Roxbury needed and received a Phil Desmond 3-pointer in the corner with 4.7 seconds left to force overtime, as the Gaels beat West Morris 50-44 last night in Long Valley. A very low scoring game, the points were tied at 40 going into the OT. Desmond finished with 13, Angelo Mangiro and Shaun O' Donnell had 12. Tom Cabarle led West Morris with 17 points.

The Highlanders got off to a good start, quickly went on a 7-0 run to start the game, with a pair of fadeaways from Zach Nolan. Roxbury was able to come right back though and led 14-11 after a quarter of play. Cabarle was on fire in the second, sinking 4 jumpers, including 2 trifectas, to put West Morris up 6 with 3 minutes remaining in the half. Roxbury was able to cut it to 24-22 at the break.

West Morris was able to go back up six at the end of three, 35-29, thanks to 7 points from Ed McCracken. It was more of the same in the fourth until the final two minutes. Trailing 38-34 with 45 seconds left, Mangiro kicked out to Mike Giordano, who hit a 3 in the far corner making it a one point game. After the foul, James D' Angelo connected on two foul shots putting West Morris back up by 3.

Desmond then received the inbound in the near corner, had two defenders on him, was fouled, and still was able to drain the three to tie the game. Desmond hit the front iron on the free throw, so we were going to overtime tied at 40. A Mangiro lay up and a Giordano 3 to start the OT sealed the win for the Gaels, who improved to 3-0 in conference play.

Roxbury (5-1) travels to Jefferson Friday night and West Morris (2-4) hosts Sparta Thursday night.