Top teams peaked at the right time

It was another big March for Burlington County basketball.

Rancocas Valley, Burlington Township, and Shawnee got hot in the state tournament, won sectional titles, and proved again that regular-season losses to quality opponents can benefit a team in the sport's maddest month.

Rancocas Valley (19-12) won the Central Jersey Group 4 title as a No. 10 seed and made the state final. The Red Devils lost Sunday to Paterside Eastside by a 56-52 score after building an 11-point lead in the fourth quarter.

Burlington Township (22-10) won the Central Jersey Group 3 title, beat three-time South Jersey champion Kingsway in the state semifinals and dropped a hard-fought 57-48 decision to Plainfield in Sunday's state final.

Shawnee (19-11) won the South Jersey Group 4 title as a No. 7 seed and rallied hard in the second half of a 73-66 loss to Rancocas Valley in the state semifinals.

The common threads? One is location in Burlington County, a hothouse of tough tournament teams that nearly produced its fourth consecutive Group 4 state champion (Rancocas Valley in 2008, Lenape in 2009 and Cherokee in 2010).

The other is double-digit losses. All three teams were scarred and strengthened by several setbacks in the regular season. Those experiences paid off in difficult moments in the state tournament.

"I couldn't be any prouder of this team," Shawnee coach Joe Kessler said. "They really went through some tough times, but they fought through it, they made a commitment to play their best basketball at the end of the season, and they finished as strong as they could."

Tech support. Another Burlington County team, Medford Tech, finished the best season in the history of the program with a 23-6 record.

The Jaguars did not have a "bad" loss all season. They showed something in the South Jersey Group 2 tournament, too, reaching the sectional finals and losing by a 56-51 score to powerful Middle Township.

"These guys put this program on the map," Medford Tech coach Nick Powell said of seniors Devonte Carey, Lamaine Cooper, Khalik Sutton, Donte Martinez, and Greg Lawson.

Dragon fire. Kingsway's 53-49 loss to Burlington Township in the state semifinals squashed the Dragons' dream of winning the first state title in the history of the program.

But led by seniors Rondell Gilmore-Lane, Kyler Grigsby, and Troy Jenkins, Kingsway put together one of the best three-year runs in recent South Jersey history, capturing three consecutive Group 3 titles.

"It's tough now, but these seniors are going to be able to look back and see what they accomplished," Kingsway coach George Passante said after the loss to Burlington Township.

Panther pride. Pitman won the program's first sectional title since 1998 and completed a terrific three-year run behind senior stars Luke Dickson and Dylan Colgate.

Dickson and Colgate combined for more than 4,000 career points, and the Panthers also got great work from seniors Alec Matchett, John Sayer, and Joe Kelly.

"We're small-town basketball," Pitman coach Kevin Crawford said. "We don't have transfers. We have a bunch of kids who have been playing together since fourth grade."

This and that. Lindenwold finished the best season in program history with an 18-10 record and should return top scorers Jason Hutzler, a junior forward, and Bruce Hicks, a sophomore guard. . . . Watch Paulsboro in Group 1 next year with sophomore forward Xavier Lundy and three other returning starters from an 18-9 team. "Paulsboro is going to be a monster in Group 1 the next two years," Crawford said.

Led by senior guards Wyatt Polk and Anthony Parenti, Haddonfield (23-6) won 15 of its final 17, with losses to No. 5 Rancocas Valley and No. 2 Middle Township. . . . Overbrook (15-11) more than doubled last year's total of seven wins. . . . Eastern (17-10) is the team to watch in Group 4 next year. The youthful Vikings had wins over Non-Public A state champion St. Augustine and South Jersey Group 4 champion Shawnee in the season's final two weeks.

Led by seniors Curtis Hopkins and Alsenne Saintilus, Williamstown (25-4) won a school-record 21 games in a row. The winning streak included victories over sectional champions Pitman, Rancocas Valley, and Kingsway. . . . Bishop Eustace junior guard Carson Puriefoy had the highest single-game scoring performance with 42 points Jan. 13 against Woodrow Wilson. Collingswood senior Karon Waller and Middle Township senior Garrett Kerr had 40-point games.