MIDDLETOWN, N.J. - It was a huge night in many ways for Josh Cohen.In the midst of a back-and-forth thriller between Shore Conference A-North Division foes Christian Brothers Academy and the Middletown South, Cohen reached and surpassed a special milestone on his second basket of the contest.Receiving a great pass from teammate Liam Kennedy driving down the baseline, Cohen knocked in a layup for his 1,000th and 1,001st career points to put CBA up 18-4 over Middletown South with 4:20 left to play in the 1st quarter.Cohen went on to score a game-high 31 points and collected a team-high 10 rebounds for a double-double in CBA’s 74-72 win over Middletown South.

“It feels great to accomplish it and become one of the program’s all-time leading scorers,” Cohen said. “I was happy I was able to get it over with early. I’m happy we were able to get the win at the end.”Cohen’s teammate Kennedy was a hero for the Colts in the victory.The game tied 72-72 with 15 seconds left to play, Kennedy saw an opening to the basket off a pass from Michael White and drove to the basket where he was fouled with four seconds remaining.As cool and as clutch as you can be, Kennedy, who went one-of-two from the free-two line over a minute earlier to make it 70-67 game at the time, knocked in both free throws to put CBA up two.“The biggest key was making the first one to give us the lead,” Kennedy said. “Makes the second shot more a reassurance. Feels great. All my teammates said they were really happy for me.”Kennedy finished a double-double of his own for CBA, scoring 10 points and dishing out a team-high 13 assists.Still with four seconds left on the clock, Middletown South had a chance to win it with a three-pointer or force overtime.Going with the guy with the hot hands, the Eagles put the ball in the grips of Luke Albrecht, who had a career defining night himself for Middletown South.The sophomore scored a career-high 29 points to help lead Middletown South back from a 27-13 deficit after the first quarter.“Luke (Albrecht) is one of our team leaders,” said Middletown South boys basketball coach Jim Anderson. “That’s why we have him running the point. He had a great game for us.”CBA’s defense, however, swarmed over Albrecht at half-court and denied him from being able to get a shot up before the buzzer sounded, allowing the Colts to hold on to a two-point win to improve to 13-2 on the season.“We wanted to try to slow down their shooter and force him to take a contested shot,” said CBA basketball coach Geoff Billet. “Our guys did a good job making him take one more dribble than he wanted to take.”The Colts started the game on a 10-0 run and hit 5 three-pointers to go up 25-10 towards the end of the first quarter. Middletown South stormed back with a 9-0 run to begin the second quarter. The Eagles were able to cut CBA’s lead to 42-39 going into halftime when James Anderson found a wide open Albrecht cutting towards the hoop for a layup just before the buzzer.Albrecht’s second three-pointer of the contest put Middletown South up 55-52 with 3:30 left to play in the third quarter. CBA responded with an 11-0 run to finish the quarter to take a 63-55 lead into the fourth quarter.

Cohen scored 13 of CBA’s 21 points in the third quarter, which included connecting on three three-point plays.“I was able to finish strong at the basket and hit my free throws,” Cohen said.Cohen put the Colts up 65-58 with 5:50 left to play with a nice offensive rebound and turnaround layup.Albrecht hit his third three-pointer of the night to cut the CBA lead to 67-63 with 3:46 left to play.The sophomore scored 10 points in the quarter and his gutsy three-point play with 1:20 to go tied the game at 70-70.The comeback came up short for the Eagles at the end of it all, dropping them to 10-6 on the season.“Our team is full of competitors that have a don’t quit attitude,” Anderson said. “We were able to cut to a three-point game at the half and gave ourselves a chance to win it in the second half.”Stephen Braunstein scored 12 points for CBA. Bobby Pirie tallied 11 points for Middletown South.CBA is tied with Freehold Township atop the A-North Division with a league mark of 9-1. Middletown South currently sits third with a 7-3 record in the division.

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