Sunday, February 12, 2012

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Ky Hester and second-seeded DePaul advanced to the semifinals of the Passaic County Tournament with a 54-40 win over West Milford on Saturday.

PATERSON – In the first regular season meeting between the two teams, DePaul forced the tempo in its favor and won by a whopping 57 points. The next time around, West Milford succeeded in slowing the pace and recorded a 12-point victory setting up Saturday's rubber match with the winner moving on to the Final 4 in the Passaic County Tournament. The deciding game went to the extremes of the first two as DePaul flourished in the open court when it could find room and when West Milford tried to pull in the reigns, the game slowed to a standstill, literally.

DePaul took the lead for good 1:56 into the game and West Milford spent the the last 30 minutes trying to figure out a tactic that could muster up enough possessions for a comeback without giving DePaul the opportunity to run. The first three quarters all ended with West Milford in a zone, DePaul holding the ball near midcourt and waiting for the clock to hit 10 seconds before playing for a final shot.

The final two minutes of the first half consisted of 1:50 of Davon Jacobs standing at the base of the halfcourt circle with the ball in his hands and no five second count forthcoming. DePaul led 22-13 at the break, 33-26 after the third quarter and there was little suspense in the Spartans' 54-40 win on Saturday at John F. Kennedy High School in Paterson.

West Milford's Luke Basket showed off his unlimited 3-point range and finished with 12 points, all from behind the arc.

“Our defense is our bread and butter. We don't shoot well and if we don't play defense, we are in trouble,” said DePaul head coach Bart Fazio. “We had kids in foul trouble in the first half, we weren't exactly lighting up the scoreboard with shots or really making any and were living on transition. Our best foul shooters weren't making any, so when we went up nine and pulled the ball out going into halftime, we were happy.”

The two teams are the definition of a contrast in styles. West Milford, which has 6-foot-6 center John Quazza, wants to pound the ball into the post on every possession, while DePaul uses Davon Jacobs, at 5-foot-10, as its center and he has the ball-handling skills of a point guard. Going straight man would have left West Milford susceptible to any of its defenders being taken off the dribble, while sitting in a zone would have meant long DePaul possessions, cutting the time available for a comeback.

“We played zone against them 11 days ago and it didn't work. We couldn't rebound out off it and Jacobs had 1 offense rebounds against us and we won the game. They just couldn't hit a shot. The farthest shot they made was an 8-footer by Ky Hester. We charted it,” said West Milford head coach John Finke. “I thought the spot where we gave points away was on offense. We didn't execute until the end when it was already a 10 or 12 point game. We started feeding the post and cutting off it and that is how we like to play; inside out. “

Davon Jacobs and DePaul will play Hawthorne Christian in the Final 4.

West Milford (10-11) did sneak to within single digits at 37-28 when Quazza scored inside with 6:34 to play, but Josh Marquez went down the other end and hit a runner moving across the lane to his left to push the DePaul lead back into double digits, where it remained for the rest of the game.

Second-seeded DePaul now moves on into what turned into the parochial side of the county tournament bracket as next up is sixth-seeded Hawthorne Christian Academy, which upset No. 3 Wayne Valley to reach the Final 4 for the first time in school history. DePaul last won the county title in 2007. The Paterson public schools, Eastside and John F. Kennedy will play for the other spot in the final.

“It's a great feeling. Whenever I was interviewed or any of us were interview at the beginning of the season we were just looking forward to February,” said Marquez. “Now we are here and we want to take full advantage of it because we don't know if we will ever be in a situation like this again.”

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