Monday, February 15, 2010

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Mark Richards is mobbed by teammates after Bergen Catholic, the No. 7 seed, upset defending championship Teaneck, in the Bergen County Jamboree quarterfinals.

MAHWAH -- In addition to its basketball history as the all-time winningest program in the 54 years of the Bergen County Jamboree, Bergen Catholic has also long been known as a football powerhouse. Often times the two sports intermingle at the Oradell school and this year is no different. There are a few football-first players on this year’s roster, and the Crusaders play somewhat of a bruising style.

But little was it expected that in pulling the biggest upset in this year’s Jambo quarterfinals, seventh-seeded Bergen Catholic would do it by a football score. The Crusaders, using a variety of funky defenses that stopped just short of the ‘Cover-2’ held second-seeded and defending champion Teaneck to just three second half field goals and just 10 in the game.

With every point at a premium and then some, Bergen Catholic scored the last four of the fourth quarter to grab a 27-25 win at the Bill Bradley Sports and Recreation Center on the campus of Ramapo College. It was the lowest scoring game in the history of the tournament, but Bergen Catholic will take it and its spot in Friday night’s all-parochial semifinals opposite sixth-seeded Don Bosco Prep.

Jonathan Blue hit a 3-pointer to give Teaneck a 23-21 lead early in the fourth quarter.

“Our zones, we thought, could slow them down a little bit,” said BC head coach Joe Dionisio, who employed a triangle-and-2 for extended stretches against Teaneck’s top two scorers, Jonathan Blue and Kyle Steinbergin. “I am not saying that we wanted it more than them, but we felt throughout the whole week that nobody kind of saw us a threat in this thing. But there is no reason why we can be a threat, so I am just real pleased.”

It wouldn’t take too long to run down the blow by blow of this game as Teaneck’s 12-point second quarter was the only double-digit scoring quarter for either team in the game. Bergen led 8-4 after the first and got the pace of the game so far in its favor that it saw Teaneck hold the ball for nearly two minutes at one point late in the second quarter.

When the Highwaymen did start their offense after that ploy, an unsuccessful attempt to draw Bergen Catholic out of its zone, Justin Hodge went to the basket and was fouled. He made the shot and the free throw to give Teaneck a five-point lead, which matched its largest of the game, at 16-11 with 2:18 to go in the first half. A Mark Richards free throw for BC was the only other point scored in the final 4:24 of the first half as Teaneck clung to a 16-12 lead heading into the break.

Maurice Grant and BC held Teaneck without a single point off the offensive glass.

“Offensively it was a struggle for both teams, but our offensive execution was so stale. We just couldn’t run anything. We couldn’t get any open looks,” said Teaneck head coach Curtis March. “They ran a triangle-and-2 on Kyle and Jon and we needed other players to step up and get them out of that. We didn’t do that and we never forced them out of that defense.”

Teaneck scored just four points in the third quarter, three on a Blue three-pointer and one on an Own Barnes free throw, but somehow still held a one-point lead, 20-19, heading into the fourth and they had that doubled when William Thompson scored inside off an assist from Steinbergin to give Teaneck a 25-23 lead with 3:43 left to play.

Despite the fact that Teaneck would not score again in the game, it was still a chore for Bergen Catholic to fully catch up. A Charles Wingate free throw with 3:16 to play got the Crusaders to within one point and it was a Maurice Grant putback with 2:35 to play that finally put BC back in front to stay at 26-25..

Chris Jones scored five points for Teaneck.

“We weren’t really hitting a lot of shots, but we didn’t let them hit too many either and we stayed close the whole way and gave ourselves a chance,” said Grant. “We made some mistakes along the way, but we kept our heads up and just played defense because that is our strong point.”

In the final 2:11, Teaneck missed two free throws and an open layup and, after a Sean McGuire free throw with 27 seconds to play extended the BC lead to two points, March took a time out with 19.2 seconds left to set up a final shot.

But the set play never got off the ground and Teaneck had to settle for a forced runner in traffic with two seconds left. It missed, Doug Rigg grabbed the rebound for BC and it was time for a quick celebration at midcourt before heading into next weekend’s Final 4.

“It was our goal from our very first meeting. We said at that time that it was time to get back to the Rothman Center,” said Dionisio, whose team last reached FDU in 2007 when it lost in the final to Don Bosco Prep. “Yesterday we brought up what we talked about in that first meeting and today we got it done.”

BC's Doug Rigg after grabbing the game's final rebound.

To say that there was a high-scorer in the game would be a little bit of a stretch. Richards had the most points of any player who took the floor. He led BC with 9 points and did it by making just one field goal to go along with a 7 of 10 performance from the free throw line. Grant (6 points) was the only Crusader to make more than one field goal. The Crusaders were a combined 8 of 15 from the line and did not make a three-pointer.

It was even bleaker offensively for Teaneck, which got a team-high 7 points from Owen Barnes, who scored six of his points in a span of 52 second early in the second quarter. Blue’s six points came on two three-pointers and Chris Jones had 5 points for the Highwaymen.

“To score 25 points…we usually get that in a quarter. It was not pretty for either team, but they made their free throws and we didn’t,” said March, whose team was a combined 2 of 7 from the line. “But we still have a lot of season left. We still have the state tournament. We saw the brackets and we feel like we have a good shot at that. We just have to play a lot better than we did today.”

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