Friday,
March 11, 2011
By Cory Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
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Joel Hernandez made a 3-pointer with 2 seconds left an put Teaneck in a position to tie before it fell to Plainfield, 62-60, in the Group 3 semifinals at East Orange Campus. |
EAST ORANGE – Teaneck never gave up, but the situation was more than dire. Having been nearly blown out on a couple of occasions in the Group 3 state semifinals on Thursday night at East Orange Campus High School, Teaneck had spent just about all of its resources to get as close as two points in the closing seconds. When Joel Hernandez made a three-pointer from the corner, it looked like little more than a footnote to the official record, going down as the last shot the Highwaymen took in a remarkable season.
Still ahead by two points when Hernandez’s shot fell through the hoop, Plainfield needed only to inbound the ball after Teaneck used its final timeout. If the Cardinals could get the ball back in play, the game would have been over because, even if Teaneck would have been able to give a foul, Plainfield would have had two free throws to officially ice the game or, even if it missed, Teaneck's last hope was likely to have been nothing better than an 80-foot heave.
But Teaneck head coach Jerome Smart had one more trick up his sleeve, a classic that almost accomplished the impossible. In the final huddle, Smart called for 'The Flop', and it worked. Kris Hargraves was guarding Plainfield’s Allen Brown at the elbow and grabbed his wrist before the ball was thrown in bounds. When Brown pulled himself free, Hargraves hit the deck and fooled one of the two referees watching the action.
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Plainfield's Allen Brown was an unwitting participant in the shell game that almost drew Teaneck all even in the final seconds. |
The ref closest to the ball seemed to recognize the trickery, but the other, stationed on the opposite sideline, bought the ploy. He whistled Brown for a foul that not only resulted in a change of possession, but it also gave Teaneck a trip to the foul line from where, by hitting both ends of a one-and-one, it could force overtime.
“We weren’t in that position too often this year [to use that ploy], but that is something, after years of coaching, you may have to pull out and maybe a ref goes for it. And he did,” said Smart. “I would have loved to see the kid make the free throws and go to overtime.”
Unfortunately for the Highwaymen, there was no happy ending. The first free throw bounced off the left side of the rim and time finally ran out on Teaneck’s 28-game winning streak and Plainfield’s 62-60 win.
The Cardinals advanced to the Group 3 state final where they will play Central Jersey champion Burlington Township and no one was happier about it than Brown, who was nearly forced into the role of goat when the official fell for one of the oldest tricks in the book.
He explains in detail:
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Chris Jones scored a team-high 14 points for Teaneck. |
“The play was designed for me to go screen for my teammate Sekou [Harris] and he was going to come down off the screen. Well, I am standing there waiting to go set the screen when Dijon [Allen-Jordan] hits the ball [to start the play],” said Brown. “The guy on the other team was holding my hand and I tried to step back. When I released from his grip…he falls. It could go either way, I guess, but I know for a fact in my heart that I just backed up because he was clutching my wrist and the ref said that he fell and I pushed him.”
So how did Brown feel when he had to endure Teaneck’s do-or-die trip to the free throw line?
“Honestly, what went through my mind was my senior year was ruined and it was all my fault,” said Brown. “My senior year was about to be ruined, but luckily he missed that free throw. They knew that we were anxious to get the ball in and hold on to it, so I guess they figured that somebody might push off and I guess that I was that dummy that pushed off. It was ridiculous, I was stunned.”
Almost as stunning was that Teaneck was even in a position to make the last two seconds matter. The Highwaymen, the Bergen County champion and North 1, Group 3 state sectional champion, picked the wrong time to have an off night shooting the basketball, especially against Plainfield’s zone that was active from the start. The Cardinals, crushing on the offensive glass and using its defense through turnovers and blocked shots to ignite numerous fastbreak opportunities, took a 16-9 lead after the first quarter and a 28-19 lead at halftime. When Allen-Jordan swept across the lane and flipped in an off balance shot over two Teaneck defenders to give Plainfield a 37-21 lead 3:02 into the third quarter, it looked like one of those baskets that said the blowout had arrived.
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Plainfield point guard Sekou finished with a game-high 19. |
“The difficult part was that they had great team length. The other four guys outside of the point guard were physical,” said Smart. “When we didn’t get a steal, they would get three of four shots at the basket and that was what was killing us, the fact that we couldn’t keep them off the glass.”
Fouls were piling up for the Highwaymen and they were struggling to make outside shots, but pressed on and got back in the game. Shaakir Lindsey’s two free throws cut the deficit to 10 at 41-31, and they finally got some jumpers to drop inside the final minute of the third quarter. DeQuan Russ hit a 3-pointer from the corner to get Teaneck to within 45-37 and Hernandez’s contested 3 from the corner with two seconds to go pulled his team to within 47-42 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Highwaymen crept to within three points when Hernandez followed home a miss to start the fourth quarter, but all of the hard work had seemingly gone for naught when Plainfield rattled off 8 of the game’s next 9 points to go back in front by 10, 55-45, with 3:02 to play.
The deficit was seven points at 58-51 with 1:33 left before Teaneck got off the deck again. A Lindsey 3-pointer got it started and the Highwaymen were helped when Plainfield missed half of its next six free throws. With 20 seconds left, Jones hit a 3 from the corner to pull Teaneck to within 51-47 and, after another 1 of 2 Cardinal trip to the line, Hernandez hit the 3-pointer from the corner with two seconds left on the clock.
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Shaakir Lindsey and Teaneck finished at 28-3. |
That led to the whacky turn of events surrounding the hoodwinked referee, but when all was said and done, Teaneck was two points short of extending its season at least into an overtime period.
Plainfield was led by Harris’ 19 points followed by 18 from Allen-Jordan and 13 from Sears as they head into the Group 3 final with a 21-8 record.
Jones, a junior who will be one of Bergen County’s top returning players next season, led Teaneck with 14 points while Davis totaled 12 in his final high school game. Hernandez (10 points) made it three players in double figures for the Highwaymen. Lindsey added 9 points and Russ had 8 for Teaneck, which started off the season at 0-2 then ripped off 28 straight wins before finishing up at 28-3.
“We didn’t reach our ultimate goal, but I think we had a successful year. We have a lot of guys coming back next year and this was a learning experience and we know what we have to correct,” said Smart. “We’ll move forward and we will try to correct those things for the guys coming back next year.”
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