Saturday, January 9, 2010

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Six-foot-9 sophomore Vin O'Bierne had 17 points and 21 rebounds for Wood-Ridge, which improved to 5-1 on the season with a 86-78 win over Wallington on Friday night.

WOOD-RIDGE -- In a lot of programs, the arrival of a 6-9 center with not just size, but with legitimate basketball skills would usher in an era of halfcourt offense. Some coaches would make sure that his big man, in this case sophomore Vin O’Bierne, got at least one touch on every possession and outside shots would come only when all efforts for an entry pass were fully exhausted. Yeah right; not at Wood-Ridge and not under head coach Ed Rendzio.

“We tried it the traditional way and every time we tried it the kids would just look like square pegs staring at a round hole,” said Rendzio, whose program has built its past success getting as many shots at the rim as possible in 32-minute increments. “We have a different philosophy. We figure the best use of our big guys is getting putbacks and scoring off dishes from our guards, who we have the confidence in to turn the corner and draw the defense.”

Instead of using O’Bierne to run the offense from the inside out, Wood-Ridge runs everything from the outside in and the sophomore big guy has figured it out quite nicely. He had 41 points in a double overtime win over Wallington in the Herb Cohen Holiday Tournament and, in a rematch against the Panthers on Friday night inside the BCSL-National Division, O’Bierne was one of four Blue Devils to finish in double figures and added 21 rebounds, a most impressive double-double in an 86-78 win in Wood-Ridge.

Sophomore Peter Polan scored 27 of his 31 points after halftime to keep Wallington in it.

“I play with a lot of guys that can really shoot the ball and they open things up for me. If I can post up on the block on the side with the shooter then we have a good inside/outside game and that puts a lot of pressure on a defense,” said O’Bierne. “But I like the running game, too. That is what we do best.”

Offensively Wood-Ridge does a lot of things well and on nights when the jumpers are falling; it can drive opposing coaches crazy, or at least burn some early timeouts. That was the case for Wallington head coach Joe Soporowski, who called a halt to the action just 31 seconds into the game after Mike Gibney ended Wood-Ridge’s first two possessions with made three-pointers. Pat Harris made another one right out of the time out to give the Blue-Devils a 9-0 lead and the shootout was on.

“What do you think they shot? Had to be at least 65-percent from the floor. They have weapons. They have the big guy inside, they have good guards on the outside and the style that they play is unique to them,” said Soporowski. “We did everything we could to stop them, but you have to give those kids credit. They can really shoot it. We started in man, we went to the box-and-one and it worked until they figured it out and then we went to the 3-2 [zone]. We threw everything we had at them.”

And Wood-Ridge threw everything it had at the rim and more often than not, it went in. Gibney’s third three-pointer of the first quarter just beat the buzzer and gave the Devils a 23-11 lead after eight minutes. Wood-Ridge then scored the first seven points of the second quarter, the last two coming from Mike Beckerman on a fastbreak that was started by an O’Bierne block on the other end, and the Blue Devils lead swelled to 19 points at 30-11.

Freshman Mike Gibney led Wood-Ridge with 23 points.

Wood-Ridge’s offensive style means that there are going to be plenty of possessions for the opposition, too, and a lot of them start with long rebounds that open the floor. Wallington started to sneak back into the game late in the second quarter when a seven-point run capped by Dave Brown’s putback basket that got the Panthers to within 41-31 before two straight hoops by O’Bierne, the second on a pretty drop-step move, gave Wood-Ridge a 45-31 lead at the break.

Wood-Ridge’s largest lead of the third quarter was 15 at 56-41 midway through when Gibney hit a three-pointer, but Wallington’s Peter Polan, Wallington’s sophomore forward, was already in the midst of a huge second half. Polan scored 27 of his game-high 31 points in the second half and his fastbreak basket got the Panthers to within single digits at 56-48 before Gilonery answered with a three.

Polan scored the final two points of the third quarter and Wallington entered the period trailing 64-54 and used a personal 8-0 run by Polan in the span of 1:17 to really make it interesting. He hit a jumper from the corner, a three-pointer from the wing and another from the wing that did a full circle around the rim before falling in with 2:41 left that had the Panthers within five points at 73-68.

Tyler Soto scored 14 points for Wallington, which has run into tough luck in piling up a 2-5 record.

But that was as close as it would get as Wood-Ridge made 10 of 14 free throws down the stretch and added a highlight when O’Bierne got into the open floor for a dunk with 1:14 left.

Gibney led four Panther starters in double figures with 23 points, followed by O’Bierne’s 17, 14 from freshman Gary Writenour and 13 from Harris. Mike Beckerman (8 points), Nick Romero (6 points and Matt Alvarez (5 points) accounted for the rest of the scoring for Wood-Ridge, which improved to 5-1 on the season and 4-0 inside the BCSL-National Division, sharing first place with St. Mary (Rutherford).

“We want to play hard every time we step on the floor, we want to get better every day and we want to compete,” said Rendzio, whose team is eyeing a return to the Bergen County Jamboree, which is missed last season. “This is probably the least experienced team that I have ever coached, but the kids come to practice ready to go every day and this is a real easy group to work with and it makes my job fun.”

Wallington put three players in double figures with Polan’s 31 points leading the way followed by 17 from Charlie Vellis and 14 from Tyler Soto. Nick Gallo, the Panthers’ only senior starter, added 8 points and junior point guard Brandon Santana and sophomore Dave Brown each added 4.

Pat Harris finished with 13 points for Wood-Ridge, which is now 5-1.

Wallington fell to 2-5 on the season, but that is deceiving as the Panthers have been in every game they have played so far. Two of their losses, including the 111-101 loss double overtime loss to Wood-Ridge in the holiday tournament, have come in overtime. Two others came by four points and 1 point.

“I am telling our kids that we have winning team stats, but that is the way the ball bounces. We are a very young team. When we played [Wood-Ridge] the first time we had them. They were fouling us and all we had to do was make free throws down the stretch and we missed 7 of 9 and that is how we went to overtime,” said Soporowski, who has a senior, two juniors and two sophomores in his starting lineup and brings two more sophomores as his first two players off the bench. “We are 2-5 now and we could easily be 5-2 or 6-1, but we can’t change it now. We just have to keep working and the wins will come.”

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