Tommy Z and the boys keep dancing; Mainland advances to SJG3 semis

By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
LINWOOD — What makes the Mainland Regional boys basketball team so difficult to defend is you don’t know who to defend. The Mustangs could have a different leading scorer in any particular game, and routinely put three or four starters in double figures.
That kind of unselfish basketball helped lead the No. 3 Mustangs to a gritty 72-60 win over a very good No. 11 Toms River East team on Thursday night and into the South Jersey Group 3 semifinals, where Mainland will meet No. 10 Seneca — a 62-57 upset winner over No. 2 Ocean City — on Saturday at 6 p.m. at The Corral.
Mainland got 19 points from Tommy Zanaras, 16 from Angelo Barron, and 15 apiece from Jake Cook and Luke Mazur. Mazur was huge off the bench, as he nailed four 3-pointers, including three in the first half as Mainland fought back from an early deficit to take a 35-26 lead into halftime.

“We knew before the game that they were well coached, and they were big — they had a size advantage on us — so we knew we had to focus on our defense and transition game. We got lucky because our whole team got hot. Luke hit some threes and Joe (Massari) only had two points but he must have had 12 assists and played really good defense. It was a whole team effort,” said Zanaras, one of three seniors in the starting lineup along with Barron and Massari. “That team plays well and was really well coached.”
Mainland (21-7) had all kinds of trouble containing the Raiders twin brother guards, Ryan and Mike Goodall, as well as their big man, Riley Engelhard. Mike Goodall went for a game-high 29 points and Engelhard added 17, but he wasn’t a huge factor in the second half because of foul trouble.
“Once he was out of the game we were able to feed it down low to Angelo and Jake, and they were able to lay it in,” Zanaras said. “That’s why we’ve been so good, because we’re so unselfish and we share the ball. It can be me one night, Angelo, Luke, and tonight it was everybody.”
Mainland was in danger of getting blown out early, as Toms River East (15-11) raced out to a 7-0 lead, but the Mustangs settled down and late in the first quarter Mazur drained a pair of threes that put Mainland on top, 13-11. Barron scored a couple of baskets down low in the second quarter, and Mazur’s third 3-pointer of the first half pushed Mainland’s lead to 34-24. But the Raiders refused to go away, and continued to claw at the lead throughout the second half.
Toms River East went on a nice run early in the fourth quarter to shave the lead down to five points, at 55-50, but then Mainland had what proved to be the back-breaking possession. The Mustangs held the ball for about a minute before Massari found Barron cutting to the basket. Barron laid it up and in, extending the lead to 57-50. The Raiders were able to cut the lead down to 59-55 on back-to-back buckets by Mike Goodall, but with 2:41 Cook nailed a three give Mainland a seven-point lead, 62-55, and the Mustangs sealed the game at the free-throw line in the final 90 seconds.
Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays