March
12, 2003
March 21,
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| Brad Forrestieri (right) and Chris Rothenburger celebrating Elmwood Park's sectional title. | |
BAYONNE - It was the wrong shot at the wrong time by a player that is not normally on the floor in crunch time.
With his team nursing a five-point lead late in the fourth quarter of the North 1, Group 1 state sectional final, last thing that Elmwood Park head coach Mike Powers wanted to see was his sophomore sub Patrick Lowery, who came on when starting two guard Chris Rothenburger fouled out with 4:06 to go in the game, pull up for a 3-pointer from the wing with Park Ridge already giving away fouls.
"I was
scared. I was nervous and I thought it might be a mistake after I let it go,"
said Lowery, before adding the caveat. "But when I took that shot, I knew
it was going in, no doubt."
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| Chris Rothenburger and the rest of Elmwood Park's starting five, all scored in double digits. |
With the Elmwood Park bench yelling 'No, no, no,' as the shot went up, that same group was jumping for joy when it fell through the hoop with 2:07 left in the game, the decisive blow in the Crusaders' 74-58 win that completed an impressive run through the sectional playoffs that included wins over top-seeded Wood-Ridge in the semifinal and now No. 2 Park Ridge.
"I said 'Nice shot.' Don't ever do it again," answered Powers, when asked what he said to Lowery in the locker room. "He's a sophomore, he was open and he thought it was the right shot. He's just lucky it went in."
Lowery's shot not withstanding, there was little luck involved in the Elmwood Park (19-5) win. After the first 3:34 of the second quarter that saw seven lead changes and a tie, the Crusaders started to take control of the game with its balanced offense that left too much to defend against for Park Ridge (22-5).
The original
game plan was to pound the ball into to center Brad Forresteri, who would
then pass it back out to one of Elmwood Park's wing players, who could then
in turn find open looks from the outside. The strategy worked, and better
than expected.
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| Pierre Schmitt, won of four Owls in double figures, led Park Ridge with 16 points. |
"We have Rothenburger and Tom Brown that can shoot the 3s very well, so we thought that if we could establish Brad in the post, they would start doubling down and we could kick out for 3-pointers," said Powers. "We actually didn't need it because Brad just started eating them up inside and we kept feeding him the ball.
It was a Forresteri bucket with off a loose ball scrum that gave EP a 27-26 advantage midway through the second period, a lead the Crusaders would give back just once, and briefly, the rest of the way. Forresteri scored 12 of his game-high 20 points in the first half and his team held a 33-29 advantage at the break.
Park
Ridge stayed close through the third quarter, despite the fact that starting
point guard Jerry Carreccio picking up his fourth foul midway through, and
took its last lead on a Zach Heller tip-in that gave the Owls a 40-39 edge
with 4:39 to go in the third.
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| A Zach Heller tip-in gave Park Ridge its last lead with 3:32 to go in the third quarter. |
Elmwood Park took control with an 8-0 run that closed the third quarter and ended 3:02 into the fourth on a Sadat Safi free throw that came after Correccio (12 points) committed his fifth foul. Without its point guard, Park Ridge had trouble in the half court offense and the EP advantage grew to as many as eight, 56-48, when Lowery hit a free throw with 3:00 left on the game clock.
Park Ridge scored the next three points and seemed to have grabbed the momentum back, but then Lowery ended the suspense by making the ill advised, but ultimately successful 3-pointer. The Crusaders sealed the deal at the free throw line by hitting 17 of their 20 fourth quarter attempts and 20 of 26 in the game.
"Today
we had opportunities, but the ball just wouldn't stay down for us," said Park
Ridge head coach Pete Crandall, whose team captured the school's first league
title since 1974 by earning the BCSL-Olympic Division crown this year. "The
league title was my goal, everything else after that was gravy, but it's not
easy for the kids right now. They wanted to keep playing and you can understand
that. We won 22 games this year, I don't know if we've ever done that before,
and it's tough when a year like that comes to an end."
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| Sadat Sadafi hit five of his six fourth quarter free throws to help Elmwood Park seal the win. |
Park Ridge went out the way it played for most of the season, with a balanced offense. Pierre Schmitt led the way with 16 points, Carreccio had 12, Heller had 11 and Chris Franzese was the fourth Owl in double figures with 10.
Elmwood Park, which does not count depth as one of its strengths, put all five of its starters in double figures led by Forresteri's 20. Safi, who had just three turnovers in playing a solid game at the point, finished with 11 points, while Tom Brown, Dale Smith and Rothenburger all scored 10.
"Section Champs! I've been dreaming about this since the end of last season and we worked our [butts] off playing all year round just to get to this point," said Forrestieri. "Coach Powers is such and inspiration, he's been the caboose pushing this train all season and it's a thrill. We are looking forward to Thursday."
Thursday is the Group 1 semifinal where Elmwood Park will take on the winner of Tuesday night's North 2 final between Cedar Grove and Bloomfield Tech at Union High School in a 7:00 p.m. start.
"Right now I don't think that there is any pressure to keep winning because we did win a championship and we are definitely satisfied with that," said Powers. "But I think once we get in practice tomorrow I think it will sink in that we have another opponent coming up and I think that tomorrow it will start sinking in that we have to get back to work."
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