"I remember we had just lost at Memorial," said Kelly, who is a full-time member of the Jersey City Police Department. "We were in the locker room and the tears were flowing, both from the players and the coaches. We were wondering what had just happened. We were in a lot of trouble."
Kelly knew that he had an extremely young team, perhaps the youngest in the entire HCIAA, amazingly with three freshmen playing big roles and other underclassmen filling in.
"Losing like that early helped the young kids mature quicker," Kelly said. "There's always a gamble involved when you play young kids. They might struggle, but then there's the next game and the next. There's always that hope of improvement."
At 4-9 and floundering toward the bottom of the HCIAA Coviello standings, the Marauders had no room but to improve. They couldn't get much worse.
But Kelly got a sense that something was changing after that 66-59 loss to Memorial on Jan. 22.
"All of a sudden, we caught fire," Kelly said. "I honestly don't know what happened. We just started playing better."
The solid play started with an overtime win at North Bergen three days later, a 76-68 victory where brilliant 6-foot-8 freshman center Keith Lumpkin exploded for 18 points and 16 rebounds.
Then, there was a win over Ferris, a physical battle where the Marauders' other freshman starter, point guard Kevin Walker, made brilliant play after brilliant play.
Wins over Dickinson, Emerson (a game where Lumpkin had an impressive 24 points and 20 rebounds) and Hudson Catholic followed and suddenly, almost overnight, the Marauders were right back in the smack of things, courtesy of the improbable five-game winning streak.
However, that all came crashing in on Feb. 11, when the Marauders lost badly to Bayonne, 66-48.
"They just crushed us," Kelly said. "They are so talented and physical at every position. They can score at every position. They imposed their will on us and we couldn't do anything about it. The score wasn't even that close. They had their way with us."
The Marauders did manage to keep their head above water long enough to qualify for the HCIAA playoffs as the eighth and final seed.
However, when the playoffs tipped off Tuesday night, guess who was waiting? Sure enough, the top-seeded Bees, the same team that had just laid a whipping on the Marauders just eight days prior.
There have been very few instances in the 24-year history of the HCIAA playoffs where a No. 8 seed has toppled the regular season champion. In fact, it had occurred just once prior to this season.
Kelly didn't focus on the fact that his young team was traveling to Bayonne to stare down history.
"I don't think we spoke about the seeding once," Kelly said. "We knew that Bayonne had been very confident and had been talking in the newspapers that they were going to win the county championship. We focused on that. Plus, we have a handful of kids from Bayonne [like guards Walker and sophomore J.J. Hladik, whose father, Jack, was until last year the head coach at Bayonne High], so there's a natural rivalry. So instead of telling them that we had a chance to shock the No. 1 seed, we focused on that."
As well as the chance to gain revenge from the drubbing the Marauders received eight days earlier.
"Yeah, it was a gut-check time," Kelly said. "Since they beat us so thorough just a week earlier, we had to step up it up and prepared a totally different game plan. If anything, we changed things for the sake of change. We threw the kitchen sink at them. We changed defenses and even threw some junk defenses at them. We did have four days to prepare for Bayonne, so that helped. I just thought if we could control them physically, we had a great shot to win."
A great shot? The Marauders were gigantic underdogs. They had history going against them, with the No. 8 seed holding a 1-23 record lifetime in the playoffs against the No. 1 seed. The Marauders had just lost by 18 points to the same team in a game the coach admittedly said wasn't close. They were playing at Bayonne High, which is never an easy place to play. This wasn't a great shot. This was almost like the Hudson County version of "Hoosiers." The young Marauders didn't stand a chance.
But nothing was going to deny these upstart Marauders. Lumpkin, who even as a freshman is performing more and more like an All-County player, had 22 points and 12 rebounds.
"He was an absolute monster," Kelly said of Lumpkin's performance. "This was his coming out party."
Senior Nick Rabiecki, who is known more for being a fine lacrosse player and will head to Holy Cross in the fall to play lacrosse there, had 14 points and a game-high 15 rebounds.
Joe Holder, the standout wide receiver on the football team, added 12 points and a cast of other characters, like unsung sophomore backup point guard Brandon Perez, who had six clutch free throws down the stretch while starter Walker was nursing leg cramps, carried the Marauders to the unthinkable and improbable 79-76 overtime victory.
The team that was left for dead on that January evening in West New York is now headed to the HCIAA semifinals. In a season that has had one remarkable win after another in the entire league, the most improbable of semi-finalists lives for another day.
It's a team that plays three freshmen in the regular rotation. Just that idea alone is unthinkable. Chase Fluellen, a 6-foot-4 forward, joins Lumpkin and Walker in the Marauder freshman parade.
No Prep team in history has ever counted on one freshman this way, never mind three. But Lumpkin is playing like a possessed man/child, averaging 17 points and 13 rebounds per contest, Walker is a flawless floor leader and Fluellen's best days are still ahead.
"I think we wanted to build the program a little with the success of the freshmen," Kelly said. "We've had a nice blend with the freshmen and the seniors. We start two freshmen, two seniors, and a sophomore. Lumpkin gave us what we expected in the first half of the season. We knew it was going to take time, but now, he's developed into our go-to guy. Walker never really played at a higher level before. We really didn't know how good he was going to be. He's had his moments, but he plays the most difficult position. Chase is a Jersey City kid that everyone wanted. We have a nice mix going."
Not to mention momentum. The Marauders have won seven of their last 10, a dramatic turnaround from the early season woes.
The Marauders were slated to face Emerson in the semifinals Thursday night. A win would put the young Cinderella darlings in the county finale. Words can't even begin to describe that scenario, especially after the Marauders had one foot in the proverbial grave exactly one month ago.
"It's all part of the maturation of the young kids," Kelly said. "They've come of age."
Sure looks that way. - Jim Hague
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