Wednesday, March 11, 2009

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Kyle Steinbergin nailed a three-pointer from the corner, the shot that turned the tide in Teaneck's favor for good in a 58-51 overtime win over West Milford in the North 1, Group 3 state sectional final on Monday night.

PATERSON -- It was about 18 seconds or so after Teaneck head coach Curtis March had reset the situation for his team. The Highwaymen were leading by two points late in overtime against West Milford in the North 1, Group 3 state sectional final when March reminded his troops that they did not need a three-pointer, that an open look much closer to the basket would be much more preferable. With his coach's words still in his head, Kyle Steinbergin got the ball in the corner without a defender rushing to close out on him.

“Coach March said that he really didn’t want threes, but they left me wide open and I can make that shot,” said Steinbergin. “If you leave me there with that shot, of course I am going to take it.”

And Steinbergin nailed it, a dagger that turned a two-point advantage into a five-point bulge that finally put away West Milford in a 58-51 win at Kennedy High School.

“We didn’t need threes at that particular time, but that was a backbreaker. That kind of really deflated them,” said March, speaking of Steinbergin’s three-pointer. “I didn’t want the three, but Kyle and Jon Blue have no nooses around them to shoot the ball. They can shoot whenever they are open and Kyle was open.”

Chad Houser finished with a game-high 20 points for West Milford.

Steinbergin was open and it was almost by design as West Milford was aware of the game situation and made a tactical decision.

“We were willing to take that chance at that point because they were up two and we figure they’ll pull that ball out and run the offense to kill time,” said West Milford head coach John Finke. “We didn’t leave that kid open all night, but we took a chance. Give him credit for taking that shot and then for making it.”

Teaneck looked like it had the game won a few times, especially when Javae King-Gilchrist intercepted a baseball pass and took the other way for a layup that gave the Highwaymen a 41-34 advantage with 2:52 to go in regulation. But West Milford, making its third appearance in the section final in the last four years, got off the deck when Mac Morando nailed a three-pointer to start a comeback that was helped when Teaneck missed the front end of two-one-and-ones in a span of 1:13.

Morando scored 9 points in the game, but seven of them came in the final 2:52 of the fourth quarter and his four straight free throws cut two different four-point Teaneck leads to two points at 41-39 and 43-41. Morando kept his team close enough so that when Rob Nylund snuck in to put back a missed three-pointer with 57 seconds left and King-Gilchrist was long on the last shot of regulation, West Milford was all even a 43-43 and heading to overtime.

Javae-King Gilchrist had two slicing layups in overtime for Teaneck.

“Even if we didn’t execute everything that we wanted to execute, we busted it. We held the press to the end of the fourth quarter and it worked a little bit and we made a couple of shots,” said Finke. “Teaneck plays very tough on the ball defense and I thought tonight they played tough defense on the next pass and they are so athletic on the inside. All that being said, we were right there going into the overtime even though they made us work for everything.”

But Blue opened the extra session with two made free throws and King-Gilchrist sandwiched slicing drives to the basket around and three-pointer by West Milford’s Chad Houser as Teaneck took a 49-45 lead just more than halfway into the overtime. Houser answered when he drive the left side of the lane for a layup, but a Teaneck timeout was followed by Steinbergin’s clutch three-pointer and the Highwaymen made 6 of 8 free throws to keep the Highlanders at arm’s length the rest of the way.

“We put them in the position [in overtime] where there was nothing that they could except foul us. We got the lead on them and they had to keep putting good free throw shooters on the line and I trusted all of our guys could make them,” said Blue who was 5 of 6 from the line in overtime. “In playoff games you have to make free throws and we missed couple in the fourth quarter that hurt us, but we didn’t get down on ourselves. We believed that we could make them and we did. We got the win and it feels good.”

Jason Sofman had 10 points for West Milford, which finished the season at 20-7,

It didn’t feel so good for West Milford, which has had its share of tough luck in the section final over the past four years.

“I just told the guys that this is the third time in the last four years that if the ball just bounces our way, a break here or there, that we would have three sectional championships. We lost by three to Old Tappan, three to Wayne Valley and we took Teaneck to overtime. When is it going to break our way?” said Finke. “We played hard tonight, we played really hard. I guess it was just not meant to be and we’ll have to come back and do it again.”

Houser led West Milford with 20 points and Jason Sofman finished with 10. Nylund (9 points) and Morando (9 points) combined to score all but two of their points after halftime and Nick Solicito added a three-pointer for the Highlanders, who finished their season with a 20-7 record.

Steinbergin finished with a team-high 17 points for Teaneck, which spread the offense around and had four players finish in double figures. Blue added 13 points, Gilchrist (10 points) and Shomari Barber (10 points), Teaneck’s two senior starters, combined for 20 points while Branden Davis added two field goals and Aaron Qualls and Owen Barnes each made a basket apiece.

But when it was over, there was no floor-storming celebration or player pile-up, signifying that the Highwaymen feel that that they still have business to take care of. They will take on North 2, Group 3 champion Malcolm X Shabazz on Thursday in a 7:30 p.m. start at East Orange Campus.

“It’s my last time around as a senior and I want to go out on top,” said Barber. “This is a great win and its great to get the section title, but our season is not over yet. We still have more that we want to do.”

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