Kinnelon Earns Season Bragging Rights Over Butler

Entering Friday's matchup, was 4-3 against in this boys basketball rivalry of neighboring towns dating back to 2004.

The Colts have now added a win to that total, finishing the regular season sweep of the Bulldogs, 49-45, at Kinnelon High School.

Kinnelon senior forward Matt Mondello led all scorers with 18 points and sophomore guard Evan Arjiriou added 12 points in the win. For Butler (5-12), junior guard James Spadaccini had 16 points and junior guard Nick Costa contributed eight points and four steals in the loss.

Butler set the tone for the game, taking a 13-9 lead at the end of the first quarter and opened up a eight-point lead in the second quarter after Brian Hallock hit a 3-pointer to make it 24-16. After a timeout, Kinnelon (4-12) would finally start to respond and behind their home crowd closed the first half out with a 7-0 run to cut the deficit to 24-21 at halftime.

Kinnelon continued that run into the third quarter as they shut Butler out for the first four minutes of the quarter as they took the lead and the momentum.

"At halftime we said we needed to come out and have a great start to the third quarter and we didn't; that was the difference in the game right there," Butler head coach Jon Simoneau said. "You can't do that in basketball. The first couple minutes of a half are big."

"I told them we to had increase the intensity, especially on the defensive side and we played more aggressively and forced them into some turnovers," Kinnelon head coach Sean Rivers said.

Kinnelon would push its lead to as many as nine points before Butler came storming back and finally tied it at 43 with 1:25 left, after Nick Costa hit a big 3-pointer from the corner. But Kinnelon would respond right back as Evan Argiriou hit a huge 3-pointer of his own to push the lead back to three with one minute left. That shot proved to be the turning point in the game as Butler could not retain the lead.

"I had missed a lot of shots earlier in the game and I was just trying to make up for it," Argiriou said. "I wasn't sure if it was going in after I released it. I was just hoping."

"We couldn't score to start the third quarter and we lost the momentum and never got it back," Butler senior captain Hallock said. "It's a tough loss but we have to have a short memory, come back tomorrow, and get back to work."

Last year, both teams merged into the Liberty Division of the newly formed Northwest Jersey Athletic Conference, and as a result they now matchup twice a year. In their first year together in the league last season, Butler beat Kinnelon two out of the three times, including a win over the Colts in the county tournament. This year, the Colts rebounded with the two-game sweep.

Butler battled for the season split, but the Bulldogs came up just a little bit short.

"This one hurts a little bit more," Spadaccini said. "We were right there. I can't really describe it in words."

Coming off the emotional game, Butler will need to respond as it goes against Saturday afternoon at 1.

"We have no choice, we have to respond, we have to forget about this one and we can't let one mistake become two mistakes." Coach Simoneau said.

Kinnelon plays again on Tuesday night in at 7. Mountain Lakes is coached by coach John Bydook, who coached Kinnelon for over 20 years.