WEST LONG BRANCH  It wont go down as the prettiest final in the history of the Shore Conference Tournament.

That hardly mattered to Neptune, though.
Ikie Calderon and Keith Kirkwood scored 10 points apiece as the No. 3 Scarlet Fliers defeated top-seeded Colts Neck, 37-33, in the SCT championship game Friday at Monmouth Universitys Multipurpose Activity Center.
Neptune (19-6) won its 22nd SCT title and its first since 2008. It was the lowest scoring final since 1946, when Red Bank beat Manasquan, 34-27.
Neptune was playing in its 37th SCT final while Colts Neck (20-3) was making its first appearance in the SCT title game. The two Class B North rivals split two games during the regular season.
Both teams, though, struggled thoughout as Neptune shot 25 percent from the field and Colts Neck just 22.7 percent. Colts Neck guard Sean OReilly led all scorers with 11 points.
Not a very good-looking game, but well take the victory, said Neptune coach Ken ODonnell, who won his fourth SCT title as the Scarlet Fliers boys coach. The shooting wasnt very good tonight, but I think our defense was the difference.
It was indeed Neptunes defense that clinched the win in the end. With the Scarlet Fliers clinging to a 33-31 lead, Kirkwood made a steal and scored a layup in transition to make it 35-31 with 1:48 left. Tim Vangelas followed with two free throws just five seconds later to get the Cougars to within 35-33, and the score remained at 35-33 as Colts Neck had a chance to tie with 30.3 seconds left.
With the clock under 10 seconds, Colts Neck got the ball to Hunter Wysocki in the left block, but Kirkwood forced a miss off the backboard and Neptunes Fuquan McDonald grabbed the rebound. McDonald then made two free throws with 5.7 seconds to clinch the victory at 37-33.
It was tough, I didnt know what (Wysocki) was going to do, Kirkwood said. I didnt know if he was going to spin, turnaround jumper, but we stopped him. Im so glad we did it. Ive wanted this since I was a freshman.
It was like I was in the gym by myself, McDonald said of his two clutch free throws. Just me, the ball, the court and the rim, thats all I saw.

Neptune took the lead for good with a 7-1 run in the third quarter to break a 20-20 tie. Calderon buried a three-pointer to give the Scarlet Fliers a 23-20 lead with 3:30 left in the period and Josh Jenkins followed with a transition layup to make it 25-20. After Wysocki made a free throw, Calderon hit a jumper from the top of the key to give Neptune a 27-21 lead.
In the fourth quarter, Colts Neck pulled to 29-26 on Wysockis three-point play, but Kirkwood made a layup off a steal and Jaheem Woods hit an off-balance layup to boost Neptunes lead to 33-26 with 4:48 left.
The Cougars answered with a 7-2 run to get to within 35-33 as Brandon Federici hit a 3-pointer, Lucas Lalima made a layup and Vangelas made two free throws.
We had enough to pull it out, ODonnell said. We dont usually like scoring in the 30s, but well take it tonight.
For Colts Neck, it was a narrow loss in the teams pursuit of its first SCT title since the program began playing at the varsity level in 1999-2000.
Both teams fought hard and they left it out on the court, Colts Neck coach Lou Piccola said.