Keyshawn Winchester flung the ball in the air as high as he could as the final buzzer sounded, igniting a wild celebration that the Union Catholic boys basketball program had waited 36 years for!
In one of the greatest moments in the 60-year history of the school, the Vikings, ranked No. 20 in the state, shocked heavily favored and No. 3 ranked St. Peter’s Prep, 38-35, to capture the State Non-Public A Championship on Friday night at Jersey Mike’s Arena on the campus of Rutgers University in Piscataway. The victory avenged a 62-45 loss to St. Peter’s on Jan. 7 and capped off an improbable and magical run by the Vikings.
The only other time that UC won a boys state basketball championship was in 1987 when the Vikings, unranked at the time, pulled off one of the greatest upsets in NJ history by defeating No. 1 ranked Christian Brothers Academy, 45-39, to win the Parochial A State Championship. That team was coached by Neil Horne, and the stars on that team were Neil Horne III, Jimmy Lane, and Eric George.
The script that the Vikings authored to complete their magical journey is really hard to believe.
After finishing 0-6 in 2021 and 4-21 last year, the Vikings entered February with an 8-8 this season. But then Chimeziri Okeoma, a senior transfer from Plainfield, joined the lineup and UC went on a tear, winning 13 of its final 14 games, including seven in a row to close out the season to finish with a 21-9 record. The lone defeat since Feb. 1 was to No. 1 ranked Roselle Catholic in the semifinals of the Union County Tournament.
And the Vikings, seeded fifth entering the South Jersey, Non-Public A Tournament, had to do it the hard way. After rolling to a 69-51 tournament opening win at home vs. No. 12 St. John Vianney on Feb. 22, , UC embarked on three game road trip deep into South Jersey. In the quarterfinals on Feb. 24, , UC defeated No. 4 seed Paul VI of Haddonfield, 64-58, in overtime.Then they knocked off No. 1 seed Camden Catholic in the sectional semifinals on Feb. 27, and followed that up by avenging an earlier loss to No. 15-ranked St. Joseph (Met.) with an 86-72 blowout to win the South Jersey, Non-Public A title at Lenape High in Medford.
That set the stage for UC’s heart-pounding victory over St. Peter’s Prep on Sister Percylee Hart’s birthday. It all sounds like a Hollywood movie!
UC’s historic victory over St. Peter’s Prep was fueled by a defensive clinic in the second half by the Vikings.
Trailing 23-21 at the half, the Vikings held St. Peter’s to just 12 second half points as the Marauders struggled to find passing lanes and clean looks against UC’s stifling, lock-down defense.
“It’s defense. The coach has been preaching defense from the start,” said Okeoma, who scored a game-high 13 points. “We want them to have the ball in the last three seconds, last five seconds, so we can get a stop.”
That’s exactly what happened as St. Peter’s attempted a 3-pointer that fell short with seven seconds remaining. After freshman guard Richie Rosa forced a tie-up with 5.8 seconds remaining and with the possession arrow in the Marauders’ favor. St. Peter’s attempted another 3-pointer following a timeout, but it was well off the mark.
The Vikings grabbed the rebound and Winchester dribbled out the clock, sending the team, and the huge UC student section, fans, alums, and faculty into a frenzy!
“I’d like to think our defensive intensity and pressure really made them uncomfortable,” said Reagan, whose team limited St. Peter’s (27-5) to 5-of-23 shooting in the second half and 13-of-43 for the game. “It’s stuff that we’ve worked on, stuff we’ve been practicing the last couple of weeks I’m so proud of our defense. With our defensive intensity, I thought we really took them out of what they wanted to do. “I actually said at halftime, if we could hold them to 45 I thought we would be in pretty good shape.
UC’s deep bench was also a big factor.
Junior forward Terrance Wood, who has injected lots of energy with his strong low-post presence during the tournament, came up huge again for UC off the bench. Wood scored seven points, four in a momentum-changing third quarter.
“I think it’s our depth across the board. We can run eight, nine guys out there,” said Reagan, who now has 291 victories in his 21 years as head coach. “The addition of Chim (Okeoma) to our lineup gives our depth more confidence, takes pressure off the guys.”
Union Catholic finally took a lead it would never lose when Wood scored inside off a pass from Winchester to start an 6-0 run move, highlighted by a dunk by 6-8 sophomore FK Muntari, and a put-back by sophomore guard AJ Altobelli, which gave UC a 32-27 edge with 3:02 to go in the third quarter.
After St. Peter’s cut it to 32-30, 6-11 sophomore Yaw Ansong scored on a follow-up jam to give UC a 34-30 after three quarters. St. Peter’s got within, 36-35 with 2:19 to play, but Winchester provided the Vikings with just enough breathing room by sinking two free throws with 1:01 to go.
“We just locked in (on defense). We’ve been preparing for them all season. We knew everything was going to take care of itself,” Okeoma s
