The Union Catholic boys basketball team made history on Sunday when the Vikings captured the Union County Championship for the first time ever in the 87-year history of the tournament with a 66-56 victory over Roselle Catholic at Harwood Arena at Kean University in Union.
The Vikings, ranked No. 17 in the state, made its longtime dream become a reality with a dominating effort in the second half to defeat Roselle Catholic, the 2-time defending champions and No. 12 ranked team in the state.
Union Catholic, which has now won 14 of its last 15 games and is 19-6 on the season, went on an 11-0 run to close out the third quarter to take a 46-34 lead.
Junior forward FK Muntari hit some big outside shots and was a force at the rim as he scored a team-high 15 points for UC. Junior point guard AJ Altobelli ran the offense with precision, forward Terrance Wood came off the bench to give the Vikings a huge spark, and the Vikings executed the game plan that head coach Jim Reagan Jr. devised.
Junior forward Yaw Ansong finished with 14 points or UC, including several thunderous dunks. Wood scored a season-high 11 points and added five rebounds, and Altobelli and Elijah Peters each scored eight points. Altobelli also compiled eight assists and three steals, while Peters took down six rebounds and had five steals.
“I’d probably say a 10,” Altobelli told Mike Kinney of NJ.com when asked to rate his team’s performance on a scale of 1 to 10. “To come out with a victory against one of the best teams in the state…our game plan was great. Just the way everyone played was great. Everyone played their role. Yeah, I would say we played a 10-type game.”
UC, playing in its third county final ever (it was runner-up in 1982 and ’86) committed just eight turnovers in the game, and just two in the second half. Roselle Catholic turned the ball over 17 times.
Last year, Union Catholic lost to Roselle Catholic in the semifinal round of the Union County Tournament before going on to capture its first Non-Public A state championship since 1987.
“We won everything else last year besides this. This is something we really wanted to check off,” Altobelli said of the county championship. “With this type of momentum, I feel like we’re almost unstoppable for the states. Now we just have all the confidence in the world.”
Wood came up big for the Vikings when Peters picked up his second foul in the first quarter.
Wood scored inside off a pass from Altobelli in the final minute of the first quarter to give Union Catholic a 17-13 lead. In the following quarter, he scored six points, all at the rim, and had three rebounds to help the Vikings take a 28-25 halftime lead..
“He contributed big-time last year in the state sectional final and the state championship. And to do it again on the biggest stage…I’m really, really proud of Terrance,” Reagan said. “He understands his role, he understands the expectations of what he’s got to do, and he’s stepped up and done that for us. He was a difference maker for us.”
UC was leading 35-34 in the third quarter when the Vikings went on its game-changing 11-0 run. With Altobelli running the floor masterfully, the 6-9 Muntari showed off both his outside stroke and his inside game, and the defense held Roselle Catholic to just three field goals in that pivotal quarter..
Muntari scored seven points in the third quarter, the 6-10 Ansong had four on a pair of jams, and Wood sank three free throws. Union Catholic led by at least nine points the rest of the game.
“We just kept saying to our guys, ‘Keep grinding, keep grinding.’ We really thought that what we were doing was working,” Reagan said. “I thought we handled everything they threw at us really well and made a lot of good decisions.”
The Vikings will be back in action on Wednesday at 5 p.m. at Morris Catholic. 
