Photos
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The Chatham boys basketball team joined the girls basketball team in the Morris County Tournament finals with a 52-48 victory over Randolph on Saturday at the County College of Morris. Jonathan Berntsen had a game-high 24 points to lead the Cougars. Chatham faces Mt. Olive on Saturday at the County College of Morris for the MCT title. Credits: Edward Kensik
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The Chatham boys basketball team joined the girls basketball team in the Morris County Tournament finals with a 52-48 victory over Randolph on Saturday at the County College of Morris. Jonathan Berntsen had a game-high 24 points to lead the Cougars. Chatham faces Mt. Olive on Saturday at the County College of Morris for the MCT title. Credits: Edward Kensik
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The Chatham boys basketball team joined the girls basketball team in the Morris County Tournament finals with a 52-48 victory over Randolph on Saturday at the County College of Morris. Jonathan Berntsen had a game-high 24 points to lead the Cougars. Chatham faces Mt. Olive on Saturday at the County College of Morris for the MCT title. Credits: Edward Kensik
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The Chatham boys basketball team joined the girls basketball team in the Morris County Tournament finals with a 52-48 victory over Randolph on Saturday at the County College of Morris. Jonathan Berntsen had a game-high 24 points to lead the Cougars. Chatham faces Mt. Olive on Saturday at the County College of Morris for the MCT title. Credits: Edward Kensik
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The Chatham boys basketball team joined the girls basketball team in the Morris County Tournament finals with a 52-48 victory over Randolph on Saturday at the County College of Morris. Jonathan Berntsen had a game-high 24 points to lead the Cougars. Chatham faces Mt. Olive on Saturday at the County College of Morris for the MCT title. Credits: Edward Kensik
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The Chatham boys basketball team joined the girls basketball team in the Morris County Tournament finals with a 52-48 victory over Randolph on Saturday at the County College of Morris. Jonathan Berntsen had a game-high 24 points to lead the Cougars. Chatham faces Mt. Olive on Saturday at the County College of Morris for the MCT title. Credits: Edward Kensik
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The Chatham boys basketball team joined the girls basketball team in the Morris County Tournament finals with a 52-48 victory over Randolph on Saturday at the County College of Morris. Jonathan Berntsen had a game-high 24 points to lead the Cougars. Chatham faces Mt. Olive on Saturday at the County College of Morris for the MCT title. Credits: Edward Kensik
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The Chatham boys basketball team joined the girls basketball team in the Morris County Tournament finals with a 52-48 victory over Randolph on Saturday at the County College of Morris. Jonathan Berntsen had a game-high 24 points to lead the Cougars. Chatham faces Mt. Olive on Saturday at the County College of Morris for the MCT title. Credits: Edward Kensik
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The Chatham boys basketball team joined the girls basketball team in the Morris County Tournament finals with a 52-48 victory over Randolph on Saturday at the County College of Morris. Jonathan Berntsen had a game-high 24 points to lead the Cougars. Chatham faces Mt. Olive on Saturday at the County College of Morris for the MCT title. Credits: Edward Kensik
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The Chatham boys basketball team joined the girls basketball team in the Morris County Tournament finals with a 52-48 victory over Randolph on Saturday at the County College of Morris. Jonathan Berntsen had a game-high 24 points to lead the Cougars. Chatham faces Mt. Olive on Saturday at the County College of Morris for the MCT title. Credits: Edward Kensik
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The Chatham boys basketball team joined the girls basketball team in the Morris County Tournament finals with a 52-48 victory over Randolph on Saturday at the County College of Morris. Jonathan Berntsen had a game-high 24 points to lead the Cougars. Chatham faces Mt. Olive on Saturday at the County College of Morris for the MCT title. Credits: Edward Kensik
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The Chatham boys basketball team joined the girls basketball team in the Morris County Tournament finals with a 52-48 victory over Randolph on Saturday at the County College of Morris. Jonathan Berntsen had a game-high 24 points to lead the Cougars. Chatham faces Mt. Olive on Saturday at the County College of Morris for the MCT title. Credits: Edward Kensik
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The Chatham boys basketball team joined the girls basketball team in the Morris County Tournament finals with a 52-48 victory over Randolph on Saturday at the County College of Morris. Jonathan Berntsen had a game-high 24 points to lead the Cougars. Chatham faces Mt. Olive on Saturday at the County College of Morris for the MCT title. Credits: Edward Kensik
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The Chatham boys basketball team joined the girls basketball team in the Morris County Tournament finals with a 52-48 victory over Randolph on Saturday at the County College of Morris. Jonathan Berntsen had a game-high 24 points to lead the Cougars. Chatham faces Mt. Olive on Saturday at the County College of Morris for the MCT title. Credits: Edward Kensik
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The Chatham boys basketball team joined the girls basketball team in the Morris County Tournament finals with a 52-48 victory over Randolph on Saturday at the County College of Morris. Jonathan Berntsen had a game-high 24 points to lead the Cougars. Chatham faces Mt. Olive on Saturday at the County College of Morris for the MCT title. Credits: Edward Kensik
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The Chatham boys basketball team joined the girls basketball team in the Morris County Tournament finals with a 52-48 victory over Randolph on Saturday at the County College of Morris. Jonathan Berntsen had a game-high 24 points to lead the Cougars. Chatham faces Mt. Olive on Saturday at the County College of Morris for the MCT title. Credits: Edward Kensik
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The Chatham boys basketball team joined the girls basketball team in the Morris County Tournament finals with a 52-48 victory over Randolph on Saturday at the County College of Morris. Jonathan Berntsen had a game-high 24 points to lead the Cougars. Chatham faces Mt. Olive on Saturday at the County College of Morris for the MCT title. Credits: Edward Kensik
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The Chatham boys basketball team joined the girls basketball team in the Morris County Tournament finals with a 52-48 victory over Randolph on Saturday at the County College of Morris. Jonathan Berntsen had a game-high 24 points to lead the Cougars. Chatham faces Mt. Olive on Saturday at the County College of Morris for the MCT title. Credits: Edward Kensik
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The Chatham boys basketball team joined the girls basketball team in the Morris County Tournament finals with a 52-48 victory over Randolph on Saturday at the County College of Morris. Jonathan Berntsen had a game-high 24 points to lead the Cougars. Chatham faces Mt. Olive on Saturday at the County College of Morris for the MCT title. Credits: Edward Kensik
Chatham Boys Basketball Team Joins Girls Team in County Finals
Sunday, February 19, 2012 • 7:45am
RANDOLPH, NJ - The Chatham boys basketball team did not want the girls to get all the headlines so they joined the club: the county final club, that is.
The Chatham girls basketball team made it the Morris County Tournament finals after beating Morris Catholic on Friday. And now the Cougars boys duplicated what their counterparts did by making the MCT boys basketball final after defeating Randolph, 52-48, on Saturday at the College County of Morris.
The Cougars (21-2) will look to win its second Morris County title on Saturday when they face Mt. Olive at the County College of Morris. Chatham won its first county title in 2007.
Cougars senior guard Jonathan Berntsen led the way on the score sheet with 24 points including a dozen in the second half and knocking down some important free throws in the last minute.
"It is great and a dream come true," said Berntsen, whose sister Amanda helped lead the Chatham girls basketball team over Morris Catholic the night before to the county final. "The family is very excited. I was at the girls' game and it was as exciting if not more exciting than our game."
Junior forward Joe Timmes added 13 points to the Chatham effort.
"It feels great and awesome," said Timmes. "I can't wait until next week."
While both Berntsen and Timmes led the Cougars offensively, they both credited teammate, junior guard Drew Ballard, with his defense on Randolph's top scorer Julian Aiken, who scored 17 points.
"Drew has been doing that all year," said Berntsen about Ballard's defense. "He's very unselfish and does it for the team."
Chatham dominated the first half, but Randolph would not make it easy in the second half.
The Cougars were on fire with their shots in the first half to take a 37-22 lead especially beyond the three-point arc as Chatham hit six threes including three from Timmes. "We were just getting good looks and playing good defense," said Timmes about the first half.
Randolph's full-court press put a crimp in the Chatham's plans especially in the third quarter. The 15-point lead at halftime dwindled down to two points, 40-38, after the end of the third quarter. “We really didn’t come out to play (in their third quarter) and kind of took the 15-point lead for granted,” Berntsen admitted.
But Chatham head coach Todd Ervin's talk between quarters seemed to settle down the Cougars. "The coach told us that the third quarter is over and get on to the next quarter," said Berntsen.
After scoring only three points in the third quarter, Chatham topped that in the first two minutes in the final quarter and took a 44-38 lead after a Timmes basket.
But the Cougars still could not shake off the Rams.
After a timeout, Randolph's Ryan Harris knocked down a shot and was fouled by Chatham's Colin Brown with 90 seconds remaining in the game. Harris hit the foul shot and the Cougars found themselves tied at 47. Chatham had led since halfway through the first quarter but it wasn’t until finally that the free throw shooting of Berntsen clinched it in the end.
