Tuesday, December 22, 2009

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

JERSEY CITY – Although St. Mary’s of Jersey City only has eight players on its varsity roster and is making a step up in class in moving from the HCIAA-Seglio Division to the HCTCC made of Hudson County schools of all sizes, the Ramblers liked their chances for success heading into this season. Those hopes could have been dashed with a convincing season-opening loss on their home floor to County Prep, but Monday’s game against Ferris gave St. Mary’s a fresh start and a chance to prove itself against the big boys.

It was an opportunity that was not lost on the Ramblers who opened the game with an 8-0 run and never looked back.

The Ramblers shot the ball well and put together a dominant performance on the glass. Edgar Garcia and Miguel Aviles combined for 31 points and St. Mary’s outrebounded a more athletic Ferris squad by a whopping 42-19 margin en route to its first win of the season, 64-35, at Ferris High School.

“I thought we were much more patient on offense and way more effective on the boards then we were against County Prep,” said St. Mary’s head coach Tom LaLicato. “We didn’t rush our shots tonight and because we moved the ball around, we got better looks at the basket.”

Garcia and Aviles each hit three-pointers to give the Ramblers an 8-0 lead less than two minutes into the game. It was a bad start for a Ferris team that won its opener last Friday, and it was never able to get on track. The lead was seven when St. Mary’s used another 8-0 run capped by a Garcia conventional three-point play to push the lead up to 15 before Ferris trimmed it to 11 by halftime.

On the first possession of the second half, Keith Benthall nailed a rainbow three-pointer to pull Ferris within eight, 29-21. But Aviles answered on the other end for the Ramblers, and they led by double-digits the rest of the way, mainly because the Bulldogs never attacked St. Mary’s 1-3-1 zone and continued to settle for long three-point shots. That allowed St. Mary’s to control the glass, so much so that St. Mary’s 5-6 point guard Fransua Garcia grabbed a career-high six rebounds, which was more than any Ferris player pulled down.

“When we play defense and grab rebounds like we did today, that gets us pumped up,” said Miguel Aviles, a junior guard. “After getting beat by County Prep, we wanted to come out and make a statement today. We had to do all the little things right and we had to hit our open shots.”

The unsung player for St. Mary’s (1-1) was junior forward Isiah Miles. He quietly had a double-double with a game-high 13 rebounds and 10 points. Aviles had 14 points, six rebounds, and three steals. Edgar Garcia led all scorers with 17 points to go with four rebounds, and four assists. Jerry Thompson pulled down 11 boards and Fransua Garcia had six rebounds and six assists. Rahmire Vaughn came off the bench to score all 11 of his points in the second half.

Khalid Jones was the only Ferris (1-1) player to score in double-figures with 13 points. Benthall battled through foul trouble all game to finish with seven points, four assists, and three steals. But the Bulldogs’ poor outside shooting was their undoing as they shot just 25 percent from the field (11 of 44).

Although wins will be hard to come by with an extremely tough schedule, St. Mary’s now has one win under its belt and hopes many others, along with some respect, are soon to follow.

“We know we are playing tougher competition this year and that only motivates us to work harder,” added Aviles. “I think teams in this league are going to underestimate us because we played in the Seglio Division last year, but that fuels us and the only way to prove them wrong is to go play hard and win the games against the bigger schools. These are the types of games where we really have to step up and leave it all on the court. That’s what we did today.”

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