March
7, 2006
WAYNE -- It has been something of an improbable season for the Old Tappan boys basketball team. The Golden Knights weren’t listed among the prominent teams at the outset of the season, but after Tuesday night, they are one of only two Bergen County teams still alive.
Call it what you wish. Perseverence, good fortune, opportunistic. Maybe some of all three. Whatever you decide, make sure you call it historical, as the Knights won the school’s first-ever boys sectional title with a 56-54 win over West Milford at Passaic Tech.
“It was a great high school basketball game, and both teams played well,” OT head coach Dennis Rossi said. “I’m very proud of our kids, and it is a tribute to them. They pulled for each other all year.”
In a game that saw ebbs and flows on both sides, it was the Knights that got the last swing, overcoming a 13-0 Highlander run that gave them a 53-51 lead in the final minute. Old Tappan got a point back on a Ryan Veselsky free throw with 42.5 to go, then freshman Bryan Stankiewicz made a steal near midcourt after the ball bounced off a number of players and was fouled. He stepped to the line with 32.2 left and hit both shots.
“I just thought about what we could get out of this if I hit those two shots,” Stankiewicz commented. “I wasn’t paying any attention to anything else.”
West Milford (16-14) came down and got the ball down low to Marc Asmus, but Charlie Weinfeld blocked his shot out of bounds with 16.9 on the clock.
“He turned and he put the ball up right in front of me,” he said. “Actually, I had the ball hit my elbow.”
Off the inbounds, the Highlanders got it to Justin Sofman, who had already dropped in 31 points. He drove the left side, only to have his shot rejected by David Weinfeld.
“I was expecting him to hit the three, and when he put the ball on the ground I got beat,” David remembered. “When he went up, he put the ball right in front of my face and I swatted it. I got lucky there.”
The ball went out of bounds off a West Milford player with 10.8 showing, and on the inbounds David Weinfeld was fouled. He hit both shots with 9.9 left to make it 56-53, leaving the door open for a tying three-point field goal.
“We had a play set up with him and Mark (Asmus) to set up two threes,” WM head coach John Finke recounted, “and the other two guys would have spaced out and hopefully they would have forgotten about them and we would have tied it up.”
Sofman brought it up, but he pulled up with five seconds left in a bit of confusion. He got the ball to Bob LaMarco, whose three-pointer was well off the mark. Asmus was fouled on the rebound with :00.2 on the clock, meaning the best the Highlanders could hope for was a make, a miss and a tap to tie. He made the first free throw, but the intentional miss clanged the front iron and bounded back toward the foul line with the buzzer sounding before anyone could get to the ball.
In the first half, it was Sofman hitting for 22 points as West Milford took a 30-29 lead. David Weinfeld countered with 14 points for OT, many off offensive rebounds as the Knights were struggling along the perimeter.
“We didn’t shoot well against the zone (early), and it was a good move on his part because it took us out of our rhythm,” Rossi assessed. “We moved the ball against the zone, and we had some good looks.”
“They weren’t open like they would be if they were coming off screens and catching and driving and kicking,” Finke continued. “They were getting their feet set, and they weren’t in their normal comfort zone.”
As the third quarter unfolded, West Milford got a Sofman layup off the inbounds and a three-point play by Asmus off a rebound to go up by 35-29. At that point, Rossi inserted Stankiewicz in the game for the first time.
“I thought he came in and made a big difference,” Rossi said of the rookie. “There was one pass where he looked like a freshman, but aside from that he handled the pressure well. He’s got the maturity of a junior or senior.”
Stankiewicz got his team even at 36 with his first basket, then began an 11-0 run that broke a 40-all tie with a big three-point field goal from the left baseline with 45 seconds left in the quarter.
“I was feeling it,” Stankiewicz noted. “I kept telling Joe (Massaro) to run that play to that side.”
“He’s a gamer, confident but not cocky,” said Rossi, who, ironically, beat Old Tappan as Bergenfield’s head coach in 1998 in the only other sectional final appearance for the Golden Knights.
After a Highlander miss, OT quickly got the ball to David Weinfeld on the right side, where he drained a long three-pointer with a second left to make it 46-40 and put some juice into the Knights.
“I remember getting the ball about 10 feet behind the arc,” David Weinberg said, “and the kid was right in my face, so I was just like, I’m going to throw it up, and it was a line drive and it went in. I knew when that went in it was our game, it was like destiny.”
“That was huge,” Rossi concurred. “He set himself up nicely and he released the ball nicely.”
Not to be outdone, Charlie Weinfeld opened the fourth quarter with a three from the right baseline, getting knocked down just after releasing the shot.
“Bryan made his, David made his, I knew I’d make mine,” Charlie Weinfeld said with the same confidence he showed on the shot. When Stankiewicz hit a running jumper in the lane, it was 51-40 with 6:23 left.
“I called time out and told them we needed to put more pressure on, and they accepted the role,” Finke related. “We go 12-0 and get up a point. Forget the win or loss. Right there, how could I ask for more from a team.”
Sofman began it with a basket and LaMarco made a steal and layup. After two missed OT free throws, Asmus scored off a rebound. Both teams missed foul shots before Sofman brought the raucous WM crowd to its feet with a three ball to make it 51-49 with 1:50 left.
When LaMarco canned a left baseline three with 1:12 showing, the Highlander fans were deafening and Old Tappan was trailing, but never lost its composure and found a way to win the game. The Highlanders got 12 points and 10 rebounds from Asmus and were 21of 48 from the floor (5 of 14 threes, with Sofman nailing 4 of 11) and 7 of 14 from the line. Old Tappan shot 19 of 36 (6 of 13 threes) and 12 of 21 at the charity stripe.
David Weinfeld led the balanced attack with 19 points and brother Charlie added 12. Massaro had 4 assists and Doug Parker had only 6 points, all in the first half, before fouling out with 2:35 to go in the game.
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