20-point mark seven times including 27 in the semifinals.

Lawrence also features a skilled 6-foot-5 senior big man in Noah Johansen (12.8 points, 7.7 rebounds per game) and key role players like sophomore Andrew Tembo (8.5 points per game) and sophomore Josh Wilson (7.1 points per game).

Ewing’s top performers are senior Terrance Traylor (14.5 points, 5.9 assists per game), senior Joel Cineus (14.1 points, 9.6 rebounds per game) and junior Kristian Thomas (10.1 points, 5.9 assists per game). Senior Leslie Summiel (5.6 points, 6.6 rebounds per game) and sophomore Davion Morton (6.5 points per game) are key contributors as well.

Both teams like to get after it defensively, but it will be particularly interesting to see how Lawrence handles Ewing’s variety of zones and trapping, which forced Robbinsville into 14 turnovers in the semifinals. Rebounding and clutch shot-making in the second half will also go a long way toward crowning a champion.

Should Lawrence prevail, it would give the program its first 20-win season in eight years along with its first county or league tournament title. Coach Jeff Molinelli has already steered the Cardinals to the Valley Division title and wins in 14 of their last 15 games, including the school’s first 10-game winning streak since the 1998-99 season.

For Ewing, it would mark a return to the glory days similar to when the program captured five sectional titles under Mercer County Hall of Fame coach Shelly Dearden from 2011-17. That’s been the mission since coach Paul Jones took over last year after Dearden retired.