Wednesday, December 28, 2011

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Pat Greve is the new starting point guard at Pascack Valley, which stuck to the fundamentals in a 53-36 win over Ramapo at the Red Raider Classic on Tuesday afternoon.

CLIFFSIDE PARK – It's so unfancy that it almost looks fancy. It's so old school that it looks like a new idea. It is the style of play of the Pascack Valley boys basketball team and it is refreshing. The Indians look for an angle for an entry pass on every half court possession. They throw the ball into the post, pass it back out and then throw it back in after the post player reestablishes position. Big guys lead the break, little guys finish in transition and after heavy graduation losses from last year's team that reached the semifinals of the Bergen County Jamboree, Pascack Valley has shown that while players may change, the basics of winning basketball do not.

“We value the fundamentals more so than we do anything else. As we say in practice we say, “Teach the skill not the drill,” said Pascack Valley head Al Coleman. “Passing and catching is the name of the game. Everything is based on passing, catching and dribbling the basketball. If you can't do those things then you are in for a long day. Those are the things we work on every day in practice.”

Using the well-worn fundamentals, Pascack Valley improved to 3-1 on the season with a 53-36 win over Ramapo on Tuesday in the opening round of the Red Raider Classic played at Cliffside Park High School.

Ramapo's Pat O'Hagan is one of only two returning players with any varsity experience.

Pascack Valley waited out a solid start by Ramapo, which went up 9-4 on two Azoulas Gedutis (8 points) free throws, but a 7-0 run and a 3-pointer by Ryan Onderdonk that beat the first quarter buzzer gave the Indians the lead for good at 14-11. Onderdonk's bucket also kicked up a 14-2 run that ended with Glenn Scalia's fastbreak basket that put the Indians firmly in control with a 24-13 lead.

The problem that Pascack Valley presents to defenses is that it is hard to identify the Indians best offensive player. The open man gets the shot and even though the Indians don't possess tremendous size up front, they don't abandon the post as Kyle Schneider and Adam Morra take turn trying to lock defenders on their hips on the box. They pass well to open shooters if a double team comes or go hard to the basket in one-on-one situations.

“We practice getting the ball inside and if we feel the double team we kick it back out. Since we have good shooters, it makes it hard to guard everyone,” said Schneider, a junior. “We lost five good seniors from last year's team, but we learned from them, how to prepare and how to win. We knew that we had to step in, but we also have some players. It's a program, not just a one-year thing here.”

Pascack Valley led 26-18 at halftime and by 10 when Chris Jackson took a bump and made a layup for the first points of the second half. Ben Morgan's fastbreak basket off an assist from Matt Grassi got Ramapo back within double digits for the last time at 32-24 with 5:04 left to play in the third, but a transition basket by Scalia off an assist from Schneider and another Schneider assist, this time to Morra off an inbounds play, pushed the lead to 36-24 and PV was up 41-26 heading into the fourth quarter.

PV's Glenn Scalia (11 points) was the only player for either side to finish in double digits.

The final scoring line shows Pascack Valley's share-the-ball approach as Scalia (11 points) was the only Indians' starter to finish in double digits, but five other players made at least two field goals. Schneider finished with 9 points, Jackson and Mike D'Ambrosio each came off the bench to score 8 a piece, Schneider (6 points) finished with three field goals, Pat Greve (4 points) added two baskets and Onderdonk finished with 5 points. Pascack Valley got 30 points from its starters while its bench provided 23.

Last year's starting five was comprised off all seniors, but showing the depth in the program this year's starting team includes four seniors that waited their turns along with Schneider, the lone junior.

“Obviously we have the same standards as last year and we want to make it just as far,” said Greve, who has taken over for Joe DeCotiis as the starting point guard. “We want to show that last year wasn't just a fluke and that Pascack Valley is a team that you will always have to play hard against.”

Pascack Valley will play Hoboken, a 56-35 winner over host Cliffside Park in the tournament opener, for the championship on Wednesday afternoon. Although the season is just over a week old, opportunities to win trophies don't come along that often in a high school basketball season and PV is looking to repeat as champion.

Azoulas Gedutis led Ramapo with 8 points.

“We just said in the locker room, let's go out tomorrow and see if we can win some hardware. It would be nice for these guys. They have worked hard and they deserve it, so that is the first goal of the season and it would be nice if we were fortunate enough to get by Hoboken,” said Coleman, whose team opened the season with a bang by knocking off highly-regarded Tenafly. “From there it is back to concentrating on the league. There are some great teams in our league like Tenafly, Bergenfield and a much-improved Ramsey. So its one game at a time and back to the grind.”

For Ramapo, the outlook is a little different as the Green Raiders lost 12 seniors from last year's Jambo team and only have two players, Grassi and Pat O'Hagan, who got any varsity minutes a year ago. They also have a new head coach in Jim Ponchak, a Ramapo graduate, who took the job on short notice when Mickey Hunt resigned just two weeks prior to the season after a disagreement with the Board of Education.

And while the Green Raiders have struggled early in the unusual circumstance, Ponchak is happy to be back at his alma mater and he is in it for the long haul.

“It was kind of crazy the way everything happened. I was scheduled to be the JV coach at Ridgewood, but my buddy at Ridgewood, the head coach [Mike Troy], called to tell me that the head coaching job at Ramapo opened up. I called the AD [Ron Anello] the next morning, was able to get in for an interview and fortunately came out with it,” said Ponchak, who was the head coach at Fair Lawn last season and led the Cutters to the inaugural Bergen Invitational Tournament championship. “I am thrilled to be back. I played in the program in '94 and '95 when we won two state sectional titles. It's great to be back and we are young, but we are working hard, we are getting better every day and I think by the end of the year we are going to be a much different team than the one we are today.”

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