December
18, 2004
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| Cory Raji scored 20 of his 24 points after halftime as Westwood opened its season with a win and gave its coach a milestone victory in the process. | |
ORADELL -- From the time its first double digit lead late in the first quarter, the Westwood boys basketball team found itself fending off challenge after challenge from River Dell, which was playing with the support of a vocal home crowd.
Westwood saw its first 10-point lead cut to 1 in the span of just over two minutes, and River Dell was in the process of chopping the Cardinals' once comfortable fourth quarter advantage well into single digits midway through the period.
Not even
a Cory Raji dunk on the fastbreak could stem the run as Dino Koutsouris's
steal led to a Mark McManmon three-pointer that had River Dell to within 51-47
with 2:31 to play in the game. But the Hawks never got a chance to get any
closer. After a timeout, Mike Grud got free off an inbounds play, made the
layup and kicked off a decisive 9-2 run that Westwood turned into a 64-56
win on Friday night in the season opener for both teams.
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| Depite battling foul trouble, River Dell's Travis Long finished with 12 points, including a buzzer-beating halfcourt heave at the end of the first quarter. |
"When they came right back out (of the timeout) and scored, that was a backbreaker," said River Dell head coach Brian Long. "We battled back to get it to four, but we never got the ball back to make it stick."
By holding off River Dell's final charge, Westwood not only got a win to start its season, it also gave head coach Kevin Bretnall a milestone victory, the 100th in his coaching career. Bretnall just started his fourth season at Westwood after spending four at Northern Valley/Old Tappan and one at Pascack Hills.
"We didn't
know how many wins I had until after last season. If we had won our last independent
game against Pascack Valley last year, I would have won 100 and never known,"
said Bretnall, who led Westwood to the state sectional title last season and
to within a whisper of an upset of Don Bosco Prep in the Bergen County quarterfinals.
"But more important than my 100th win is this team getting off to a good start.
Any time you can come into this gym against River Dell, a team that is always
well-coached and that will fight you right down the end, you take it and run."
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| Dylan Cacciola scored seven points off the bench for Westwood. |
With the River Dell defense paying close attention to Cory Raji, Westwood's 6-5 sophomore center, the Cardinals went about building their first quarter lead with other options. Anthony Brown hit a runner in the lane and a three-pointer and Sam Hayes also connected from long distance during an 8-1 run that put Westwood (1-0) up 15-5 just seven minutes into the game.
Raji had only four points at the break, but Westwood got at least one hoop from six different players and had a 26-16 advantage after two quarters. And in the third, with River Dell (0-1) battling foul trouble that forced its defense out onto the perimeter, Raji broke out. After Derek Greenstein opened the second half with a turnaround jumper to push Westwood's lead to 12, Raji scored the next eight points for his team, had 10 in the quarter and finished with a game-high 24.
"Teams
are going to double team me, but what they don't know is that we have other
players that can score," said Raji, whose dunk with 3:16 to go in the game
provided the highlight in his 10-point fourth quarter. "We have two good shooters,
Sam (Hayes) and Dylan (Cacciola), and if they double team me those guys are
going to knock down shots. I don't have to score 30 (points), I'd be happy
with 10 and a win."
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| Kevin Groarke (12 points) was one of three River Dell players to finish with double digits. |
Cacciola hit two of his three 3-point attempts and finished with seven points off the bench. Brown finished with nine, Greenstein added eight, Hayes had six, Grud had four, Rameik Jackson had two and Anthony Gioffre also finished with two points, although his contributions this season will be a key Westwood's success.
Gioffre
is taking over at the point for Anthony Pillari, the junior who played the
point for the Cardinals' state sectional championship team last season. Pillari
was injured in the final game of Westwood's run to the North 1, Group 1 state
sectional football championship earlier this month and is lost for the foreseeable
future. Gioffre had only two turnovers and Hayes also played well in the backcourt
before leaving in the fourth quarter with an ankle injury.
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| Sophomore Anthony Brown socred nine points for Westwood. |
River Dell (0-1) played from behind almost from the get-go as the game was tied just once, at 2-2, but made a run seemingly every time it got behind by double digits. The Hawks got as close as 15-14 on a Mark McManmon 3-pointer after trailing by 10 points early, and were within 51-47 after a Tyler Byrne putback and the last of McManmon's six 3s with 2:31 to play in the game.
McManmon led River Dell with 18 points, Travis Long and Kevin Groarke each finished with 12, Dino Koutsouris added five, Byrne had four, Brett Carroll had three and Kyle Lustenberger had a bucket.
"In the first half we weren't as aggressive offensively as we should have been. In the second half we attacked the rim and created more shots for ourselves," said Coach Long, whose team will look to rebound at Tenafly on Tuesday. "I just want our kids to keep their heads up and be positive. We have no easy games in the league and what I am going to stress is just for us to get better. We just have to worry about ourselves and nobody else."
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