January
31, 2005
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| Vinnie Graff hit for 21 points, part of Fair Lawn's 96-point outburst in the Cutters' win over Wood-Ridge in the Bergen County Jamboree. | |
RUTHERFORD - Through its first 12 games, the Fair Lawn boys basketball team was averaging 50 points a game and had cracked 60 only twice, with a high of 66. Wood Ridge had gone over 80 points seven times and was averaging over 70 points a game.
To believe that the Cutters had any chance in a run-and-gun game against the Blue Devils didn't seem reasonable. What no one took into consideration was the inside advantage that Fair Lawn would have, a source of points that more than made up for the plethora of three-pointers the Devils scored.
Using a huge rebounding advantage as well as career games from three players in the paint, Fair Lawn not only stayed with Wood Ridge, but ousted it from the Jamboree with a 98-86 win that sends the Cutters into the Round of 16 against third-seed Paramus Catholic next Saturday at 2:00 p.m. at Northern Highlands High School.
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| Dave Hughes finished with 16 points for Wood-Ridge, which shot 29 of 68 from the floor overall. |
"This is a big step for the program," FL head coach Jim Graff said. "It says a lot for our 10 seniors. Whatever role they been asked to do, they've done, and it says a lot for them to have taken this to the next level."
A trio of them had memorable games with Matt Paterno scoring 17 of his career-high 26 points in the first half, Jermaine Cushnie scoring a career-high 21 points with 12 rebounds and Jamar Cushnie pulling down 14 boards. Their inside play along with that of Matt Oliver (9 rebounds, 5 assists) allowed the Cutters (9-4) to register 29 second chance points and a remarkable 53-22 rebounding advantage, including a 35-10 domination in the second half.
That allowed them to more than offset the 12 of 28 three-point shooting of the Blue Devils (11-4), who came back with a 10-0 run in the fourth quarter to grab a 75-73 lead with 5:26 to go.
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| Matt Oliver (right) going up for one of Fair Lawn's 53 rebounds. |
"I just told them, we're getting 2 on 1 and 3 on 2 chances, just keep going inside and don't look to kick it out," Graff said of losing the lead. "Just play smart."
Fair Lawn responded with an 10-0 run of its own with Vinnie Graff dropping in six of the points. A steal and basket by Anthony Taborda and a layup by Harry Doneman had Wood Ridge back within four, but two inside baskets by Jamar Cushnie kept the Blue Devils at bay.
"We weren't going to change anything we do," Coach Graff pointed out. "We handled the ball pretty well for the most part, and we were able to get the ball inside. Defensively, we played man and left one guy inside, and I thought we did a pretty good job on the perimeter."
Taborda had a game-high 29 points for the Devils, including 10 in the opening quarter, and Bob Colaneri hit five three-pointers among his 17 points. Dave Hughes added 16 and Christian Muniz 11 as Wood Ridge shot 29 of 68 from the floor overall and 16 of 27 at the free throw line.
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| Christian Muniz (11 points) was one of four Wood-Ridge starters to finish in double digits. |
Paterno scored 11 second quarter points, with Brian Artinger (5 assists) and Graff finding him open inside. He shot 12 of 19 from the floor, part of Fair Lawn's 39 of 68 (57 percent) shooting effort.
"We run," Graff said, "not the way they do, but we run. We've got some pretty good athletes and we'll push it down the floor."
Graff also hit for 21 points, 15 of them in a 31-point Cutter fourth quarter, and Artinger added 14. Fair Lawn was 20 of 33 at the foul line, with 10 of the misses coming in the final period and costing them a chance at cracking 100 points.
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