Friday, January 20, 2012

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Dan Brogan scored a game-high 24 points for Old Tappan, which improved to 10-0 on the season with a 61-57 win at St. Joseph Regional.

MONTVALE – It was an interested matchup even if the won/loss record of the two teams did not reflect it. Playing against one of the toughest schedules in North Jersey through the first month of the season, St. Joseph Regional has been in most of the games it has played, but not been able to finish them. Northern Valley/Old Tappan, on the other hand, has not found its slate of games to be nearly as challenging and, with just one senior in its starting line up, is an undefeated surprise pushing for a seed near the top of the Bergen County Jamboree when the field is selected next week.

In some ways, Old Tappan still had something to prove on the road against a perennial parochial powerhouse, even if that powerhouse is in the midst of a rare down season.

“We knew that we were in for a war because St. Joe's has played [Don] Bosco tough for three quarters, they played Bergen [Catholic] tough, they played DePaul tough,” said Old Tappan head coach Dennis Rossi. “We weren't fooled by their record, we knew what we were up against.”

Old Tappan was up against an eight-point deficit early in the fourth quarter, but like the Golden Knights have done all season, they found away to win a game. Minus an offensive option in starting forward Khalil Whitney, Old Tappan ran just about everything through Dan Brogan and the senior delivered. He scored nine of his game-high 24 points in the fourth quarter as Old Tappan closed the game on a 15-4 run and improved to 10-0 on the season with a 61-57 win in Montvale on Thursday night.

Junior Patrick Mensah, a transfer who just became eligible after transferring, scored a team-high 22 for St. Joseph.

“This is a big week for us with the Jambo seeding coming up. This was a big win for us, we have Tenafly on Saturday and they are another good team and we are just trying to go one at at time,” said Brogan, a 6-foot-6 center who is being recruited by William Paterson, Montclair State, University of Scranton and others. “To be honest, I don't know if I thought we would win our first 10 games and be undefeated, but I did think we would be a very good team. It's definitely been fun so far.”

Brogan has turned into an impossible matchup for a defense. He is a true back-to-the-basket post player, a crafty offensive rebounder and finisher from in close, but he has shown the ability to step out an make the 15-17 foot jumper. He scored 10 first quarter points to help Old Tappan get off to a quick start as it scored 12 of the game's first 16 points, but SJR rebounded to tie the game at 20 after one period and took its first lead when Patrick Mensah hit a three-pointer and converted an old-fashioned three-point play on consecutive possessions to put the Green Knights up 26-21.

St. Joe's led for all but 1:24 of the middle two quarters. Terrence McNeil, who converted two steals into open floor dunks in the game, scored 16 of his 18 points in the first half and his personal 7-2 run to close the second quarter gave SJR a 36-29 lead at the break.

Mensah, a junior point guard, who recently became eligible after serving the 30-day transfer penalty after coming to SJR from Clarkstown North (NY), scored the last four points of the third quarter to put the Green Knights up, 49-44 and he opened the fourth quarter with a three-point play to stretch the SJR lead to eight points with 7:33 left in the game. When Mensah was fouled less than a minute later and made one of two free throws, St. Joseph had a 53-46 lead and Old Tappan's Ben Davis, who took Whitney's place in the starting lineup, was sent to the bench with his fifth foul.

Ben Davis was one of three Old Tappan players to finish with 9 points.

But instead of that being the turning point in SJR favor, it was the opposite. Junior Liam Barry, who played in the JV game earlier in the night, came off the NV/OT bench to provide quality minutes on the defensive end, and it was Old Tappan that took over down the stretch, holding St. Joseph to just four points over the final 6:47 of the game.

“We got off to shaky start, but we responded really well and really there was a long stretch there where we controlled the game. We did what we wanted to do except executing actually putting the ball in the basket,” said SJR head coach Mike Doherty. “We shot poorly from the free throw line, that has been one of our challenges all year. We had a few critical plays that we weren't able to finish on layups and there is no replacement for playing in these nip-and-tuck games, but until you finish one off and get that feeling of actually doing it, it continues to be a burden that we have to find a way to battle through.”

Old Tappan had the burden of coming from behind down the stretch and Brogan was the guy. After Dan Jablonski hit a key three-pointer with 6:00 left that cut the deficit to 53-50, Brogan scored inside to make it a one-point game with 3:42 left, he answered a free throw from SJR's Mike Jurzynski with one of his own to keep it a one-point game and Troy McLaughlin made a free throw to finally pull Old Tappan all even at 54 with 1:05 to play.

In the final minute, Brogan scored off the offensive glass, to give Old Tappan the lead for good, he made two free throws with 26 seconds left to extend that lead to four points and then drew a charge on SJR's next possession that pretty much sealed the win. McLaughlin's two free throws with 19 seconds left made it 60-54 and Old Tappan hung on for its 10th win in as many games this season while SJR fell to 2-11.

Terrence McNair scored 16 of his 18 points in the first half for St. Joseph.

“The kid Brogan was awesome. He was really tremendous and he stepped up an all facets. He knocked down shots, he rebounded and he drew that late charge. That was a big play in the game,” said Doherty. “We were physically over-matched by him. I thought our guy Mike Jurzynski, just a sophomore, really battled and did the best he could, but Brogan was, without a doubt, the difference in the game.”

Brogan was the lone Old Tappan player to finish in double figures as he piled up 24 points, but the Golden Knights got just enough from everybody else to keep the defense honest. McLaughlin, Davis and Travis Procida all finished with 9 points, Jablonski added 5, Mason Vialonga made a 3-pointer and Barry made two free throws in his extended minutes in the fourth quarter.

“We are starting to find our roles right now and my job was to come off the bench when coach needed me after Davis fouled out and I did whatever I could. For me on this team, I just have to be ready whenever I am needed,” said Barry, a junior. “We have gotten to 10-0 by just playing together as a team.”

Mensah (22 points) led three St. Joseph starters in double figures as McNair scored 18 and Jurzynski added 10, but the Green Knights got just three field goals and a free throw from the rest of its players. While Old Tappan is in position for a top three or four seed in the Jambo, St. Joseph, which won the Jambo title under Doherty in 2005 and went to the final in '09 and '10, finds itself in an unfamiliar position at the midway point of this season.

“When things are going well sometimes you get fortunate, you get some rolls your way and when you make a mistake or a mental error the other team doesn't capitalize it. It seems that in every single game this season, whenever we make an error it has cost us every time,” said Doherty. “It's tough on me, it has been really tough on the kids, but I have to give them credit because they are sticking together and we are getting better. Outside of basketball it is a tremendous learning experience about perseverance. As I told them tonight, our season is only half over. We have a tough road ahead against a schedule that continues to be tough, but what a great opportunity to get some wins against the best.”

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