Monday, March 16, 2009

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

PISCATAWAY – After plenty of preseason hype, Paterson Eastside 's boys basketball team expected to be a force to be reckoned with come March. But after losing their first four games of the season, the Ghosts’ senior trio of Karon Abraham, David Robertson-West, and Bryant Lewis knew they had to be more trusting in the young players and play more of a team game to reach the lofty goals they set coming into the season.

The Ghosts began to gel at the right time. Their unselfish style of play took them all the way to Sunday’s Group 4 state final where they held a four-point halftime lead on Lenape. But as the second half began, it was Lenape, led by Pete Dinich, that began to put on a clinic in terms of sharing the basketball and finding the open man. Meanwhile, Eastside reverted back to taking the first available shot as it did during its early-season slump. The end result proved to be the end of a magical run for the Ghosts.

Lenape took the lead three minutes into the third quarter and never gave it back. The Indians pulled away from there and advanced to the Tournament of Champions by downing Eastside, 68-48, at the Rutgers Athletic Center.

“We didn’t play as well as we would have liked, but I’m proud of how far we have come this season,” said Paterson Eastside head coach Donald Davis. “We played hard until the end and we gave it all we had. I just wish we could have played these last 16 minutes over again, but that’s life. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. We have nothing to be ashamed of and we represented ourselves well throughout the state tournament by just getting down here.”

Before the Ghosts could even blink, they were in a double-digit hole. C.J. Meyer hit all three of his shots and scored seven points during a game-opening 13-2 run. But Eastside responded by going harder to the basket. Lewis scored on a layup and Robertson-West added a pair of free-throws, before Meyer hit a foul-line jumper at the first-quarter buzzer to keep Lenape ahead by three, 15-12.

That did little to stop the Ghosts from keeping the hot hand. When Abraham came off of a pick to hit a three-pointer, it capped a 21-4 run and gave the Eastside its largest lead, a six-point advantage, before Meyer’s layup cut the lead to 23-19 at the half.

“I think the depth perception of playing at such a big place like Rutgers had our shots a little off in the beginning,” said Paterson Eastside’s Karon Abraham, who will play at NCAA Tournament participant Robert Morris College next year. “Once we got used to the court and the crowd and all of that stuff, we felt fine. I think we felt confident with the lead at halftime, but we didn’t get the looks at the basket in the second half that we got in the first.”

Lenape’s starting backcourt of Mike Celestin and Pete Dinich were both held scoreless and their inept offensive play was part of the reason Lenape went into a nearly eight-minute drought in the first half without a field goal. But the two more than made up for it in the third quarter.

The Indians took the lead for good on a conventional three-point play from Celestin. Dinich then added a jumper and Celestin scored the final four points of the quarter. In all, the duo combined for all but two of Lenape’s points during a 15-4 burst to give them a 36-27 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Lewis scored on a putback floater to trim the lead to seven on the first possession of the fourth quarter, but that was as close as the Ghosts would get.

Dinich made three huge plays over the next minute to swing the momentum towards the Indians for good. After hitting a 15-foot jumper, he hit Kendall Peters on a touch pass off of a 2-on-1 break for a layup. Then he hit Meyer with a seeing-eye bounce pass for another layup to boost the lead up to 13 with just over six minutes to play and all but ended Passaic County’s first bid for a Group 4 title since 1929.

“We wanted to play better help-side defense and our backcourt really stepped up in the second half,” said Lenape head coach Chuck Guittar. “I thought we took better shots and made better decisions on the offensive end in the second half. We got a nice break at halftime from their big run. The second half gave us a fresh start and an opportunity to go on a run of our own.”

Meyer earned team MVP honors for Lenape (24-8) with a game-high 18 points. Dinich and Celestin combined to score all of their 25 points in the second half, with 13 and 12, respectively. Isiah Dixon also had 13 points for the Indians, who received the fifth seed in the upcoming Tournament of Champions and will play Group 3 champion Neptune on Wednesday at the Ritacco Center.

Abraham and Robertson-West each finished as 1,000-point scorers in their careers for Paterson Eastside (22-9) and each finished their final game in an Eastside uniform with 15 points. Lewis added 12 points, five rebounds, and two steals to earn team MVP honors.

Although the finish was not what the three Eastside starters envisioned, the ride along the way was more than they could have ever asked for.

“This whole experience has been great and I wouldn’t trade it for anything, well maybe except a win today,” added Abraham. “We expected to be good, but we honestly didn’t expect to make it to a state final. It’s always tough to lose your last game. But all I can do is smile and think about how much fun we had just to make it this far. It’s an experience I won’t forget and I hope it will drive the younger guys to get better and kept the winning tradition going here.”

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