Wednesday, January 6, 2009

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Rae Corbo scored 12 of her 21 points in the third quarter as Paramus Catholic made a statement in the NBIL and in Bergen County with a 43-38 win at Ramapo on Tuesday.

FRANKLIN LAKES -- Despite sporting an impressive 4-1 record through the first five games of the season, Paramus Catholic had yet to make its mark in the NBIL. Sure the Paladins won the Golden Hawks Holiday Hoop Jam, the Holiday Tournament they entered, but their first shot an at established NBIL team, a league that they will compete in for this year only before it is disbanded, ended in a loss against Old Tappan. Their next opportunity to establish themselves came on Tuesday night on the road against Ramapo, the reigning Bergen County champion.

And this time, Paramus Catholic marked itself as the contender that many figured it would be. The Paladins never trailed after an early one-point deficit and held on the down the stretch to pull off a 43-38 win in Franklin Lakes.

“We definitely made our mark tonight. Our coaches always say that on paper we are better than all of the teams on our schedule, but we have to show it on the court. Tonight we definitely did that,” said Rae Corbo, the Paramus Catholic guard who is a senior and a four-year starter. “We took some bad shots and we started out slow, but we won, we definitely made our mark on the league and we are here to stay.”

Ramapo's Sarah Halejian scored a team-high 15 points before leaving with an ankle injury.

But if Ramapo did give up any ground to the competition, it did so reluctantly and under extenuating circumstances. Although the Green Raiders led just once in the game at 9-8, they were still within one possession after two Samantha Klie free throws with 1:04 to play in the game and they played just about all of the final quarter-and-a-half without Sarah Halejian, who topped the 1,000-point career mark last week. Halejian turned an ankle on a driving layup with 4:36 left to play in the third quarter to draw her team to within 26-24, but played only 1:25 of the remaining 12-plus minutes remaining.

Immediately after Halejian’s departure, Corbo hit a three-pointer from the top of the key, to push PC out to a five-point lead, but when Halejian returned for a final brief appearance with 1:25 left in the third, Ramapo had already drawn even with three straight points by Erin O’Hagan and an Emma Giegerich hoop inside set up by a Deanna Devonshuk bounce pass.

Corbo cleaned up a loose ball underneath and then scored off a crafty drive on the baseline to give Paramus Catholic a 33-29 lead after three quarters. Corbo hit two free throws with 6:32 to play in the game as the Paladins went up 37-31 and that was when Halejian left the court for good.

Jamie Klein made a fastbreak basket with 3:34 remaining that gave PC a 41-34 lead.

“She taped it up and said she was good to go, but we made a little run with her on the bench and I was trying to buy a couple of more minutes. I gave her a try, but she was limping and it is too early in the season,” said Ramapo head coach Sandy Gordon, speaking of Halejian. “We are just going to ice it and hope that she is ready to go on Thursday.”

It looked like PC would be able to coast home when Jamie Klein scored on the fastbreak to put her team up 41-34 with 3:34 left, but that was before turnovers on four of the next five PC possessions ended in turnovers and some ill-advised fouls left Ramapo hanging around.

“We have a lot of work to do. Because we like to push the ball and we are up-tempo, we threw the ball away five too many times in critical points of the game,” said PC head coach Al Roth. “We had opportunities to expand it [the lead], but we capitalize on that. We have to do a better job of taking care of the ball in the half court.”

Deanna Devonshuk hit two of three free throw attempts with 3:01 left and Klie made both ends of a one-and-one with 1:04 to go to get Ramapo within 41-38, but the Green Raiders were one big shot away from really applying the pressure.

Deanna Devonshuk finished with 7 points for Ramapo, which fell to 3-2 with the loss.

A well executed inbounds play from the left side line gave Paramus Catholic the hoop that turned into the one that sealed the game. Klein threw a lob to Corbo, who had looped around the back side of the defense, and she then dished to Cassidy Moore for an easy basket inside that put PC up 43-38 with 48 seconds to play.

“Early on we missed some easy shots. A few missed layups here, a few missed foul shots there and that is the ball game,” said Gordon. “The mistakes that we made late in the game with turnovers are glaring, but the ones that we missed early…those points add up and we have to make foul shots. We had our chances.”

Ramapo was 8 of 12 from the line in the first half and 16 of 25 for the game, while Paramus Catholic could have made its life easier by making a couple of more of its free throw attempts. The Paladins shot 7 of 15 from the line in the first half and 11 of 21 in the game.

What Paramus Catholic did well throughout was play defense as it allowed four first half field goals, just one in the second quarter, and contested just about every shot. The Paladins also held Ramapo without a three-pointer in the game.

Alyssa Sellino provided some quality minutes off the bench for PC, which improved to 5-1.

“It’s three words: defense, defense, defense. We certainly made a statement, but the fun part of this is that we get to do this again. We play each other twice and I love that. That is how it used to be way back in the NNJIL,” said Roth, whose team improved to 5-1. “But we can’t go home and celebrate. It’s back to school tomorrow, it’s back to practice tomorrow and then get on the bus and go to Pascack Valley on Thursday for a four o’clock game, which is always interesting.”

Corbo led all scorers with 21 points and she was just about unstoppable in the third quarter when she nailed two three-pointers and scored 12 points. Lauren Milligan finished with 6 points, Najah Chambers had 5 and Moore and Jenn Salomon, who provided quality minutes off the bench, each chipped in with four points.

Halejian (15 points), who was honored before the game for surpassing the 1,000 career point milestone, was the only Green Raider to finish in double digits, while Devonshuk scored 7, five of them from the free throw line. Sophomore Casey Woetzel and junior Erin O’Hagan each scored 5 points off the bench, Klie scored all four of her points in the fourth quarter and Emma Giegerich made a field goal for Ramapo, which fell to 3-2 and hopes to have Halejian back in time for Thursday’s game against Pascack Hills.

“Defensively I couldn’t have asked for anything more. Corbo hit some tough shots and that is going to happen because she is that type of player, but we switched to the man-to-man late and forced four or five straight turnovers. But we didn’t do anything on the offensive end,” said Gordon. “We are still early in the season, we are a work in progress and we can’t feel sorry for ourselves because we have to play again on Thursday and, as we know, every game is tough.”

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