February
2, 2004
March 21,
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| Northern Highlands' Ken Fetzer (right) taking the charge on Martin Gumowski that gave the Wood-Ridge center his fourth foul of the game. | |
PARAMUS - Was it a bump from behind or was it a reach from the front? When the whistle blew with 5:08 left in the fourth quarter of a tie game between Northern Highlands and Wood-Ridge in the opening round of the Bergen County Jamboree, the question was which way was the call going to go.
A reach
in would have meant a relatively harmless foul against Wood-Ridge's Dave Stols.
But if it went the other way, it would be a game-changer. When the referee
signed the number '2' with his left hand then followed it with a '4' from
his right, it meant the worst for Wood-Ridge and the end of the day for senior
center Martin Gumowski.
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| Steven Balch had the assist on the basket that put Highlands up 51-46 late in the fourth quarter. |
All he had done to that point was score 24 of the Blue Devils' 44 points with a variety drop steps, up-and-unders and shifty moves in the paint during an entertaining battle in the middle with Northern Highlands' big guys Brian Dench and Ken Fetzer. But when Gumowski was sent to the bench by the questionable fifth foul, Northern Highlands went on a 15-5 run to end the game and escaped with a 58-49 win.
It was the 10th seeded Highlanders that earned the trip to next weekend's Round of 16 where they will take on No. 7 Ridgewood, which had a first round by.
"He (Gumowski)
is a kid that can score a lot of points, but also make his teammates a lot
better with his passing," said Northern Highlands head coach Mike Stone. "He
did that and you have to give Wood-Ridge a lot of credit. They played with
a lot of spirit and came after us."
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| Wood-Ridge's Dabne Alexander scored seven points and added four steals on the defensive end. |
Neither team did anything particularly fancy, no full court press, no gimmick defenses. Primarily it was straight up man to man, and offensively the game could have been played in a phone booth with most of the action taking place inside the painted area.
Dench
and Fetzer combined for all 12 of Northern Highlands' first quarter points
while Gumowski scored all but two of his team's points in the opening stanza
that Wood-Ridge finished leading 14-12. Highlands' Greg Betancourt (14 points,
5 assists, 4 rebounds) got hot in the second quarter, hitting two three-pointers
and scoring 10 of his 14 points to give NH a
28-25 lead at halftime.
Wood-Ridge
(10-5) was still in it at the break, but had missed some opportunities by
going 4 of 10 from the free throw line in the opening half and was trailing
by two points, 42-40, after the third quarter. Gumowski entered the fourth
quarter with three fouls and 24 points, but the game tuned on two toots of
the whistle.
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| Highlands' Greg Betancourt scored 10 of his 14 points in the second quarter. |
Matt Killen got behind the defense and took a feed from Dabne Alexander to give the Blue Devils their last lead, 44-42, and forced a Northern Highlands timeout. The Highlanders promptly turned the ball over, but on Wood-Ridge's next possession, Fetzer took a charge on Gumowski and saddled him with his fourth foul with 5:42 to go in the game.
"He was holding me on my right side, so I knew he was going for the drop step," said Fetzer, who finished with 14 points and 7 rebounds. "I just lifted my foot, he drop-stepped and I just fell over and got the call. It was definitely a charge and it was big because that kid was hurting us and I knew we had to foul him out."
And it
happened 34 seconds later when Gumowski was battling for position on the defensive
end against Fetzer, who knocked down both ends of the one-and-one after the
ticky-tack foul to give the Highlanders the lead for good.
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| Phil Lascon scored Wood-Ridge's final points with a three-pointer inside the last minute. |
"It's unfortunate the way things happened, but you can only control so much," said Wood-Ridge head coach Eddie Rendzio, who rode the officials hard after the back-to-back foul calls but was gracious in defeat after the game. "We had our opportunities, too. If we hit our foul shots in the first half we might have been in better position. It was a close game, it got a little heated and that's the way it goes. All we wanted coming in was a chance to play in the fourth quarter and we got it."
With Gumowski on the bench, the Blue Devils were left with a hole in the middle on both ends of the floor. Dench hit a putback to give Highlands a four-point lead at 48-44, and then put an exclamation point on the win with a booming dunk to close the scoring.
"That was a challenge. We were trying not to foul inside but it got pretty physical in their and, luckily, it was (Gumowski) that fouled out first," said Dench, who finished with a team-high 16 points to go along with 7 rebounds and 9 blocked shots. "We got this win and we're looking forward to next week against Ridgewood."
For more pictures from this event or to purchase a Collector's Print of this story, visit the NJS.com School Store!
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