Thursday, March 11, 2010

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Kyle Dennis putting in the fastbreak dunk that all but ended Mendham's 62-56 win over Old Tappan in the Group 3 state semifinals.

EAST ORANGE -- For all but one team in the State, the end of the season will be marked with a loss and the tough part of the state tournament is that the end comes quickly. For Old Tappan, which had been flying high after a five overtime win over Passaic Valley and two-point decision in its rematch with Teaneck that gave it only its second state sectional title in school history, the end came on Thursday night against a West Morris-Mendham that came out fired up and never took its foot off the gas.

Tore Vicarisi scored 17 of his game-high 26 points in the first half as Mendham took the for good 3:15 into the game and never gave it back on the way to a 62-56 victory and the Group 3 final where it will play South Jersey champion Kingsway at Rutgers University.

“Old Tappan is a good team, a methodical team and I thought that when we got the lead and were able to build on it that the clock was not their friend,” said Mendham head coach Jim Baglin. “In the second half they had to kind of push out on us and we were able to get some run-outs for easy baskets and we made them play at a faster pace then they probably would have liked.”

Old Tappan's Chris Besserer continued his late season scoring surge as he scored a team-high 17 points.

Old Tappan started out well enough as it got a basket inside from Sammy Elias off a feed from Thomas Messina to give the Knights a 6-3 lead 2:25 into the game, but Vicarisi answered with his first four points of the game in succession. He hit a floater in the lane and then two free throws to put Mendham in front for good at 7-6 with 4:45 left in the first quarter.

Vicarisi scored off the offensive glass to close the first quarter scoring and then made a three-pointer to start the second. That gave the Minutemen a 19-11 advantage and left Old Tappan scrambling to play catch-up the rest of the way.

“The bottom line is we didn’t play as hard as they did. They wanted the game more,” said Old Tappan point guard Shane McLaughlin. “The first half, I don’t know what the numbers were, but they outrebounded us by a ton. They just wanted the ball more than us.”

Especially Vicarisi, who was the most aggressive player on the floor and he, almost singlehandedly, started putting Old Tappan in foul trouble. His work on the offensive glass that led to one made free throw with 2:35 left in the first half gave his team a 24-18 lead and also saddled Messina, Old Tappan’s leading scorer, with his third foul. Less than a minute later and right after Chris Besserer hit a three-pointer that to get Old Tappan back to within three points, Vicarisi bulled his way into the paint, was fouled, made both free throws and hung a second foul on Nick Bianco, Old Tappan’s starting center who was also forced to the bench.

Mendham's Tore Vicarisi scored 17 of his game-high 26 points in the first half.

But it was the final 20 seconds of the first half that really put Old Tappan in a tough spot. Trailing by five points, the Knights missed the front end of a one-and-one that could have made it a one possession game, but got the offensive rebound. That extra possession ended in a missed shot and Mendham’s Caleb DeMoss headed the other way, pulled up at the arc and nailed a three-pointer at the buzzer that put the Minutemen up 29-21 at the break.

Vicarisi hit a three-pointer 1:54 into the third quarter that put Mendham up by double digits for the first time at 34-23, it built its biggest advantage of the night at 44-31 when DeMoss peaked out from behind a screen and buried a three-pointer with 1:36 left in the third quarter and had an 11-point lead heading into the fourth quarter at 44-33.

By the time Old Tappan started knocking down shots about midway through the fourth, it was by then trading baskets, not conducive to a comeback, and any hopes of a comeback were put away when Mendham’s Kyle Dennis got out ahead of the pack and dunked on the fastbreak to give the Minutemen a 58-43 lead with 1:35 to play.

“Emotionally I thought that was the end for them, Kyle’s dunk,” said Baglin. “We made them play from behind and I thought they got tired playing at that pace on a big floor. Our kids just find a way and they have great guts.”

Shane McLaughln and three other Old Tappan starters will be back next season.

Vicarisi led all scorer’s with his 26 points that included two three-pointers and 15 attempts from the free throw line from where he scored 10 of his points. DeMoss scored 14 of his 19 points in the second half, Dennis added 9 points, Matt Crimmins had 6 and Andrew Jacobs had Mendham’s other field goal.

Besserer, who continued his late season scoring surge, led Old Tappan with 17 points as he made three three-pointers and was 4 of 5 from the line. Messina scored 11 of 15 points that he scored in his final high school game in the fourth quarter and McLaughlin added 11 to make it three Golden Knights in double figures. Bianco added 9 Elias added 6 and all of the above-mentioned players with the exception of Messina will be back again next season.

“It’s been an unbelievable run, a great season. We got only the second state sectional championship in our school’s history,” said McLaughlin, who also helped Old Tappan grab a share of the NBIL Division 1 title. “I am just happy for the seniors, Steve [Casamento], Thomas and [Max] Coop[er] that they could go out like that. They worked hard for it. Hopefully we will be back here next year and leave with a win.”

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