December
20, 2006
ELMWOOD PARK – With high expectations coming into the season, the Elmwood Park boys basketball team hoped to get off to a strong start in Tuesday’s season-opener against Garfield. What the Crusaders got instead was a poor first-half where they could not seem to do much right.
Fortunately, the Boilermakers also turned the ball over frequently and neither team was able to gain an edge midway through the fourth quarter. With a slew of experienced players on the court for both teams, it was the only player without a single minute of varsity experience the game who was the deciding factor.
Elmwood Park freshman Ryan Belisle clicked on all six of his attempts from the field and finished with a game-high 13 points. Senior point guard Sean Rothenburger hit a three-pointer to spark a 16-5 fourth quarter run as the Crusaders overcame 24 turnovers to notch a 59-48 win.
“It is important to get a win in your first game,” said Belisle, a 6-7 center. “I’ve been playing AAU basketball, so I know what it’s like to be in big games. We know everyone in our league wants to beat us, so we had to finish strong. It was my first game for Elmwood Park, but I wasn’t nervous. I just had to do my job. In the second half, we rebounded much better and we didn’t turn the ball over and that’s why we won.”
The first half was filled with turnovers and neither team was able to establish any offensive rhythm as a result. The difference was the Boilermakers hitting a pair of buzzer-beaters to end both the first and second quarters. Kris Saboleowski’s fadeaway three-pointer ended the opening stanza and Thomas DeLaCruz’s putback gave Garfield a 22-20 lead. Although his team held the lead at halftime, Garfield head coach Chris Annibal was far from pleased.
“At halftime we should have been up at least by double digits,” said Annibal, last year’s Barton’s Best award winner for best-dressed male coach. “Our goal was to control the tempo and we did a good job of doing in the first half. The problem was when we forced the turnovers, we either gave them right back or we took bad shots. If you told me before the game that we were going to force 24 turnovers, I would tell you that we would win the game. But we didn’t capitalize and they took advantage of that in the fourth quarter.”
The Crusaders started to settle down in the third quarter with consecutive baskets from Belisle, Eli Tillerson, and Jared Forestieri giving them the lead, one which they did not relinquish the rest of the way. They were about to pull away early in the fourth quarter until a pair of driving lay-ups by Erwin Cabrera trimmed the lead down to one, 35-34, with just over six minutes to play.
A minute later, the lead was still a single point when Rothenburger’s long-range bomb on his only field goal attempt made it a two-possession game. After three ineffective quarters, Walter Mihalec made his presence felt inside scoring six points during the spurt. Rothenburger hit five free throws in the final two minutes to eliminate any hopes of a Garfield comeback.
Belisle’s 13 points, six rebounds, and two blocks were all game-highs for Elmwood Park (1-0). Mihalec, Tillerson, and Forestieri added 13, 11, and 10 points, respectively. In his first game since transferring from Bergen Tech, Jimmy Schmitt chipped in with five assists, four rebounds, and three steals.
Cabrera led Garfield (1-1) in scoring with 13 points, along with four steals and four rebounds. DeLaCruz and Josue Castillo each reach double-figures with 10 points.
“It wasn’t a pretty win, but we’ll take it,” said Elmwood Park head coach Pat Gabriel. “I thought we played poorly in the first half. But give credit to Garfield, they are always well coached and they forced into making a ton of mistakes. I was happy to be only down two points going into halftime. We made much better decisions with the ball in the fourth quarter and I thought that is why we came out with a win.”
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