Schools
Carroll Carries Roses Into Third Round of State Playoffs
The St. Rose boys basketball team defeated the Moorestown Friends School on Friday night, 58-37
A first-quarter explosion by the St. Rose High School boys basketball carried the top-seeded Purple Roses to a 58-37 rout of eighth-seeded Moorestown Friends School in an NJSIAA Non Public B second-round game on Friday.
Brandon Carroll scored 22 points in St. Rose's up-tempo game, a surpringly switch from their usual spread atack.
"We purposely avoided it," St. Rose head coach Dennis Devaney said. "We thought we would score points off our fast break, and it worked out."
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Junior Mark Kukuda helped the Roses gain a 10-4 lead when he took a long pass from Carroll, finished the layup and made the free throw after being fouled.
The Foxes cut the score to 10-7, before St. Rose ripped off a 14-0 run. Before the quarter ended, Kukuda hit a three-pointer to give the Roses a 19-7 lead.
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Carroll came alive in the second quarter with eight points, including two three pointers. At the half, St. Rose dominated, 31-16.
"I thought Brandon was going to make some plays tonight," Devaney said. "He did a good job scoring and getting in the lanes and the players really feed off him when he does well."
The third quarter consisted of a team effort as Cliff Clark's four points lead the way followed by sophomore Sean Maguire's three pointer. Moorestown went on a small run in the middle and got within 10, but that was the closest they would get. The Roses ended the third period, 43-28.
Carroll scored 10 more of his points in the fourth quarter.
"They're a better team than talked about. We beat them by 27 last year and they were much, much better than that. I was really afraid that we were going to take them lightly - they can be a very good shooting team at times," Devaney said.
"Our only problems right now are facing the 2-3 zone defense and foul shooting," Devaney said. "I don't think we've made a free throw in 2011 yet."
Senior Cliff Clark scored 10 points for the Roses and fellow senior Andrew Kurtz added seven. Junior Mark Kukuda finished with eight.
St. Rose meets the winner of Gloucester Catholic vs. Wildwood Catholic, the fourth and fifth seeds in the Non Public 'B' bracket, respectively.
