Friday,
January 22, 2016
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
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Ramsey point guard Mike Cirilli scored in double figures and made sure the other four starters did the same in the Rams' 80-57 win at Passaic Valley. |
LITTLE FALLS – The current senior class has led the Ramsey boys basketball program back from oblivion. After a number of rough years, the Rams had one of the best seasons in school history last year as they made the Bergen County Jamboree for the first time since 2000, won a game in it and then gave Teaneck a run before bowing out in the Round of 16. Then it was on to the North 1, Group 2 where Ramsey played a classic section final before losing to Manchester. Ramsey was 25-3 last year and now, with four of its five starters being experienced seniors, the success had carried right over into 2016.
Ramsey has not lost a game to a North Jersey opponent yet and it improved its overall record to 11-1 on Thursday night with a comfortable 80-57 win over Passaic Valley in Little Falls.
“I thought we played great right from the start on both ends of the floor. Our press bothered them and we did a great job on the boards, both ends,” said Ramsey head coach Kevin MacGuire. “I am very happy because for us this is a new place, a new environment, a bigger school compared to us and we came in and played really well.”
It was a quiet gym against an unfamiliar opponent, but Ramsey brought its own energy and opened its first double-digit lead just 6:53 into the game. Passaic Valley’s Ty Belton put-back gave the home team the first points of the game, but it was all Ramsey after that. Sean Kopezynski scored four straight points to put Ramsey in front for good. Christian Tesoriero and Jack Gaffney hit back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Rams a 15-5 advantage.
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Passaic Valley's Tito Ramirez hit seven second half 3-pointers and finished with a game-high 25 points. |
While Ramsey was pulling away, the fouls were piling up for Passaic Valley. Bilal Abassi picked up his third on a charge just 1:11 into the second quarter and Ramsey got into the bonus three minutes later. Each team shot 8 free throws in the second quarter, but the disparity would grow after the first half, which ended with Ramsey ahead 34-18.
Passaic Valley’s Spencer Perezly fouled out just 1:17 into the third quarter right in the middle of a 5-0 Ramsey run to start the half and Christian Tesoriero’s 3-pointer from the corner put the Rams up by 20-plus for the first time at 42-20, Tesoriero scored in transition off a feed from Joey Carroll to make it 50-25 and Kopezynski’s bucket off a feed from Mike Cirilli gave the Rams their largest lead, 55-28, with 2:28 left in the third.
Cirilli, the senior point guard, a four-year varsity starter in hoops and a three-sport athlete, ran the show seamlessly. He got the ball to the right players in the right spots, dealt with PV’s on the ball pressure and could not have distributed the points any more evenly. All 80 of Ramsey’s points came from the starting five and all five of them finished in double figures within five points of each other. Carroll finished with 18, Kopezynski had 17, Gaffney and Cirilli each had 16 and Tesoriero had 13.
“Right from the first quarter when we went on the early run and they called time out and got screamed at by their coach, I knew we were in good shape. We were not intimidated coming in here. We wanted them to start yelling at each other and we wanted to force them to play our game,” said Cirilli, who is leaning toward playing baseball in college. “Even before the season we had together last year, even before high school, I have played with a lot of these guys all my life. This is our last season together, we have good chemistry and we want to go as far as we can together this last time.”
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Senior Jack Gaffney finished with 16 points for Ramsey, which improved to
11-1 on the season. |
Because Ramsey was the aggressor, because it attacked the glass, because it was the team constantly on the front foot, and because Passaic Valley was reduced to basically taking jump shots off the dribble, the foul differential was decidedly in the Rams’ favor and it got a little ugly in the fourth quarter. Ramsey shot 27 free throws in the second half (22 in the fourth quarter) to just 10 for the Hornets in the game. Cirilli went 8 of 10 from the stripe in the fourth quarter and 12 for 14 in the game. Ramsey was 26 of 37 from the line as a team.
It was more than enough to offset the ridiculous second half shooting display by Passaic Valley’s Tito Ramirez, who had been limited to just four first half points. The senior hit three third quarter 3-pointers and then made four more in the fourth, one seemingly from a step or two deeper from the one that came before. Ramirez finished with a game-high 25 and impressed the head coach on the opposing bench.
“We were wondering what defense we could switch into to try to stop him,” said MacGuire, “because we don’t really have one designed to stop a guy who is making shot after shot by pulling up from the volleyball line.”
Jihad Wright, Passaic Valley’s senior 1,000-point scorer, finished with 14 points. Belton had 7, Dylan Mulroony added 6 and Nick Melograno scored all 5 of his points in the fourth quarter for the Hornets, the No. 6 seed in the recently announced Passaic County Tournament bracket who fell to 6-6 on the season.
Ramsey is polishing its Jambo resume with another win over a quality team on the road. The Rams will be a Top 10 seed and have the kind of ability and experience that will make them a tough out, even against the big boys.
“You see us come out here, get up by a lot of points early, playing well, sharing the ball and really getting after it on defense, I like where we are at right now,” said MacGuire. “As far the Jambo goes, the committee does a great job with the seedings and they will put us in the right spot. We are playing for and we have been playing for, especially since we got back from the holiday break, as good a Jambo seed as we can get as a point of pride and as good a state sectional seed as we can get as a point of pride also. I couldn’t be prouder of these guys today…what an effort.”
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