Monday, January 30, 2012

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

Nadi Beciri, Bergen Catholic's 6-foot-7 center, finished with 16 points and 15 rebounds as the Crusaders cruised past Ridgefield, 73-39, in the opening round of the Jamboree.

ORADELL – Before Saturday’s first-round Bergen County Jamboree game between Bergen Catholic and Ridgefield even started, it took just a simple glance toward the court to see who had a chance to make the biggest impact. Against an undersized Ridgefield squad, Bergen Catholic’s 6-foot-7 canter Nadi Beciri was far and away the biggest player on the floor. With a defense designed to slow him down, Beciri knew he had to raise his game right from the get-go and set the tone to ensure that any thoughts of an upset went out the window early.

Beciri used his size and brute strength to his advantage, scoring 10 of his game-high 16 points in the first quarter as 13th seeded Bergen Catholic took control early and never looked back in a 73-39 victory over Ridgefield, the No. 20 seed, at Bergen Catholic High School.

“You always want to get off to a good start and we did that by playing smart,” said Beciri. “I thought we used our size well and we focused on attacking the glass early and getting offensive rebounds.”

Wilmer Cedeno scored on a jumper for the first basket of the game and it gave Ridgefield its only lead. Bergen Catholic got the ball into Beciri and he consistently delivered, scoring all five of his first-quarter field goals within six feet of the basket during an 18-3 spurt.

“I knew when I got the ball inside, I had to be aggressive and go right to the basket,” added Beciri. “If they kept one man on me, I just went up with it and crashed the boards. If they double-teamed me, I could see over their defense to pass out of it to an open man. I thought we played pretty well today and every day we’re getting better.”

Rudy Chavez had a team-high 13 points for Ridgefield, which fell to 11-6 on the season.

The Royals got a 27-footer from Rudy Chavez to beat the first-quarter buzzer and cut the lead down to seven. They were able to hang around for a while only down 12 at the half and still down by that much midway through the third quarter before the Crusaders pulled away.

Beciri scored again inside and Chuck Wingate scored on a driving layup to kickstart a 12-2 burst that broke the game open late in the third quarter. Beciri also pulled down 15 rebounds for Bergen Catholic (9-6). Chavez led Ridgefield (11-6) with 13 points. Wilson Mateo and Cedeno each added 10 points.

Bergen Catholic moves into the Jambo’s Round of 16 next week where they will face New Jersey’s highest-scoring team and the Jamboree’s No. 4 seed in undefeated Wood-Ridge. While that is a test in of itself, it is only the last of three tough games this week that will provide a measuring stick of just how good the Crusaders are and how much work they need to do in to improve.

“Honestly, we can’t even think about Wood-Ridge yet because we have Don Bosco on Tuesday and Paterson Kennedy on Thursday,” said Bergen Catholic’s first-year head coach Billy Armstrong. “All three of those games will provide different challenges and it will test us in different ways. We’re just trying to improve every day and keep progressing both as individuals and as a team. When we run our sets, get good shots, and attack the glass the way we did today, we know we’re capable winning. Nadi really set the tone with that for us today. Doing that against the three teams we face this week will be a tougher test, but it will tell us a lot about our team one way or the other.”

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