Thursday, March 4, 2010

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Connor Healy scored 20 of his 26 points after halftime as West Milford wiped out a 15-point deficit to knock off top-seeded Tenafly, 70-63, in the North 1, Group 3 state sectional tournament quarterfinals

TENAFLY -- Against the schedule that it has played this season in the NJTCC, it has been rare when the West Milford boys basketball team has turned to a high pressure defense. Speeding up games and adding more possessions against the teams it played during the regular season was not a tactic that figured to be in the Highlanders’ best interest.

But trailing by 15 in the third quarter on the road against the top seed in the North 1, Group 3 state sectional quarterfinals, Finke had little choice than to go against the grain and turn up the pressure.

“We don’t press. All of our scouting reports said we should against [Tenafly] but I just didn’t think that we have the depth for it to be that effective for us, “ said West Milford head coach John Finke. “If their lead was 8 or 10 I thought we could handle it, but when it got to 15 we had to try it.”

The increased tempo worked in West Milford’s favor because it not only created some turnovers and easy baskets, but it also wore down Tenafly, which saw it 15-point lead shrink to just five by the end of the third quarter as foul trouble started to pile up. A three-pointer by Connor Healy with 4:39 to go in the game finally put West Milford back in front for good and it rode a free throw parade down the stretch to a 70-63 win and a spot in the North 1, Group 3 state sectional semifinals opposite Teaneck.

Tenafly sophomore Chris Orozco scored a team-high 23 points and reached the 1,000-point mark on a free throw late in the fourth quarter.

“West Milford kind of got to us with the pressure. We’ve been playing a certain kind of way with a certain group of guys all year and we don’t have the depth that some other teams have,” said Tenafly head coach Joe Finizio. “We went out there to fight to the end like we have done all year and I am proud of my kids for that, but unfortunately their pressure got to us."

Tenafly came out of nowhere this season win 20 games, its first BCSL-American Division title since 1999 and grab the top seed in the North 1, Group 3 state sectional tournament and did so behind sophomore point guard Chris Orozco, senior forward Jonathon Fogel and role players like Jon Sobo, Daniel Brodsky and Jimmy Trolice (9 points), who do the little things and all of them chipped in to forge the 15-point lead 2:22 into the third quarter.

Orozco and Trolice made four straight free throws to close the second quarter and give the Tigers a 30-22 lead at the break. Fogel made a three-pointer and a tap-in around Trolice’s take to the basket to give Tenafly the first seven points of the third quarter, an 11-0 run and its largest lead of the night at 37-22.

But the size advantage that West Milford, the No. 9 seed, used all game to win the battle on the boards finally started to pay off in points. Using the high-low against Tenafly’s zone, West Milford’s Tyler Coyle threw two entry passes on the bounce from the foul line to the low block where Christian Thompson converted both on consecutive possessions to kick off the Highlanders’ comeback.

West Milford center Christian Thompson scored 8 of his 9 points after halftime.

Healy kept it going with seven straight points in three different ways. He hit a three-pointer from the wing, hung in the air long enough to let the defense clear for a layup and then made two free throws as West Milford closed the third quarter on a 14-2 run that ended with Coyle’s putback and just a five-point deficit, 41-36, heading into the final eight minutes.

“I was kind of shocked when we were down 15. I wasn’t really sure what was happening and I was feeling kind of nervous,” said Healy, who scored 20 of his game-high 26 points after the intermission. “In the first half I was so off, I couldn’t shoot the ball and it was getting frustrating. But in the second half coach told me to drive the ball and when I did it for the first time I was surprised how easily I got to the basket. I said I am just going to keep doing it and I either scored or got to the foul line.”

After Thompson scored inside to open the fourth quarter before Tenafly made what turned out to be its run of the season when Orozco made two free throws and Fogel finished a pretty fastbreak with a three-pointer. Orozco pushed the ball up the floor and moved it to Kevin Mantel, who found Fogel with his feet set. Fogel knocked down the shot to give Tenafly a 46-38 lead with 6:56 to play in the game. But West Milford quickly resumed its chase and eventually chased the Tigers down.

Jonathon Fogel scored 19 points before becoming one of four Tenafly starters to foul out.

Healy scored four straight points to get West Milford to within 49-47 and the tipping point came on the Highlanders’ next two possessions, both ending with trips to the free throw line on fouls committed by Fogel (19 points), who became the first of four Tenafly starters to foul out. Thompson made one free throw and Healy made both of his to give West Milford a 50-49 lead, its first since it led 19-18 midway through the second quarter, with 5:15 to play.

Tenafly retook the lead briefly when freshman Steven Sobo (7 points) made two free throws, but Healy hit a three pointer at the other end to put West Milford in front for good and made 10 of 16 free throws in the final to take the suspense out of the game’s final 1:42.

“Connor [Healy] did a great job. He took over the game in the fourth quarter. He got to the free throw line and made his free throws,” said West Milford’s Tom Bailey, who made 5 of his 6 fourth quarter free throws himself. “We try to get the ball to me and Connor at the end of games because we are confident there and we just want to do our jobs. We were trying to wear them out because we figured that they couldn’t play at that pace the whole night and eventually we wore them down.”

Healy scored 13 of his game-high 26 points in the fourth quarter and made his first 8 shots from the line in the final period before finished 8 of 10 in the fourth and 13 of 15 in the game for West Milford, which made 28 of its 41 free throws as a team.

Dan Gunderman scored 10 points off the bench for West Milford, which will play Teaneck in Friday's state sectional semifinal.

Bailey scored 11 points, including two three-pointers, Dan Gunderman added 10 off the bench and Thompson scored 8 of his 9 points in the second half. Tom Ferrari, Brett Ashley (3 points each) and Garvin Jones (2 points) rounded out the scoring for West Milford, which improved to 15-10 on the season and will get another shot at Teaneck, the team that beat the Highlanders in overtime of a classic North 1, Group 3 state sectional final one year ago.

“This is about this team, this is about building something off the experience that we had last year. This is about continuing the tradition that we have set now,” said Finke, whose has led West Milford to three of the last four state sectional finals. “We have established ourselves at the end of seasons and this is where this team expected to be. We played Teaneck in the final last year, we played them once this year and lost by 12, but we didn’t have Healy in that game and we are going to go after them. We are going to find a way to make it an interesting game.”

Tenafly’s season came to an end with a 20-4 record and a league title and for as successful as it was, it is probably just the beginning. Orozco, who led Tigers with 23 points on Wednesday night, went over the 1,000-point mark for his career on a free throw with 1:28 left in the game and still has two more varsity seasons left in his career.

Safe two say the Tigers will not be sneaking up on anybody in the next two years.

“It’s a process. We won one state game, we won 20 games, we won the league, so we’ll learn from this and get better for next year,” said Finizio, who has already been named the BCSL-American Division Coach of the Year. “Chris [Orozco] is a special player and he’d tell you himself that he wishes we would have gotten the win instead of reaching 1,000 [points], but that is a good accomplishment, that is for sure, and like the rest of us, I am sure he is already looking forward to next year.”

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