Monday, February 1, 2010

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Chris Torres made a baseline jumper that beat the halftime buzzer, just one of many highlights in the Indian Hills' 84-50 win over New Milford in the Jambo's first round.

OAKLAND – It was a home game, the gym was packed, the cheerleaders were in full throat and it looked like it was going to be a 32 minute party for Indian Hills, the No. 12 seed in the Bergen County Jamboree. The Braves scored the first six points of the game and forced No. 22 New Milford to burn its first timeout just 1:23 in.

Then it was almost like the cops showed up to investigate a noise complaint as the party was halted by New Milford, at least temporarily. Brian Baker hit a three-pointer right out of the time out to stabilized the Knights and they went on to close the first quarter on a 7-0 run that gave them the lead after one quarter of play.

As it turned out, Indian Hills got off with a warning as it retook the lead for good when Ryan Van Grouw hit a three-pointer to open the second quarter and The Braves outscored New Milford 27-10 over the next eight minutes on the way to an 84-50 win and a spot in the Round of 16 opposite No. 5 Tenafly on Sunday.

Jeremy Clarke scored a team-high 15 points for New Milford.

“We got off to a fast start and maybe we thought it was going to be easy, but New Milford changed that real quick and it took us until the second quarter to get ourselves back on track,” said Indian Hills head coach Kevin McBain. “Ryan Van Grouw got us going with that three-pointer and I thought that the kids we brought in off the bench did a great job. Brett Jarotski got us into our offense and Gil Smolenski, a sophomore who we brought up from the JV and is now getting comfortable, did a great job. Jeremy Clarke had a great first quarter for [New Milford], we put Smolenski on him and he slowed him down.”

While New Milford was slowing down, Indian Hills was just getting going. Leading by just two points at 25-23 after Clarke made a free throw with 4:46 to go in the first half, the Braves scored 10 straight points to go up by double digits for good. Van Grouw got the spurt started with a basket inside off an assist from Andrew Ballester, Jason Chalmers followed with five straight points of his own and Ballester knocked down a three-pointer from the top of the key to put Indian Hills up 35-23.

Chris Torres put the cherry on top of the Braves stellar second quarter when he hit a fade away jumper from the baseline to beat the halftime buzzer and give Indian Hills a 44-28 lead at the break. The Braves built a 69-38 lead after three quarters before McBain emptied the rest of the bench.

Indian Hills' Jason Chalmers tied for game-high honors with 18 points.

Van Grouw and Chalmers, two of Indian Hills’ five senior starters, tied for game-high honors with 18 points apiece and Ballester (15 points) made it three double digit scorers for the Braves, who had 10 different players get into the scoring column. Clarke led New Milford with 15 points, Ben Nasimi finished with 9 and Michael Hackett and Raymond Morrissey each had six points for the Knights, who fell to 11-5 on the season.

So now it is off to the Round of 16 for Indian Hills, which will be the road team not only in terms of one the scoreboard according to seed, but also in reality as they will face No. 5 Tenafly as part of Sunday’s quadruple header at Tenafly High School.

McBain is hoping that his team, toughened by a competitive Holiday Tournament and the day-in/day-out rigors of an NBIL schedule, will be up for the challenge. Anyway, he likes his chances.

“I do. Our league is very tough and you have to come out every night and compete,” said McBain, whose team improved to 9-4 on the season and is on a three-game winning streak. “I have a tremendous amount of respect for Tenafly. I saw them handle Mahwah, a very good team in our league, so in no way to I think it is going to be easy. We have to play our game and keep our composure in their gym.”

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