January
31, 2007
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| Leonia senior Ahmed Hassan, shown here in a photo from earlier this season, became just the ninth boys basketball player in the history of Bergen County to reach 2,000 career points. He did it on Tuesday night in an 80-48 win over Palisades Park. |
PALISADES PARK -- The realization that it was going to happen came in the final 1:43 of the first half, the amount of time it took Leonia senior Ahmed Hassan to score nine quick points and raise his game total to 27 through the first two quarters. He was 12 points from the magical number of 2,000 career points as the second half began.
The crowd stood up at the 5:23 mark of the third quarter when Hassan made a steal and a layup to get within two points of the milestone and it was still on its feet 52 seconds later as Andrew Levy floated a pass from the backcourt that barely cleared the finger tips of the last Palisades Park defender.
Just behind him was Hassan, who grabbed the pass, took two steps and elevated to the front of the rim from where he flipped in a little finger roll.
That field goal accounted for the last of his 39 points on the night and numbers 1,999 and 2,000 of his four-year varsity career. And with that, Hassan became just the ninth boys basketball player in the history of Bergen County to reach that lofty mark.
“It’s a big accomplishment and especially to do it here in Pal Park, we are rivals, and on top of that we got the win,” said Hassan, who scored his 1,000th career point just one year and 26 days ago in a win over Emerson. “As long as we keep getting wins and staying ahead in the league, then I feel good.”
Pal Park scored the first four points of the game, but the Lions answered with a 22-0 run and got out to a 44-23 lead by halftime on the way to an 80-48 win. Hassan had 14 points in the first quarter and then those nine quick one late in the first half, the last three on a buzzer-beating three-pointer, to give him 27 for the game. That meant the second half was all about the countdown
And when it was finally over, it was as much of a relief as anything else for Hassan, who was asked if all the attention was starting to feel like dragging around an anchor.
“It was. It had become a little annoying, especially after our first round loss in the Jamboree,” he said of living up to the hype that could not have been forecast when he became a stater as a freshman in 2003-04. “If you would have asked me freshman year I would have never thought I would score 2,000. I never even thought I would score 1,000. I knew I could be a scorer, maybe the leading scorer on the team, but I never thought this.”
He was also quick to credit his teammates, who managed to maintain Leonia’s lead even as Pal Park held Hassan to just two third quarter points by running two defenders in from behind every time he touched the ball.
“We did everything we could. We doubled him every time he had the ball, but he is a good player.” said Pal Park head coach Mark Cieslak, himself a 1,450-point high school scorer. “He goes hard, he doesn’t quit and he is a team player. You could say that he takes a lot of shots, but the truth is he doesn’t take bad shots. If a defense can’t stop the guy, you can’t blame him for shooting. You can’t knock him for that.”
Pal Park had two highlights of its own in the third quarter when Anthony Scott converted a three-point play to get his team back within earshot at 54-40, and the other came when Scott (19 points) made a steal and threw down a dunk to close the third quarter scoring.
Between those two plays, however, Leonia sophomore Chris Carillo had scored five straight points and the Lions had two advantages heading into the fourth quarter, a 59-42 lead and six team fouls showing up on the Pal Park side of the scoreboard.
That meant any reach-in or bump against Hassan out high equalled trips to the free throw line and he made six straight to get to 1,998. He scored his 2,000th point with 5:01 to go and left the game 1:15 later. Carrillo added 15 points and Jairo Amparo had 10 for Leonia, which improved to 16-1 on the season and remained unbeaten in the BCSL-Olympic Division.
The Lions will have a chance to put a strangle hold on the league title at Cresskill on Thursday night, not bad for a team that has four first-year starters surrounding Hassan, who is more than willing to share the load.
“He is a team player and he wants the team to win, I think that is the most important thing about him. It’s not about Ahmed Hassan,” said Leonia head coach Fran Orlowski. “He feeds people; he did it tonight against the double teams and the triple teams. He wants to win, he wants Leonia to win basketball games and that is the best thing about him as a player.”
Pal Park has been the site of two milestones this year. It was where Cresskill head coach Marty Rivard broke the all-time wins record for a Bergen County coach earlier this season and where Hassan scored his 2,000th point, prompting Cieslak to wonder, “Any other circus coming to town?”
But lost in the shuffle is the turnaround the Tigers have made this season. They lost four starters from last year’s team that won a league title for the first time since 1980 and started this year with three straight losses. But Pal Park turned it around with a five-game winning streak and won’t even have to sweat a spot in the state playoffs. Tuesday’s loss dropped the Tigers to 7-6 for the season with just one game remaining before Friday’s cutoff.
“We had a rough start, but we put it together for a while. We ran into a tough team tonight, but things had been going well for us,” said Cieslak. “We have a state tournament spot, we’ll be 7-7 at the worst, and that’s an accomplishment for our guys.”
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