Wednesday, January 13, 2010

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

Cole Dorfman scored nine points in the final 1:43 as Pascack Hills notched its first win of the season, 64-52, over Garfield on Wednesday afternoon.

GARFIELD – The hardest win of the season is always the first one and few teams know that better this than Pascack Hills. After graduating 10 seniors from last year’s record-setting club, the Cowboys had to field an entire new varsity roster. Although they have been in several close games this year, the Cowboys learning process has included finding ways to fall apart down the stretch.

When they quickly blew a lead to start the fourth quarter against highly-regarded Garfield on Wednesday, it looked like a ‘here we go again’ moment. But Pascack Hills was simply tired of losing close games and point guard Cole Dorfman refused to let this one get away.

He scored nine of his 11 points in the final 1:43 as Pascack Hills finished a perfect 14 of 14 from the foul line and used an 18-2 closing run to notch its first win of the season, 64-52, over Garfield at Garfield High School.

“We needed this win bad, and it feels good to finally get one,” said Dorfman. “Our team has worked really hard and we’ve had some great practices lately. We knew our time was coming. We just had to play as well in fourth quarter as we did in the first three.”

Kamil Rutkowski finished with 18 points for Garfield.

Each team was missing a key starter for the game (Garfield’s Fillipe Fraga and Pascack Hills’ Chet Palumbo), but both teams got into an offensive flow early. Garfield jumped out to a 9-4 lead. The Cowboys responded with a 13-2 run, capped by a three-pointer from Jason Horowitz for a 17-11 lead late in the first quarter.

Garfield’s Richie Colon was red-hot from the perimeter, hitting four of his five three-point attempts in the first half. But he was matched shot-for-shot by Horowitz, who hit a baseline jumper at the buzzer to give Pascack Hills a 33-30 halftime lead.

The Cowboys maintained their lead throughout the third quarter only to have the momentum change hands in the final seconds. Pascack Hills was up by three points and on a two-on-one fastbreak when an errant around-the-back pass ended up in the hands of Garfield’s Kamil Rutkowski. He threw a pass the length of the court and Jabbar Drakeford laid it in at the buzzer to trim the lead down to one point, 46-45.

Baskets by Rutkowski and Damon Godbolt put the Boilermakers ahead, 50-46, with just over six minutes to play. It was a make-or-break moment for the Cowboys, who simply had to execute better on both ends of the floor.

Pascack Hills' Jason Horowitz led all players with a career-high 20 points.

“We had to make some stops and hit open shots,” added Dorfman. “I had a tough first half and I missed a few open shots, but I had to keep shooting when I was open. In the second half I played with more confidence, I think we all were very confident in fourth quarter that we would step up and get the job done.”

Pascack Hills held a one-point lead when Dorfman nailed a three-pointer with 1:43 to play to make it a two-possession game, 56-52. Any chances for a Garfield comeback were quelled by a perfect shooting performance from the foul line. The Cowboys went 8 of 8 from the charity stripe in the final 50 seconds, including 6 of 6 from Dorfman, to close out their elusive first win.

“I’m proud of how we kept our composure and hit our free-throws down the stretch,” said Pascack Hills head coach Chris Kirkby. “We didn’t let the pressure get to us, we played solid defense, and we made good decisions with the ball. I thought at times we still showed our immaturity, but this was a big positive step we took today.”

Horowitz led all players with a career-high 20 points for Pascack Hills (1-6). Dorfman and Jared Shill added 11 and 10 points, respectively.

Josh LeClerc and Garfield fell to 6-2 on the season.

Colon and Rutkowski each finished with 18 points for Garfield (6-2). The Boilermakers would have all but locked up a spot in the Bergen County Jamboree with a win yesterday. Now they have to win three of their final five games before the cutoff to ensure a second straight Jambo berth.

There will be no Bergen County Jamboree this season for Pascack Hills, which was the top seed in the tournament last year. But with such a young team, this season is all about growth and game-by-game progress. Getting one in the win column is something both Kirkby and his players feel can be the springboard to more success.

“This win is big, especially beating a good team like Garfield,” said Kirkby. “All season, we’ve shown signs of being a good team. But we were playing just well enough to lose the close ones; mainly because we have a whole new team that never played a varsity minute before this year. Now we have that taste of winning and it’s a good feeling for these kids. The next step is to feed off of this success and play even better the next time we step on the court.”

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