Friday, January 22, 2010

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Ryan Van Grouw, scored 10 points and had 10 rebounds as the Braves kept their Bergen County Jamboree hopes alive with a 50-38 win over Northern Highlands.

OAKLAND – With five seniors in the starting lineup and on a two-game losing streak, no one needed to tell the Indian Hills boys basketball team what was at stake on Thursday night when it hosted Northern Highlands in an NBIL Division 2 matchup. But head coach Kevin McBain told his players anyway.

“I told the kids right before we even went out there. We needed this game if we want to play in the Jamboree,” said McBain, whose team was coming off consecutive losses to Paramus Catholic and Old Tappan. “It’s been a tough stretch with our Christmas Tournament being what it is on top of Paramus Catholic and Old Tappan back-to-back We could make a lot of excuses, but that wasn’t going to help us. We had to go out and win some games starting tonight.”

With their Jambo hopes hanging by a thread and with their defense having recently been shredded, the Braves came out with a purpose. They drew a charge and forced two turnovers on Northern Highlands’ first three possessions, scored the first five points of the game and went on to lead wire-to-wire in a 50-38 win in Oakland.

NH's Brandon Bovino finished with a game-high 13 points.

“We knew that we needed to win three games in a row to guarantee a spot in the Jambo and to do that we had to do better on defense, which has not been good for the last three games,” said Jason Cholmers, Indian Hills’ senior forward. “That was our main focus for this game and I think we did pretty good. We held a good team below 40 points.”

It was Cholmers who gave Indian Hills the lead for good with a three-pointer from the corner 40 seconds into the game, and getting in front proved to be a decisive advantage. The Braves are a team that likes to run and gun and used its up-tempo style to forge a 10-point lead by the end of the first quarter. Larry Piretra scored on a steal and a layup and then beat the first quarter buzzer by putting back his own missed shot to give Indian Hills an 18-8 advantage.

Highlands opted for various zone defenses in an attempt to slow the pace and executed in the half court to get back in it. Kyle Linares scored on a back door layup off an assist from Alex Perez with 6:28 to go in the second quarter and immediately thereafter, Highlands dropped back into a zone look.

Jason Cholmers, one of five senior starters, helped Indian Hils end a two-game skid.

Rather than being forced into a jump shooting contest, Indian Hills opted to hold the ball out in an attempt to make Northern Highlands play man. The Highlanders decided to stay put and Indian Hills’ next possession consisted of point guard Brian Greer dribbling the ball alone near the hash mark for the better part of two-and-a-half minutes. That possession ended in a missed three-pointer and Northern Highlands then crept closer. A three-pointer by Casey Diestel and a put back by Perez had the Highlanders within 19-17 with 3:06 left in the first half.

If Northern Highlands’ zone bothered the Indian Hills players is up for debate, not so with the Braves’ coach.

“I am so sick of seeing zones. Paramus Catholic played it against us and again here tonight. We like to get up and down and that slows us down,” said McBain, who had in impromptu conversation with Highlands head coach Mike Stone near the scorers table as Greer was dribbling on that long second quarter possession. “He asked me if I was going to stay in [the stall] for the rest of the half and I said probably not. But I wanted them to come out of the zone and play us and they didn’t.”

Kyle Linares finished with 10 points for Northern Highlands.

Greer hit a pull-up jumper and set up Ryan Van Grouw for a layup that gave the Braves a 23-17 lead at halftime. Northern Highlands was still in it when Brandon Bovino completed a three-point play and Linares got to the basket for a layup to pull the Highlanders to within 26-24, but Indian Hills closed the third quarter on a 7-1 run, the last three points coming on a jumper by Brett Jarotski from the top of the key, to restore a double-digit lead, 37-27, heading into the final period.

“We saw the zone coming in the scouting report and our coaches said the best idea was to go with the 1-3-1 [offensive set] and having Ryan [Van Grouw] in the middle is great for us because we get the ball to him and it opens things on the outside. We worked off of him a lot tonight,” said Greer. “We held the ball a lot offensively, obviously, with all of the dribbling, but as long as we stayed patient it was easy for us to break down.”

All of the time spent sitting in the zone let Northern Highlands scrambled to give away fouls in the four quarter to facilitate a comeback. In fact, the Highlanders did not commit their first team foul of the second half until there was 4:08 left in the game and they were down by nine points, 41-32, by that time. Harrison Klein scored off a steal to get the Highlanders back to within 41-34 with 3:30 to play, but two straight baskets by Van Grouw kept the Braves comfortably in front and in the hunt for a spot in the Jamboree with a 6-4 record and two games left before the cutoff.

Brian Greer finished with 6 points and 7 assists.

“This group is a good group. They have worked very hard and we needed this win tonight to get our confidence back. We can still make the Jambo and I think we can make a run in the states,” said McBain. “We have Mamaroneck (NY) on Saturday and Ramapo on Tuesday, but those games would not have mattered for the Jambo if we didn’t get this one tonight.”

Van Grouw and Chris Torres paced the Braves with 10 points apiece. For Van Grouw, his points were a part of a double-double as he also pulled down 10 rebounds. Cholmers finished with 9 points, Andrew Ballester had 8 to go along with 3 steals and Greer had 6 points and handed out 7 assists. Bovino led Northern Highlands with 13 points and Linares added 10 for the Highlanders, who also stand at 6-4 on the season.

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