Tuesday, January 5, 2010

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Nick DiCristina's three-pointer with 5:06 to play in the fourth quarter gave Passaic Valley the lead for good in a 66-60 win over Wayne Valley on Monday night.

LITTLE FALLS -- As both teams made the switch from the now defunct Northern Hills Conference -- Skyline Division to the newly formed North Jersey Tri-County Conference that includes parochial powerhouses like Don Bosco Prep and St. Joseph Regional, Passaic Valley and Wayne Valley know the importance of grabbing a league win when the opportunity presents itself. In a game in which neither team lead by more than five points through the first three quarters and with the game tied with 5:11 to play, the opportunity was their for both sides heading down the stretch on Monday night in Little Falls.

The one advantage that Passaic Valley had all night long was its ability to grab offensive rebounds and it was one by its point guard that gave the Hornets the lead for good. Nick DiCristina had just hit the first of two free throw attempts to tie the game just less than three minutes into the fourth quarter and his second took a high bounce off the rim before the ball was batted around in the lane.

It was about to go out of bounds before Dom Coiro leapt in the air to save it. His effort gave Passaic Valley the extra possession that ended with DiCristina’s three-pointer that gave the Hornets the lead. Passaic Valley never did pull away, but it was never caught either as two meaningless free throws by DiCristina with no time remaining on the clock gave the Hornets their largest lead of the game and a 66-60 win.

Senior point guard Jason Rosenberg scored a team-high 18 points for Wayne Valley.

“We needed to get a win here. Our schedule has been hard and we have some tough one coming up, but we are expecting to have a good season and this win is a big one,” said Coiro, who helped lead PV to the North 2, Group 3 state sectional football final. “We are definitely just rounding into shape. We were coming off a big win over Montville and it carried right over into tonight against a good Wayne Valley team.”

The first three quarters were a virtual stalemate as Wayne Valley’s largest lead was three points at 8-5 with 5:19 to go in the first quarter and 16-13 four minutes later before settling for a 16-15 lead heading into the second. Passaic Valley’s also had two three-point leads in the opening half, but it was Wayne Valley that had the halftime edge when Jason Rosenberg beat the buzzer with a three-pointer to give the Indians a 28-26 lead heading into the break.

Passaic Valley’s defensive strategy was clear as it looking to slow Rosenberg and senior 1,000-point scorer Nick Siljee and it did so. Rosenberg’s late three was the only field goal in the second half between the Indians’ two top offensive threats, but the result of its defensive effort was a two-point deficit at halftime.

Anthony DiSanti scored 16 points for Passaic Valley, which improved to 4-2.

“We just tried to take them [Rosenberg and Siljee] out of their comfort zone a little bit and try to make some of their other guys were going to have to take some big shots and hit them,” said Passaic Valley head coach Rob Carcich. “We did what we wanted to do. We held Siljee and Rosenberg to nine points [combined] in the first half, but they had 28 points so their other guys did a good job of keeping them in the game. We had a game plan, we pulled it off and we were still down 2.”

Siljee and Rosenberg were able to break free in the second half. Siljee scored the first two points of the third quarter on a nice high/low set and an assist from Keith Greeve to extend the Indians lead to four points and a four-point spurt on a Rosenberg drive and a Greeve bucket on a fastbreak gave Wayne Valley its largest lead of the night, 36-31, with 4:52 to play in the third quarter.

But Passaic Valley’s relentless pursuit of offensive rebounds gave it second chances and piled up the fouls against the Indians. Olumide Onajide had 13 rebounds in the game, 10 of them on the offensive end, and his putback with 3:45 left in the third quarter chopped the Wayne Valley lead to one point, 36-35. Olumide scored on a post move 1:04 later to tie the game and it was all square at 43 heading into the fourth quarter.

Wayne Valley's Nick Siljee scored 8 of his 14 points in the fourth quarter.

“They outplayed us for the better part of three-and-a-half quarters under the basket. If we get a defensive rebound and throw an outlet pass, we can beat them up the court. But we couldn’t get a defensive rebound, everything was either a made shot after three tries or a foul,” said Wayne Valley head coach Joe Leicht. “That is where they won the game and deserved to win the game. They totally outplayed us under the basket.”

Wayne Valley took its last lead when Rosenberg went coast-to-coast for a layup that gave the Indians a 49-48 advantage with 5:50 to play, but Passaic Valley’s next possession led to DiCristina’s free throws and Coiro’s save of the ball under the basket to that led to DiCristina’s three-pointer that gave the Hornets the lead for good.

DiCristina, who has unlimited range on his jumpshot and is a tough matchup playing in PV’s high pick-and-roll offensive sets, finished with a game-high 20 points, including four three-pointers, three of them in the second half. Anthony DiSanti, who whose 8 rebounds were part of PV’s advantage on the glass, added 16 points, while Onajude finished with 14 as half of his double-double.

Dave Claigh added nine points, Mike Governali had a first half three pointer and Coiro made put his stamp on the game by penetrating the lane and setting up teammates, finished with four points, all from the free throw line.

This save by Dom Coiro led to the basket that gave PV the lead for good.

Passaic Valley improved to 4-2 on the season and 2-2 inside the NJTCC, surviving a tough early schedule and the football-to-basketball transition.

“The early losses were to Bosco and to Joe’s and we didn’t have two starters for both of those games. There are no excuses, but we are a different team right now,” said Carcich. “With the football guys came in a week late after playing in the state championship [game] and it has changed tremendously in the last week. We’ve improved a lot and we still have room to get better.”

Rosenberg finished with a team-high 18 points and Siljee scored 8 of his 14 in the fourth quarter as Wayne Valley stayed in it right down to the final 20 seconds. Andrew Harasintchuk (11 points) made it three Wayne Valley starters in double figures and Greeve added 8. Kurbin Kukaj (4 points) and Chris Hansi’s field goal rounded out the scoring for the Indians, who fell to 4-2 on the season.

“It’s not an easy schedule and this game could have been won by either team. When you have an opportunity like that you have to take advantage of it, but they just outplayed us,” said Leicht. “I was OK with our inside game in the fourth quarter, but it came too late and we just gave away too many second chances.”

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