Monday, February 1, 2010

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Lodi's Ersi Bice attacked the basket all game, but it was his 25-footer with a hand in his face that beat the buzzer and beat Pal Park, 69-66, in the first round of the Bergen County Jamboree.

OAKLAND -- As the leading scorer and point guard for the Lodi boys basketball team, there was no doubt that senior Ersi Bice was going to be the guy with the ball in his hands as the clock wound down in the fourth quarter of a tie game against Palisades Park in the opening round of the Bergen County Jamboree. Bice was going to take the last shot, it was just a matter of where on the floor it would come from and Bice chose the most difficult spot.

With the time heading south of five seconds, Bice launched a 25-footer with a hand in his face and it hit nothing but net, falling through with two seconds left to go. Pal Park managed to wrangle a time out with 1.5 seconds left with only a prayer to tie it, but the Tigers never got off another shot and Lodi walked off with a 69-66 win, its first in the Jambo since 1997.

“We were tied up and we had nothing to lose. It was an iso(lation set) so I just held it and shot it at the last second. If I make it we win, if I miss then we go to overtime and I’d take it from there,” said Bice. “I was looking to go at the basket, but then I saw that the defender was really far off of me. I just pulled up. It was kind of deep, but that didn’t matter when it went in.”

Ive Pavin scored 18 points to lead Palisades Park.

It was not exactly the shot that Lodi head coach Rob Terhune might have preferred, but he was the one who put the ball in Bice’s hands and was more than willing to live with the result no matter which way it might have turned out.

“We wanted him to go sooner, but he as actually done that a few times before where he looks at the clock and just pulls up,” said Terhune. “He has won several games for us that way in the course of his career and he is our go-to guy. That is the guy we wanted with the ball in that situation and we’ll take our chances with him in that situation every single time.”

It was not just Bice’s final shot, but his final quarter of play that made the difference for Lodi, which trailed by as many as eight points in the first half. He scored 10 points through the first three quarters, but, starting with a strong take to the basket that ended in a layup 42 seconds into the fourth, the points started coming in bunches for Bice.

He followed the layup with two free throws that gave Lodi a 47-46 lead and he scored 18 of his game-high 28 points in the fourth quarter of a game that was a possession-by-possession nail-biter from start to finish. Pal Park led 17-13 after the first quarter, Lodi had a 31-30 lead at halftime and Pal Park went back in front after three periods, 44-42, when Randall Carlos converted a three-point play with :02 left.

Viktor Gashi made 6 of his 8 free throws and finished with 12 points for Lodi (9-4).

The game was tied three times in the fourth quarter, the last time at 56, before Pal Park grabbed a 59-56 lead when Matt Tejada made a three-pointer from the wing with 2:38 to play. The Tigers were still up three at 63-60 and at 65-62 after Ive Pavin made a steal and two free throws with 55 seconds left in regulation.

But Bice, who played well but in a losing effort in a first round Jambo game against Becton last season, had brought his team too far this time to settle for another moral victory. He made two free throws to get the Rams to within 65-64 with 46 seconds left and then leaked out and was ahead of the field in time to take advantage of Vicktor Gashi’s steal and Daniel Agyeman’s assist. Bice’s fastbreak layup gave Lodi a 66-65 advantage with 21 seconds to go before John Gotty-Diaz’s free throw brought Pal Park back into a tie.

The problem was, there were still 16 seconds left on the clock, plenty of time for Bice to choose his spot and hit the jumper that came against a defense that knew he was getting the ball but could do little against his range.

Pal Park's John Gotty-Diaz hit a free throw to tie the game with 16 seconds left

“Bice is a great player and there was nothing we could do. In the fourth quarter especially, he was hitting his shots, he was tough in the paint and he wanted the ball,” said Pal Park head coach John Wiseman. “I told John [Gotty-Diaz] that he could not have played better defense on that last shot. The kid hit a 25-footer with a hand in his face. If we could have picked a shot for him to take it would have been that one. What else can you do?”

Bice was brilliant early and late, but he had help all the way through. Viktor Gashi and Jawon Matthews had 12 points a piece and Gashi was especially effective at attacking the basket and getting to the free throw line. He made 6 of his 8 free throw attempts for Lodi, which made 23 of 32 from the line as a team, and Matthews was strong on the offensive glass. Fredy Navarro chipped in with two first quarter three-pointers, and Pajtim Dervishi had seven points, five of them coming from the free throw line.

Lodi (9-4), the No. 18 seed, snapped a two-game losing streak and earned itself another game in the Jambo, this time with nothing to lose. The Rams will face second-seeded and defending champion Teaneck in the Round of 16 on Saturday in a 4:00 p.m. start at Northern Highlands High School.

“You hope for a game in the first round that you have a shot to win and after that, at a small school like ours, you know it is going to get a whole lot tougher,” said Terhune, who has led Lodi to back-to-back Jamboree births after a 12-year drought. “We have made it to the Jamboree two straight years for the first time in…I don’t know if we ever did that before at Lodi and that was one of our goals. But we didn’t just want to make it this year; we wanted to win a game this time. We got it and now we can have some fun against Teaneck and I think the kids are really looking forward to the opportunity.”

It was a team effort on the boards for Pajtim Dervishi and Lodi.

Pal Park was making its third straight Jambo appearance and was looking for its second straight first round win after beating Hasbrouck Heights last season, but will have to settle for an 11-3 record and a one game lead in the BCSL-Olympic Division as it heads back into league play on Tuesday against second place Cresskill.

Pavin scored a team-high 18 points for the Tigers on Sunday, but 14 of them came in the first half and 12 in the first quarter. Danny Glavan (14 points) and Tejada (11 points) made it three Tigers in double digits, while Sebastian Ramirez and Gotty-Diaz each had 9 points and Carlos finished with 5.

“We have to focus on the league now. We have Cresskill coming up and that is a big game, probably bigger than the one we just played because we only have a one-game lead,” said Wiseman. “Every game we play from here on is a big one, so we have to leave this one here and get ready for Cresskill.”

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