Sunday, March 8, 2009

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Kyle Steinbergin's only field goal of the game came with 17 seconds left and gave his team a one-point lead in Teaneck's 45-44 win over Old Tappan in the North 1, Group 3 state sectional semifinals.

OLD TAPPAN – Old Tappan sophomore Shane McLaughlin had his chance to win the game for his team and made good on two free throws. Owen Barnes had the same chance for his team with the coast-to-coast layup that he finished with his left hand. Because McLaughlin’s free throws came with :06.6 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter and Barnes’ bucket came with the clock just about to hit zero, it was Barnes’ heroics that stood up as Teaneck, the reigning Bergen County champion, advanced to the North 1, Group 3 state sectional final, escaping with a 45-44 win in front of a packed house at Old Tappan High School.

It was a wild finish and Old Tappan was sitting pretty when, trailing by a point, McLaughlin, a sophomore, went hard to the hole and drew a foul, the fifth on Teaneck’s senior point guard, Javae King-Gilchrist, and then kept his cool as he knocked down both free throws to put OId Tappan back in front.

The only problem for the Golden Knights was that there were still over six seconds left in the game, plenty of time for Barnes, who checked into the game when King-Gilchrist fouled out, to take the inbounds pass, race up the left side of the floor and get all the way to the basket for the winning points.

Shane McLaughlin hit two free throws with 6 seconds left that gave Old Tappan a 44-43 lead.

“I got the inbounds pass and I could hear people screaming ‘Push it’ and I saw them jump to Jon [Blue] on the wing. I knew that they were going to step right in on me, so I took it right at the basket. Maybe they thought we were going to look for a three-pointer, but we only needed a two-pointer and that is why I took it all the way,” said Barnes, whose winning basket represented his only two points of the game. “This is a big win and it is good to see because this might be Mr. March’s last year as [Teaneck head] coach and now we need one more win to see him get a state championship ring. In my life, this is one of the best things that has ever happened to me.”

The ending was storybook, but the rest of the game was not too shabby either as Old Tappan forced the pace of play in its favor and made it a halfcourt game, which Teaneck can play, but certainly does not prefer. Teaneck had a 21-20 lead at halftime, but scored only four points, all by senior forward Shomari Barber, in the third as Old Tappan forged in front.

Old Tappan scored 8 of the final 10 points of the third quarter as Bryan Stankiewicz nailed a three-pointer to put the Golden Knights up 28-23 and McLaughlin just beat the buzzer to keep the Golden Knights ahead by the same margin, 30-25, heading into the final period. When Tim Fougere opened the fourth quarter with a three pointer to put his team up by eight points, Old Tappan had Teaneck in real trouble.

Senior Shomari Barber was steady from start to finish for Teaneck and ended up with 10 points and 12 rebounds.

“We want to get out and go, but they controlled the tempo. That is one of the things that we talked about [before the game]. We had to control the tempo in a hostile environment in front of a big crowd,” said March, whose team is now one win away from its first sectional championship since 2003. “Old Tappan played hard and I give them all of the credit in the world. They made it hard just being able to go on to the section final.”

Having scored just 25 points over the first 24 minutes of the game, Teaneck needed 20 over final eight to squeak out the one-point win and it started on its way back when Vance Steinbergin drove for a layup with 7:06 left to play. Gilchrist hit a pull-up jumper and two free throws on consecutive possessions to get Teaneck back to with 37-35 with 2:19 to play in the game before Old Tappan started to make the kind of plays that usually win a close game.

McLaughlin made both ends of a one-and-one with two minutes even left on the clock to put the Knights up for and, after a one-of-two trip to the line for Teaneck, Fougere was clean on one-plus-the-bonus to put Old Tappan back up 41-36 with 1:10 remaining and OT was still up by four points at 42-38 when McLaughlin made the first of two free throws with 45 seconds left.

Tim Fougere hit both ends of a 1-and-1 to give OT a 41-36 lead with 1:10 left in the game.

But that was when Teaneck’s luck began to change. On its next possession, King-Gilchrist tagged McLaughlin with his fourth foul in the continuation of the entertaining duel between the senior and the sophomore point guards who went back-and-forth at each other all game long. King-Gilchrist made both ends of the one-and-one foul shots to draw the Highwaymen to within two points and then they sprung a trap on the inbounds pass and forced a jump ball that gave them possession back. That gave Kyle Steinbergin the opportunity he had been looking for.

Steinbergin had hands in his face all game long and was unable to knock down a single field goal for the first 31:43 of the game, but all he needed was that one open look.

“They just kept telling me to hang in there and I finally got one free shot,” said Kyle Steinbergin. “All game every shot I took was contested but I got one free one at the end and it went down.”

It did go down and it was a three-pointer that gave Teaneck a 43-42 lead with 17 seconds left. That set up McLauglin’s drive to the basket on which he was fouled and made both free throws and then Barnes’ end-to-end sprint that won it.

Javae King-Gilchrist scored a team high 17 points for Teaneck, before fouling out with 6 seconds left.

“It was a blessing in disguise that Javae had fouled out because if he gets the ball on the inbounds pass they are going to double him and make him give it up,” said March, speaking of the setup to the final sequence. “Barnes is left-handed and I told him that they were going to play right-side defense and to take it down the left-hand side of the court. He took it coast-to-coast and I am so happy for him because that kid has been remarkably resilient the whole year. Despite that fact that he lost his starting position, he has just stuck with it and look where he is now.”

Where Barnes was was in the middle of the pileup near midcourt being mobbed by teammates and fans, but where Old Tappan head coach Dennis Rossi was was on the other end of the spectrum. Rossi tried to call timeout after McLaughlin’s second made free throw, but his adamant request went unnoticed by the officials as Barnes raced right past the Old Tappan bench and Teaneck ran into the section final on Tuesday against the winner of Saturday night’s game between Sparta and West Milford.

“I’ve been coaching for 43 years and this is one of the top five toughest losses I have ever experienced right up there with the ’92 and ’98 final [of the Bergen County Jamboree] when we lost to Teaneck. This was tougher because we had them,” said Rossi, who was at Bergenfield when for both of those Jambo losses. “The kids did everything we asked. We controlled the tempo, we played overall great defense. The kid McLaughlin did a fantastic job on Gilchrist, he made him work for everything he got. We took Teaneck out of their game and we deserved to win the game. That is not a knock against Teaneck, but we deserved to win, but that is life.”

Bryan Stankiewicz had two three-pointers among his 8 points for Old Tappan.

Old Tappan’s final game of the season was also one of its best as it was obviously tough on the defensive end and diverse on the offensive side. McLaughlin (11 points) was the only Knight to reach double figures, but that was because OT shared the ball so well. Fougere and Thomas Messina each finished with nine points, Stankiewicz finished with 8, Brundage had 4 and Anthony Messina made a three-pointer.

“It’s tough. We worked hard and it just didn’t bounce our way at the end,” said McLaughlin. “We didn’t really focus at the end, we let that kid go coast-to-coast and that cost us the game.”

Teaneck was also unselfish with the basketball and spread its offense among seven players. King-Gilchrist led the way with 17 points, 8 in the crucial fourth quarter, and Barber finished with 10, including all four of his team’s points in the third quarter, and he also had a game-high 12 rebounds. Jonathan Blue scored all 7 of his points in the first half, Kyle Steinbergin (5 points) had that huge three-pointer and two key fourth quarter free throws and Justin Hodge had a field goal and a free throw.

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