Saturday, February 14, 2009

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Ive Pavin being carried off the court on the shoulders of his teammates after Pal Park knocked off Leonia, 51-41, to take over sole possession of first place in the BCSL-Olympic Division.

PALISADES PARK -- It's not easy to figure out what the Palisades Park boys basketball team does so well that it should have had 17 wins in its first 19 games and be playing for the outright lead in the BCSL-Olympic Division at home on Friday night. The Tigers are not the type of team to blow anyone out, but they stay close long enough to make one or two plays turn the tables in their favor. On Friday night, it was actually four fourth quarter possessions that made the difference between first and second place.

First there was Aman Kumar’s reverse layup that broke a 38-all tie with 5:55 to play in the game. The second came on Pal Park’s next offensive series when it went to the spread, held the ball for a 1:25 and finished it with Kumar’s bounce pass to a cutting Ive Pavin, who made a slicing layup.

Then there was Ariel Then drawing a charge to get the Tigers the ball back and another Kumar to Pavin hookup for another layup. It all happened in the span of 2:28 and that time frame made the difference in Pal Park’s 51-41 win that put the Tigers in first place all alone, one game ahead of both Leonia and Cresskill, with four league games left to play.

Bryan Denis scored 16 points to lead Leonia, which fell to 15-4.

“[Those back-to-back layups] put us up by [six] points, so we knew after that if we just played good defense and maintain our composure that we would be OK,” said Pavin, who finished with 15 points and explained his team’s success in terms of its defense. “It’s our defensive intensity. We have good pressure on the ball and Danny [Glavin] and John Lee [Diaz] are boxing out down low even though they are undersized most of the games. That has been a real key.”

Despite trailing by as many as seven points in the second quarter, Pal Park had the game’s pace in its favor from the start. Leonia likes a shootout, while the Tigers prefer the half court sets that make every possession important. Leonia led 13-8 after the first quarter and by 15-8 after Austin Levy scored on the fastbreak to open the second quarter, but Pal Park held the Lions to just one more field goal and three free throws for the rest of the half and reeled them back in.

Pavin got the Tigers all even at the break when he took a pass at halfcourt, took a pivot to collect himself then let fly a 50-footer that just beat the buzzer and tied the game at 20.

“The last time we played Leonia (a 46-42 loss on January 13) we allowed a lot of penetration by their guards. We did not allow a lot of penetration tonight and that was a big part of it,” said Pal Park head coach Mark Cieslak. “Leonia is a team that likes to score about 70 points in a game. We held them to 41, which is what we were trying to do, really.”

Aman Kumar reverse layup put Pal Park in front for good with 5:55 to play in the fourth quarter.

Leonia was without the services of A’Jahn Huggins, who is out with a hip injury. Huggins’ ability to work the baseline was certainly missed by the Lions, but they went back in front when Bryan Denis scored inside to open the second half. There were five lead changes and a tie in the third quarter, which Denis closed with a putback to give Leonia a 34-31 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

The 6-6 Denis led Leonia with 16 points and was a force inside all night, but he was played tough by Glavin, Pal Park’s lone starter over 6-feet tall. Glavin led the Tigers with 9 rebounds and kept his team from getting crushed off the offensive glass.

“I just try to do the basics. It try to get good position, box out and get as high as I can for rebounds,” said Glavin. “We knew that rebounding was going to be huge in this game and we all chipped in. Our guards, everybody did a good job in helping on the boards.”

A Denis basket with 6:04 to play tied the game for the last time before Kumar’s reverse layup put Pal Park in front for good. The Lions made just one field goal in the final six minutes and lost opportunities at the free throw line also helped to do Leonia in. The Lions were just 5 of 16 from the line in the game and just 2 of 6 in the fourth quarter.

Senior Chris Carillo scored 10 points for Leonia.

“I thought we turned the ball over way too much. And our free throw shooting…it lost the game for us,” said Leonia head coach Fran Orlwoski, whose team fell to 15-4 on the season, 12-2 inside the BCSL-Olympic Division. “We won games from the free throw line. We beat Hawthorne Christian by going 10 for 12 and winning by two [points]. We won a Jamboree game by going 24 of 30 and beating Garfield and tonight…5 of 16.”

Pal Park, on the other hand, went 6 of 8 from the line in the final two minutes to seal the win. John Lee Diaz led the way for the Tigers with 18 points, Pavin finished with 15 and a ride off the court on the shoulders of his teammates. Kumar finished with 10 points to make it three Pal Park starters in double figures. Glavin added four points to his work on the defensive glass and Ariel Then and John Gotty Diaz each had field goals for the Tigers (18-2, 13-1 BCSL-Olympic), who now have first place all to themselves but know that the banner for a league championship is still a long way from being hung.

“I have been waiting a long time for this win. This is a rivalry and we play on the same football team with Leonia, so we would talk trash with them all the time. To get this win really feels good,” said John Lee Diaz. It’s a big win but we still have four games to go in the league. This puts in first place, but we still have to go out and win to stay there and we can’t take anyone lightly.”

Danny Glavin pulling down one of his nine rebounds for Pal Park.

Denis’ 16 points led Leonia and Chris Carillo followed with 10. Levy finished with 9 points, Alberto Alarcan, who got the start in place of Huggins, finished with 4 points and Steven Orlowski’s third quarter field goal accounted for Leonia’s other two points.

Although the loss was a setback to Leonia’s league championship hopes, they weren’t crushed and the Lions are not yet ready to throw in the towel.

“We knew it was going to tough here at their place. They played us hard and they shot the ball well,” said Fran Orlwoski. “But it’s not over. You can’t clinch a league title with four games left to play and there are still tough games to play for all of us. But now we need a little bit of help.”

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