February
2, 2004
March 21,
ORADELL - For a Group 1 school like New Milford, appearances in the Jamboree are not an annual rite. When the opportunity presents itself, small schools have to make the most of it.
Tim Belthoff seized the moment for the Knights, making key play after key play in a first round game against 14th-seed River Dell on Sunday afternoon at Bergen Catholic High School, and the result is the school's first-ever Jambo victory.
Their 42-35 win sends the 19th-seeded Knights to the Round of 16 against the third seed St. Joseph next Saturday at 2:00 p.m. at Northern Highlands High School. This was New Milford's second straight and third-ever Jamboree appearance.
Belthoff played a magnificent game on both ends of the floor, scoring 16 points, grabbing 15 rebounds and adding 4 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocked shots. He made his presence felt at almost every key juncture of the game. He was able to take advantage of the Golden Hawks inside as a rebounding guard while also working the ball from the perimeter on offense.
"That was a matchup we liked," NM head coach Mark Cacciacarne said. "We have two guys in Joe (McGowan) and Tim that can really play, and we had good matchups with them. Joe had it going in the first half and Tim in the second half."
New Milford (13-3) jumped out to a 10-2 lead early and was never headed, though River Dell (8-6) made a few runs of its own. McGowan had six of those early points and had 11 of his 16 total points in the first half.
The Knights had a 21-12 halftime lead, but a pair of Mark McManmon putbacks had the Hawks within four at 25-21 as the third quarter wound down. Belthoff then nailed a three-point field goal with 25 seconds left to re-cushion the lead to seven entering the fourth quarter.
Back came River Dell again, with Kevin Groarke hitting a three and Brian Mooney scoring a layup to make it 28-26 with 6:43 to go, but Belthoff again changed the tide with a layup and a trey as part of a 6-0 run over the next two minutes.
Over the last four minutes the Knights went to a patient offense, forcing RD to foul.
"We wanted to control the basketball and not give them any freebies and earn every shot they got," Cacciacarne noted.
Again, it was Belthoff making the clutch shots, canning four of five from the free throw line in the final 1:35 to keep River Dell from mounting a last charge.
"It's a kick for the kids," Cacciacarne remarked. "I knew if we played well that we were the better team, and we played well and won."
New Milford finished the game 16 of 39 from the floor and 7 of 11 at the foul line, and had a 26-23 rebounding edge. The Knights also committed a meager five personal fouls in the entire game, only one in the second half.
Mooney was the lone Hawk in double figures with 12 points as River Dell hit just 15 of 43 shots and went to the line only once in the first quarter, hitting one of two.
"We've got to play Cresskill on Tuesday," Cacciacarne added when asked about the next round, "so we can't think about Saturday until Friday. We've got to concentrate on one game at a time."
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