Sunday, December 21, 2008

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

In his first game since transferring in from Don Bosco Prep, junior Thomas Messina scored a game-high 19 points for Old Tappan, which knocked off Ramapo, 62-51, in the season opener that was delayed one day by weather.

OLD TAPPAN -- The season opener was delayed 20 hours by the weather and the Old Tappan boys basketball team tacked on another eight minutes before really turning it on. After a first quarter that saw Ramapo score eight of the game's first 11 points, Old Tappan ripped off an 11-2 run to start the second quarter and took control for good on the way to a 62-51 win on its own home floor.

“The wait was killing us. We were ready to go last night, then the snow happened and we might have been a little too pumped up at the beginning,” said Old Tappan senior Chris Brundage. “The second quarter was when we took over the game. We got up by 15 going into halftime but coach [Dennis Rossi] told us that this was not the kind of game where we were going to be able to go out and win by 30. We knew we still had a lot of work to do.”

The work that was left was holding Ramapo’s Eric Halejian in check. Ramapo’s senior guard is a tough match-up because of his ability to get to the basket with the dribble, knock down open looks and, maybe most impressively, create space and consistently hit the mid-range jumper through a variety of jump stops and fall away moves.

Ramapo senior Eric Halejian tied for game-high honors with 19 points.

As Halejian went on Saturday, so went the Green Raiders’ offense. He finished tied for game-high honors with 19 points and had six in the first quarter as Ramapo got off to a fast start, but it was when he was held scoreless in the second quarter that Old Tappan was able to build a lead. He also had to work hard for everything he got against Old Tappan’s Shane McLaughlin, the sophomore point guard who is starting his second year on the varsity level and has long since caught the eye of his head coach.

“I have said it before that I believe that the McLaughlin kid is going to do some special things while he is here and I really believe that,” said OT head coach Dennis Rossi. “You could see it tonight the way he played against their kid, who is one of the best guards in the league. I don’t know how many points [Halejian] had, but I know he had to work for every one of them.”

McLaughlin finished with 10 points and 6 assists to go along with his defensive work and he got all of his teammates involved, and he had plenty of choices. Despite that fact that the Knights were without Bryan Stankiewicz, their leading returning scorer who is out for another two weeks with an ankle sprain, Kevin Yu, Dom Casamento and Sam Massaro (lost for the season with a knee injury suffered in the opening football game), Rossi used 10 players in the first half and all of them contributed.

Sophomore point guard Shane McLaughlin got off to a solid start with 10 points and 6 assists.

Leading 14-12 after Ramapo’s Peter Garrambone scored the first two points of the second quarter, Old Tappan got hot. Brundage pulled down an offensive rebound and shoveled off to Thomas Messina who made the easy basket then completed a three-point lay the old fashioned way on the Knights’ next possession to put his team up 19-12. Messina, a junior who spent his first two high school seasons at Don Bosco Prep, is back at his hometown high school and is playing beside his brother, Anthony, a senior guard who hit all three of Old Tappan’s three-pointers against Ramapo.

Thomas Messina adds another offensive weapon on the wing, is effective an effective finisher in transition and he finished with a team-high 19 points.

“We are deep. I used 10 guys in the first half and I was comfortable with who we had on the floor no matter who was in there,” said Rossi. “This is a great group to coach. They learn what you teach them and they play well together on both ends.”

Old Tappan stretched the lead to double digits for the first time when Brundage made a steal, led the break and then found Tim Fougere, who converted the layup to put his team up 25-14 with 2:21 to go in the opening half. Fougere’s bucket represented points 4 and 5 in a 9-0 Old Tappan run that only ended with 14 seconds left in the second quarter as Gary Byun hit one of two free throws to get Ramapo to within 30-15 at the break.

Junior RJ Voorman pitched in with 6 points for Ramapo.

One minute into the second half Ramapo slapped on its fill court pressure and it briefly paid dividends. The Raiders forced three consecutive turnovers and turned two of them into four points. Halejian hit a pull-up jumper and Donny Fletcher hit two free throws to draw Ramapo to within 32-24, but Old Tappan made the adjustment to the pressure and again opened the lead to 14 points when Thomas Messina made a steal and scored on the break to make it 42-28 with 2:59 to go in the third quarter.

“Out of the locker room [at halftime] we knew they were going to come at us hard. They were going to hustle, they were going to work hard and they are a talented team,” said McLaughlin. “We just had to make sure that we were making the right decisions with the ball and we did that after a couple of bad possessions against their press.”

Ramapo (0-1) made one more run at it Matt Bunting hit a pull up jumper off an assist from RJ Voorman and Halejian made a steal and a short jumper as the Raiders scored the final four points of the third quarter to get within 45-37 and they were still within single digits at 49-40 when Halejian made a three from the corner with 5:28 to go in the game.

But Anthony Messina answered Halejian’s trey with one of his own the next time down the floor to restore the double digit advantage and the Knights pulled away from there.

Chris Brundage (11 points) was one of three Golden Knights to finish in double figures.

Halejian was the only Green Raider to finish in double figures and he also added three assists and three steals. Garrambone finished with 9 points, while Fletcher and Voorman each added six. Henry Borgeson, Matt and Pat Bunting and Andrew Weiss all had a field goal for Ramapo, which was hampered by foul trouble. Fletcher picked up his second foul early in the second quarter and had to sit for long stretches while the Raiders’ other inside option, starting center Ryan Brew, fouled out with just over two minutes to play.

Thomas Messina had a sparkling debut, leading Old Tappan with 19 points and was one of three Knights to finish in double digits along with McLaughlin and Brundage (11 points). Luke Van Dyke finished with five points, Fougere, Ben Bernstein and Neil Blaser had Old Tappan’s other three field goals and Nick Zanone and Zach Brown made a free throw apiece to round out the scoring.

The Golden Knights figure to be one of the best public school teams in Bergen County this season and they did nothing to dispel that rumor in Game 1.

“We are all thinking about winning the league, making a run in the states and going deep into the Jamboree,” said Brundage. “We really feel like we can contend this year.”

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