Wednesday, January 25, 2012

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

Stefan Mimic made three free throws with under four seconds left to give Passaic Valley a 56-53 win over Wayne Valley on Tuesday.

LITTLE FALLS – Passaic Valley boys basketball coach Rob Carcich knew this season might be an uphill climb with four new starters in the lineup and his only returning starter, Olumide Onajide, playing an entirely new position. After a 24-point drubbing at the hands of rival Wayne Valley on opening night, Carcich had to wonder if there was going to be enough time in the season to get his team to its usual status of contender in county and state tournament play.

The Hornets have had their share of ups and downs this season, from a down-to-the-wire victory over Paterson Kennedy to blowing a 16-point lead and eventually losing in overtime to Indian Hills just this past weekend. It looked like the worst of Passaic Valley would rear its ugly head again in Tuesday’s rematch with Wayne Valley when they squandered all of an 11-point fourth-quarter lead before a few timely plays in the final minute may not have saved the season just yet, but at least put the Hornets within shouting distance of where they need to be come tournament time.

After forcing a five-second violation and tying the game on an Onajide free-throw, PV’s Stefan Mimic grabbed the offensive rebound of the second miss and was eventually fouled on a three-point attempt. He hit all three free-throws with 3.8 seconds to play to gave Passaic Valley its most important win of the season, a 56-53 nailbiter over Wayne Valley in Little Falls.

Jay Mustafa was key in the 15-2 Wayne Valley run that gave the Indians a late lead.

“This was a measuring stick game for us and we survived it,” said Carcich. “You knew Wayne Valley was going to make a run in the fourth quarter and we had to respond. I thought the key was our poise under pressure situations. We kept working and kept believing that we would win even when we were down in the final minute. We always felt that opening night was an anomaly and didn’t represent who we were as a team, but you have to prove that on the court and today we did that.”

Wayne Valley grabbed a 14-12 lead on Chris Homsi’s driving layup at the buzzer to end the first quarter, but the Hornets immediately responded. Jamir Lennon nailed a three-pointer from the wing and Jake Kopf followed with a putback to cap a 15-3 spurt for a 27-17 lead. Homsi single-handedly kept the Indians within striking distance by scoring 11 points in the final 2:35 of the half to slice the Wayne Valley deficit to three, 31-28, by halftime.

Onajide has been the rock of the PV team all season and was so again throughout Tuesday’s contest. He seemed to have his hand in everything and scored when necessary. His three-pointer from the corner beat the third-quarter buzzer and put the Hornets ahead, 45-38, heading into the final eight minutes of regulation.

The Hornets were on cruise control and it looked like as if they might pull away when they stretched their lead to 11 with just over five minutes to play. But the three-point shot was kind to the Indians as both James Grevenitz and Jay Mustafa nailed long threes and center Luke Primerano scored on a conventional three-point play to quickly close the gap. After consecutive turnovers by the Hornets, the Indians got a pair of free-throws from Mustafa with just over a minute to play to cap a 15-2 run and put Wayne Valley ahead for the first time since Homsi’s buzzer-beating layup at the end of the first quarter.

Olumide Onajide finished with 21 points, 8 rebounds and 4 steals as Passaic Valley improved to 6-7.

“Even though we lost an opportunity to close out the game, we never lost our confidence,” said Onajide. “Even though we got beat pretty bad by them the first time, I think we all felt this game would be different and it was going to come down to the last possession. Wayne Valley got hot at the right time, but we kept our cool. We wanted this game bad and we had to treat every possession like it was our last.”

Wayne Valley had the ball underneath its own basket with a one-point lead and just 12.9 seconds on the clock, but the Hornets buckled down on defense and forced a five-second violation. On the inbounds play, Onajide was fouled and hit the first free-throw to tie it up. The second rimmed out, but Mimic was able to pull it down from a sea of bodies in the paint. He kicked it out and quickly received the ball back. Knowing that there was only seconds remaining, Mimic took one dribble to his left around a pick and let fly a deep three-pointer. The shot did not go in, but the referee's whistle made that a moot point.

Without any hesitation, Mimic calmly stepped to the charity stripe and knocked down all three attempts with 3.8 seconds left and Wayne Valley could only get off a desperation heave as the Hornets survived a furious rally to earn a much-needed victory.

“I never thought about just hitting the first shot, I wanted to make all three and knew that I was going to,” said Mimic. “After how we lost to them in our first game of the season, we were fired up to play them again. We have played such a tough schedule that we were prepared to handle a game like this against a really tough team. Each and every game is huge from here on out, so it feels good to get a ‘W’ here.”

Chris Homsi scored 20 points for Wayne Valley, the No. 3 seed in the upcoming Passaic County Tournament.

Onajide finished with 21 points, eight rebounds, and three steals to lead the way for Passaic Valley (6-7). Lennon and Mimic both added 12 points. Homsi scored 16 of his team-high 20 points in the first half for Wayne Valley (9-3). Mustafa finished with 15 points, while Grevenitz and Primerano each chipped in with eight.

The top two seeds to this year’s Passaic County Boys’ Tournament (No. 1 Paterson Eastside and No. 2 DePaul) have had great seasons to date, the field is as wide open this year as it's been dating back to the late 1980’s. Wayne Valley is the No. 3 seed this year and its only other two losses before Tuesday came against the aforementioned top two seeds.

Although Passaic Valley was awarded the No. 8 seed, the Hornets feel there is no reason why they can’t get hot and make a run at a title themselves. As the win over Wayne Valley proved, this is not the same team that got manhandled on opening night, but is instead a team that feels it can not only hang with, but beat the best teams in Passaic County when playing its ‘A’ game.

“We still have a lot of work to do, but we are starting to see what kind of team we are capable of becoming,” added Onajide. “We were all adjusting to new positions at first. Now we’re comfortable in our roles and because of that we’re a much better team than we were when we lost to them the first time.

“The county tournament is always tough and any team can just as easily be knocked out in the first round as they are to win the whole thing. But we’ve been working hard every day and we’re seeing the big steps forward we’ve been taking recently. We feel we have as good a chance as anyone of making a run when we’re playing at a high level.”

FOR MORE PHOTOS OF THIS EVENT OR TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT OF THIS GAME STORY, PLEASE VISIT 4FeetGrafix.com.