Friday, January 4, 2008

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Joe Russo scored 20 of his game high 24 points for Wayne Hills, which held on for a 58-49 win over Ramapo to improve to 4-2 on the season.

FRANKLIN LAKES -- When Wayne Hills' boys basketball program is in its proper orbit, Joe Russo is that second scorer that every quality team needs on a consistent basis. When the Patriots are in the flow offensively, junior guard Steve Lequerica does much of the scoring and Russo chips in by knocking down open shots created as the defense turns its attention elsewhere.

But on Wednesday night, in a road game inside Division 1 of the NBIL at Ramapo, Russo needed to be more than a second option, especially in the first half.

“It’s usually the other way around with me and Steve. He does a lot of the scoring and I try to help wherever I can,” said Russo. “But tonight it didn’t go that way in the first half and it was up to me to make some shots.”

Russo did that and then some. He made his first two shots, one off his own steal that led to a fastbreak layup and a three-pointer from the wing, in the first minute of the game and that was just the start of a huge first half. Russo scored 20 points in the first two quarters and Wayne Hills held Ramapo runs in both the third and fourth quarters for a 58-49 win.

Junior guard Eric Halejian finished with 22 points to lead Ramapo.

Lequerica saved his best for the final quarter. He scored 9 of his 11 points in the final 5:31 of the game and made 7 of 8 free throws down the stretch to help the Patriots keep their distance and improve to 4-2 on the season. To Lequerica’s credit, he did not force his offense, choosing instead to move the ball to open shooters, work hard on the defensive end and allow Ramapo’s strategy of running double teams at him to work against the Green Raiders as he found open teammates.

Between his first field goal, a hard drive to the hoop with 1:25 to play in the first half, and his only other one, a layup created by his own steal with 2:16 to play in the game, Lequerica had six assists and three steals.

“I know that teams are targeting me a lot more since I have made it known that I can play well and help my team out, and they did throw a lot of double teams at me and make me get rid of the ball,” said Lequerica. “I wasn’t able to shoot from the outside, they covered that pretty well, so I tried to get my teammates involved, make a couple of good passes and keep my head when things weren’t going so well.”

Things were going well for Wayne Hills when Russo nailed his third three-pointer of the first half with 43 seconds left in the second quarter to give his team a 31-20 lead at the break. Things started to go not-so-well for the Patriots right out of the intermission when Ramapo’s Peter Garrambone nailed a three-pointer that kicked off a 15-2 Green Raider run that ended with Donny Fletcher’s jumper from the foul line extended with 3:47 to go in the third quarter.

Steve Lequerica scored 9 of his 11 points in the final 5:31 of the game and was 7 of 8 from the free throw line down the stretch.

Fletcher’s bucket gave Ramapo a 35-33 lead, its first since a brief 15-14 advantage late in the first quarter, and the surge created further problems for Wayne Hills when its starting center, 6-7 sophomore Chris Fonti, picked up two personal fouls in the span of 37 seconds to give him four in the game and a seat on the bench.

But Fonti’s absence created an opportunity for Chris Lala, and he responded with two huge buckets. Lala put back a missed shot to tie the game at 35 and then got position down low, took an entry pass from Travis DellaVolpe and finished inside to put the Patriots back in front. Justin Hourihan’s layup off an inbounds play that just beat the third quarter buzzer extended Wayne Hills lead to 39-35 heading into the fourth quarter.

The lead was six at 45-39 when Lequerica’s behind-the-back pass on the fastbreak gave DellaVolpe and easy layup with 4:39 to play in the game and was bumped up to seven points when Hourihan hit a free throw before Ramapo made its last run.

Fletcher made a jumper from the wing and Eric Halejian scored four straight points, two on a pull up jumper and two from the free throw line, to draw the Green Raiders to within 46-45 with 2:46 to go in the game. Ramapo had two subsequent possessions with the opportunity to tie or go ahead, but both ended in turnovers, the second of them was Lequerica’s steal and layup and he took over down the stretch.

Ramapo's Will Gattoni going up for two of his seven points.

“Usually players that score a lot are always looking for their shots, but coach [Jim] Catalano always tells me that great shooters make shots, they don’t take shots, so I was just trying to let the game come to me,” said Lequerica. “The opportunities that I had I just tried to make the best of and help my team out in different ways than just scoring.”

Wayne Hills is now 4-2, a whisker away from being undefeated through the first six games of the season. The Patriots' two losses have come to Old Tappan (a two-point loss on a buzzer beater) and Northern Highlands (a one-point loss in a game Hills led into the final minute).

The Patriots turned the tables on Old Tappan, which it knocked off in the championship game of the Jack Reilly Holiday Tournament in Fort Lee and if there has been one constant so far it has been defensive effort.

“We’ve played real good defense the last four games. We’ve packed in a man and taken away the opposition’s best player,” said Catalano, who is in his third season as Wayne Hills’ head coach. “We are young, we only have one senior, and the fact that we lost an 11-point lead and came back, that says as much to me as the win.”

Junior Travis DellaVolpe (left) scored 4 points in the final quarter to help Wayne Hills hold on.

After his lights-out first half, Russo finished with a game-high 24 points and he added 11 rebounds to make it a double-double. Lequerica finished with 11 points, Fonti added 8 points, five rebounds and three blocked shots, DellaVolpe scored 7 points and Hourihan and Lala each had 4.

Halejian, Ramapo’s junior shooting guard, was the only Green Raider to finish in double figures as they continue to search for effective offensive combinations. Halejian finished with 22 points, Fletcher scored 8 and Will Gattoni added 7 points for Ramapo, which used 13 players in falling to 2-5 on the season.

“I thought our defense was very good, but we are just working too hard for the shots that we are getting,” said Ramapo head coach Joe Del Buono. “The kids are hanging in there, they are working hard and you can’t deny their effort. We have to find a way to maximize that effort and give them that one good win against a winning team. That’s what we need.”

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