Manville guard Josh D’Ambrosio (3) directs traffic for the Mustangs against Middlesex in the Central Jersey Group 1 quarterfinals on March 2nd, 2026 (Photo: Alec Crouthamel).
Midway through the third quarter, Manville was on the ropes.
In the Central Jersey Group 1 quarterfinals, the sixth-seeded Mustangs (19-8) trailed Middlesex 36-22 on the road, with a rising home crowd.
But just as it looked like the playoff matchup was going to slip away from Manville, they struck back.
The Mustangs ended the third quarter on an 11-2 run, and kept their foot on the gas to eventually pull away late and stun the third-seeded Jays (19-9) 47-44. Senior Josh D’Ambrosio finished with a game-high 22 points – 14 in the second half – and knocked down a go-ahead three with under two minutes to play to take the lead for good.
As the final buzzer sounded to end a frenetic final minute, Manville came out of the fray with a victory, before being promptly mobbed by the section’s worth of students who made the trip down Route 28.
Middlesex opened the game rolling on both sides of the floor, complementing an aggressive and opportunistic defense with a balanced scoring attack on offense. Five different Jays scored in the opening quarter.
They took a nine-point lead into halftime, led by 13 points from Jax Robel. He finished with a team-high 19 in the loss, as the Mustangs’ defense held him without a point in the final quarter. As a team, Middlesex knocked down six three-pointers in the opening half, but made none in the second half.
Once the teams exited the locker room after halftime, it was clear Manville had a different intensity than the opening 16 minutes.
The Mustangs attacked the basket and set up threes of their own on offense, and did a much better job matching up on the defensive side, forcing turnovers and bad shots.
The late run to end the third quarter was just as much due to Manville’s defensive intensity as its deliberation and efficiency on offense. In addition to D’Ambrosio taking more scoring initiative, the Mustangs got a major boost from junior forward Jonathan Gosk with seven points in the third quarter alone. He finished as the team’s second-leading scorer with ten points.
Manville trailed by five at the end of the third, and the momentum fully swung the visitors’ way quickly to start the fourth. D’Ambrosio drew a three-shot foul to open the scoring, and freshman guard Levan Chankotadze added a three-pointer of his own to take the lead for the first time in the half.
The two teams went back and forth from there, including a go-ahead three-point play chance from Chris Kozak, but Manville found its footing from the perimeter and knocked down its free throws late to seal the upset victory. D’Ambrosio scored 11 of the Mustangs’ 14 fourth-quarter points.
Manville moves on to the semifinal round for a third straight year, where it will face the winner of the opposite quarterfinal between second-seeded Point Pleasant Beach and tenth-seeded Dayton. The location will depend on the winner of the game. Middlesex’s season comes to a close with a 19-9 record.
Click below for postgame reactions from Manville head coach Bill Rooney and guard Josh D’Ambrosio with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Alec Crouthamel, presented by the Sportsplex at Metuchen:
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