Monday, February 6, 2012

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

Kyle Hioki made 3 of his 4 first half three-point attempts and finished with a career-high 16 points for Tenafly, which made the Jambo quarterfinals with a 51-47 win over Ridgewood.

TENAFLY – As the first half came to a close in Sunday’s Bergen County Jamboree Round of 16 game between Tenafly and Ridgewood, it looked like everything was breaking Tenafly’s way. The Tigers had the lead, senior point guard Chris Orozco controlled the tempo and Ridgewood’s leading inside presence, Alex Cohen, went down with a shoulder injury. But all that changed in the second half when Ridgewood came storming out of the locker room to grab a five-point lead on the Tenafly's home floor.

Despite the pressure of each possession throughout the fourth quarter, the Tigers never wilted and figured they would find a way to win in the end. Thanks to some clutch free-throw shooting, they did just that.

Tenafly went 9 of 10 from the line in the final three minutes of regulation and Steve Sobo’s jumper with 1:57 to play put the fifth-seeded Tigers ahead to stay on the way to a hard-fought 51-47 victory over 12th seeded Ridgewood at Tenafly High School.

“We showed the kind of fight today that you need to win a game in the Jambo,” said Tenafly head coach Joe Finizio. “I thought our defensive effort was solid for most of the game, we just had to keep them off the boards. I think having been in so many close games this year really helped us today. We never got rattled when things got tight and we just kept playing our game.”

Ridgewood point guard Stefan Sengun finished with 14 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists.

Cohen missed the early part of the season with an injury for Ridgewood and his return was more than coincidental with the Maroons' frantic run just to get into the Jambo. He single-handedly kept his team in the game early with eight first-quarter points. But diving after a loose ball, he appeared to possibly dislocate his shoulder and did not return to action. Cohen's early offensive success was offset by the hot shooting of Tenafly's Kyle Hioki, who made 3 of his 4 three-point attempts in the first half and the Tigers grabbed a 25-22 halftime lead.

Ridgewood quickly caught up in the second half as Evan Bartlik hit a three-pointer and point guard Stefan Sengun added one of his own to put the Maroons up 36-33. They pushed the lead to five, 38-33, early in the fourth before Hioki tied the game at 38 with his fifth three-pointer of the game.

“When I hit my first shot, I got in a rhythm and I wanted to stay in it,” said Hioki, who went 5 of 8 from three-point range. “Chris (Orozco) gets a lot of attention from the other team’s defense, so that gives the other guys some room to get open. Even when it was close, we weren’t nervous. We knew we would hit shots and find a way to win.”

Orozco, well known for four years as Bergen County’s best free-throw shooter, hit a pair to give Tenafly the lead, but Sengun responded by weaving through traffic and scoring on a nifty left-handed layup to tie the game. The Tigers answered right back with Sobo knocking down an elbow jumper with 1:57 to play to put Tenafly ahead to stay, 44-42. It was at the line where the Tigers sealed it as Sobo and Orozco each hit both ends of one-and-one trips in the final 1:10, and Yaniv Cohen’s free-throw with 5.7 seconds left finally put away the pesky Maroons.

Orozco finished with 20 points, nine rebounds, and five assists for Tenafly, which will play BC in the Round of 8 next Sunday.

Orozco finished with 20 points, nine rebounds, and five assists for Tenafly (15-3). Hioki added a career-high 16 points. Sengun finished with 14 points, five rebounds, and four assists to lead Ridgewood (11-7). Bartlik added 13 points and Cohen had eight in just 11 minutes of action.

Tenafly moves into the quarterfinals next Sunday where it will square off against 13th-seeded Bergen Catholic. That game will be played at Ramapo College at 5:00 P.M. While Tenafly is the much higher seed, it will go into the game as the perceived underdog because of the schedule Bergen Catholic faces year in and year out. The Tigers ramped up their schedule a bit this year, though, and it has showed with 10 of their 18 games being decided in the final minutes or in overtime. With that experience already this season, the Tigers feel as if they are prepared to handle any situation whether it is the first possession of the game or the last.

“Bergen Catholic is going to be a challenge, but we’re excited about the opportunity,” said Orozco, who is headed the University of New Hampshire next year. “Ridgewood is a real good team and they threw some surprises at us today that we weren’t expecting. But we kept our composure when they got hot and adjusted our game plan. We’ve played a tough schedule and we’ve been in a lot of close games. So no matter who we play, we’re not going to back down and we’re confident that when the game is on the line, we’ll find a way to get the job done.”

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