Sunday, February 19, 2012

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Jetor Brown scored 11 points during Eastside's 20-0 second quarter spurt that set up a 68-52 win over Kennedy in the Passaic County semifinals.

PATERSON – While Eastside ended last season with a Group 4 state championship, the first for a Passaic County public school since 1929, and a spot in the exclusive six-team Tournament of Champions field, there was one hiccup in what turned out to be a season for the ages. Last year the Ghosts were the top seed in the Passaic County Tournament only to lose the title game to none other than cross town rival Kennedy.

In the rematch on Saturday in the PCT semifinals, the first 13 minutes made it seem like history had a chance to repeat itself as Kennedy opened a seven-point lead in front of a near capacity crowd on its own home court. But instead, it was a different pattern that put itself on a loop, a pattern that saw Eastside continually create turnovers and turn them into easy baskets. Down 20-13 midway through the second quarter, Eastside ran off 20 straight points in the span of 4:44 to open a double-digit lead of its own by halftime on the way to a 68-52 win and the county final where it will play second seeded DePaul next Saturday at Wayne Valley High School.

“Man, I didn't even realize that. I knew we were playing good defense, but I didn't realize it was that good,” said Eastside head coach Juan Griles after being told of his team's 20-0 run. “The last three or four games we have been playing great man-to-man defense and a couple of times a game we have gone on 8-0, 10-0 runs, but 20-0 against a team like Kennedy? I wasn't expecting that.”

Sammy Singletary helped Kennedy forge an early 20-13 lead.

No one was really expecting it as Kennedy got off to a quick start with Sammy Singletary getting into the lane, scoring and setting up his teammates. Five straight points by Gary Simpson, the last three on a three-pointer from the wing, gave Kennedy its first lead of the game at 9-8 and Hassan Towns' jumper from the corner gave the Knights a 14-10 lead after the first quarter.

Towns' 12-footer followed by Sy'Quese Clyburn's basket off an interior feed by Simpson gave Kennedy a 20-13 lead with 4:49 left in the first half. And then things changed in a hurry.

Kyre Jackson scored an easy basket of an inbounds play to kick off Eastside's game-changing spurt as Kennedy was caught off guard as it did not even take a single timeout as the Ghosts tightened the defensive screws. Jetor Brown's three-pointer from the corner gave Eastside the lead for good at 22-20 with 2:07 left in the first half and Jackson then accounted for the next seven points. He hit the offensive glass for a putback and made the free throw that came as a bonus, he followed up a miss on the fastbreak, drew a charge on one end of the floor and then hustled to the other end to make the basket that gave the Ghosts a 29-20 lead. Brown scored the final four points of the first half to give Eastside a 33-20 lead at the break.

Deandre Noble-Haywood scored 10 third quarter points as Eastside put the game away.

“We just had to stay true on defense; no gambling. We just had to play hard out there and win this game with heart,” said Jackson, who scored 11 first half points, 9 of them in the second quarter. “I love the Eastside/Kennedy rivalry and we always want to play hard against them, but we just try to stay humble and not get to caught up in it. We just want to play basketball the best way we can and we did that in the second quarter. It didn't matter that it was Kennedy on the other side.

Kennedy (12-11) did get back to within 10 points when Donte Wise hit a three-pointer to open the third quarter, but Eastside's top scorer, Deandre Noble-Haywood, had not even heated up yet. Noble-Haywood was held to just three first half points, but the third quarter was a different story. He made five third quarter field goals working from the high post and then diving hard to the basket. His four straight points on back-to-back-possessions gave Eastside a 43-32 lead with 1:55 in the third quarter and Kennedy never got back within single digits.

“I only had three points in the first half, I was in foul trouble and I barely even got to play, but my team stepped up tremendously. They set me up in the second half, they put me at the free throw line and everything opened up. It was easy buckets from there,” said Noble-Haywood. “We took the life out of them in the second quarter when we kept getting steals and then they started taking bad shots when they fell behind. We just stayed smart, ran our offensive and played our game. That was how we won this game.”

Hassan Towns and Kennedy fell to 12-11 on the season.

The win means that Eastside (20-2) is one win away from a county championship as the No. 1 and No. 2 seed made it into the final and Griles knows that DePaul is going to be a formidable opponent. But having been through a magical postseason run last season, he is also starting to get that feeling that the Ghosts are really putting it all together.

“Since we lost that game [to Kennedy] in the county final last year, we have only lost three times. Once in the T of C, and twice this year, to Seton Hall Prep and Teaneck, two Top 5 teams. That shows that we learned a lot of that loss and it also shows what this team is capable of,” said Griles. “I was a little worried that we might have peaked a little too early this year, but when I look at it I see that we've played consistent basketball all year and we have gotten better and better along the way. We don't have to do anything different against DePaul than what we have done all season. We have to play smart, limit our turnovers and get good shots. We have enough skill players and guys down low to, hopefully, offset their offensive rebounding. That is the key to their team, we know that and we have to be ready for it.”

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