February
6, 2005
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| Tyrell Biggs led defending champion Don Bosco Prep past Pal Park and headlong into a rematch with Westwood, which almost pulled the upset in last season quarterfinal round. | |
ALLENDALE - Coming into the final game of Saturday's Jamboree Round of 16 quadruple header, there was a definite felling that David was facing Goliath. Palisades Park, a Group 1 BSCL National team, knew it was in over its head, literally, against Don Bosco, the second seed out of the NNJIL.
Tigers head coach Joe Galeazza was understating the situation when he said that, "they give us matchup problems," and within the first five minutes the Ironmen exploited all of them.
Beginning with a dunk and ending with a three-point field goal, Bosco ran out to a 16-2 lead and never looked back in taking a 74-52 win that moves the defending champions into the quarterfinals against Westwood.
If that
sounds familiar, it should. Last year, the same two teams met up in a quarterfinal
game that saw Westwood come within an eyelash of upsetting the Ironmen, and
that won't be lost on the Dons next Sunday.
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| Pal Park's Orestes Medina trying to find some space among the big guys. |
"What happened with Ridgewood and Teaneck (two NNJIL teams that lost to BCSL teams on Saturday), at this point in the season everybody knows what it takes to win," DB head coach Kevin Diverio assessed. "In this tournament, you have to be on top of your game every time out.
"I'm sure they're going to be up for the game, because they felt they should have won it last year, and we'll be up for the game, just trying to get a little respect back."
They made sure of the opportunity by taking it right to Palisades Park (11-5), beginning with a Peter Brown dunk for the opening points. Carl Augustin buried two threes and Trevor Harris one while Tyrell Biggs had a conventional three-point play.
"They
were playing a diamond and one on Biggs," Diverio said, "and I thought our
guards (Harris and Stephen Natoli) did a good job of being patient and working
inside and utilizing Brown. On the weak side. Biggs was patient waiting for
his opportunities."
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| Peter Brown helped Bosco exploit its advantage on the inside. |
To their credit, the Tigers didn't wilt and hide. They just couldn't match the size and strength of Biggs (29 points, 8 rebounds) and Brown (10 points, all in the first half, 11 rebounds, 3 blocked shots). Biggs had 14 points in the opening half as the Ironmen (12-2) moved out to a 40-21 lead.
"We took control of the game in the first half," Diverio said, "and then we traded hoops in the second half, but at least we maintained our lead."
Tyrell Rocke had all 13 of his points after the intermission for Palisades Park, matching Andrew Vinas (13 points, 7 rebounds) for team scoring honors. After a 5 of 21 shooting first half, the Tigers finished 18 of 51 from the floor and 14 of 18 at the free throw line.
Biggs shot 12 of 19 from the floor, part of a 30 for 56 team effort. Harris added 14 points and Natoli dished out six assists for Bosco, which was only 9 of 17 at the foul line.
FOR MORE PHOTOS FROM THIS GAME OR TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT OF THIS STORY, CHECK OUT THE NJS.com SCHOOL STORE!
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