Sunday, December 27, 2009

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

St. Mary's point guard Harun Tolbert finished with 17 points, 5 assists, and 4 steals as the Gaels improved to 3-0 with a 58-36 win over Union City in the Jack Reilly Holiday Tournament.

FORT LEE – While any team can look like a world-beater when the shots are falling from all over the court, it is not until the rims act as if they have lids on them that the true character of that team is put to the test. St. Mary of Rutherford’s boys basketball team was so tested on Saturday as it shot below 30-percent in the first half against Union City and could have easily walked into locker room for halftime down double-digits. However, the Gaels made up for their offensive struggles by controlling the boards and locking down defensively.

They bided their time long enough so that when point guard Harun Tolbert and center Kyle Dadika heated up the Gaels’ did not have far to go to take control.

St. Mary used a late second-quarter run to grab the halftime lead and never gave it back, pulling away late for a 58-36 triumph over Union City in the first round of the Jack Reilly Holiday Tournament at Fort Lee High School.

“It wasn’t the prettiest win we’ve ever had here, but it’s still a win,” said St. Mary’s head coach Matt Stone. “Even when we struggled to put the ball in the basket, we kept our composure. We did a much better job in the second half of adjusting to the speed of Union City’s guards. Our offense was much more crisp in the second half. We made the extra pass and that gave us some open looks.”

After St. Mary scored the opening basket of the game, Jonathan Lara hit a three-pointer to kickstart a 9-0 run to put Union City ahead. It maintained that lead until midway through the second quarter when a layup by Andrew Spanarkel put the Gaels in front, 15-14. The teams combined to go 1 of 18 from three-point range in the first half and it was St. Mary that had the lead the break, 20-15.

“We made a little run in the first quarter, but we didn’t get much offensively after that,” said Drew Morano, Union City’s head coach, who is now piloting a program that is in the first year of the merger of Emerson (UC) and Union Hill, which combined into a single school. “This is a very inexperienced team. With some kids moving up to the varsity level and some transfers in this year, we’re pretty much learning to play together on the fly. Today we just didn’t get the job done. We’re going to get better, we just have to improve quickly and get some wins under our belt.”

The Gaels picked up their pace to begin the second half by going right at the heart of Union City’s defense. That meant a heavy dose of Tolbert penetrating the lane and either scoring or finding Dadika for some easy buckets. Each put in a basket during a 7-0 to start the second half, upping the Gaels’ lead to double-digits.

Any hopes of a comeback by the Soaring Eagles were dashed by stellar play off the bench from St. Mary’s David Capriola. He had two conventional three-point plays off of offensive rebounds and scored 12 of his career-high 14 points in the final period to help put the game away.

Dadika had 18 points and seven rebounds for St. Mary’s, which improved to 3-0. Tolbert added 17 points, five assists, and four steals.

Eury Almonte was the only Union City (1-3) player to reach double-figures with 11 points.

St. Mary moves into Jack Reilly Tournament semifinals where it will face a stern test from another undefeated team, Northern Valley/Old Tappan. It is a step up in class from what the Gaels usually see in the BCSL-National Division, but the players see it as a measuring tool of where they are at this point in the season.

“We know (Old Tappan) is a very good team, one of the better ones in Bergen County,” said Tolbert. “It’s going to be a tough game, but it’s a test we want. If we take care of the ball the way we did in the second half, we have a good shot. You just have to take it one game at a time, go out and play hard.”

TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT OF THIS GAME STORY, PLEASE VISIT 4FeetGrafix.com.