State champions always finish

PISCATAWAY, N.J. - There are no shortcuts to a state title.

You can lose six of your first 12 games.

You can lose four of your last five.

You can enter the postseason with a 14-11 record and the No. 10 seed in the sectional tournament.

You can do that all and still make the state championship game and build an 11-point lead in the fourth quarter and move to the brink of one of the most remarkable moments in recent South Jersey basketball history.

You still have to finish.

"This is going to sting for a while," Rancocas Valley coach Jay Flanagan said after his team's 56-52 loss to Paterside Eastside in Sunday's Group 4 state championship game at the Rutgers Athletic Center.

The Red Devils' loss was just another example of the difficulty in winning a state title. So were those state semifinal losses earlier this week by Pitman in Group 1 and by Middle Township in Group 2, as was Burlington Township's sensational effort in a setback to powerful Plainfield in Sunday's Group 3 state title game.

It's a struggle, all the way to the top. That's what makes those trophies so valuable - the effort and the excellence, the breaks and the aches required to bring them home to those glass cases outside the gymnasium.

Look at Rancocas Valley in March. The Red Devils got on one of those remarkable runs - the kind that make this time of the season so special - with a bunch of road victories over teams with higher seeds and better records.

They began to suspect they were a team of destiny.

But there's always more than one charmed team in this tournament, in this month.

Look at Paterside Eastside. The Ghosts were a surprise team, too, and they scored perhaps the biggest upset of the Group 4 tournament with a 45-44 victory over state power Linden in the state semifinals.

"They were here for a reason," Flanagan said of Paterside Eastside.

It's easy to lose that perspective, to forget there's another team that's been on a remarkable roll, too.

That's what makes winning a state title so tough - the presence of teams like Paterside Eastside and players like senior guard David Burgos.

"If you saw him at practice, he's like a little kid who ate 1,000 candy bars," Paterside Eastside coach Juan Griles said of Burgos' energy level.

Burgos scored 18 and dished three assists. His determination down the stretch - especially when he grabbed a rebound of his own miss, then made a short jumper and a free throw for a three-point play - underscored the "fight" that Flanagan thought was the difference for the Ghosts.

Rancocas Valley fought, too. The Red Devils fought their way from a No. 10 seed in the Central Jersey sectional to a berth in the state title game.

They took to life on the road, winning at Hillsborough and East Brunswick, at North Brunswick and Jackson, and in Egg Harbor Township against South Jersey champion Shawnee in the state semifinals.

But there's always another team riding just as fast down the same rugged road.