January
30, 2006
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| Ryan Cuccinelli topped St. Mary’s with 16 points and 7 rebounds as the Gaels pulled away from Bogota, 56-39, in the opening round of the Bergen County Jamboree. | |
EAST RUTHERFORD -- For three quarters, Bogota hung tough with St. Mary’s in Sunday’s first round Jamboree game at Becton High School. Using just the five starters for the entire 24 minutes, the Bucs continued to find ways to stay in the game.
In the fourth quarter, however, it all fell apart as the Gaels seized their opportunity and wore out Bogota with a 15-0 run in the first 6:06 on the way to a 56-39 win that sends them to the Round of 16 against Westwood next Sunday at 1:45 p.m. at Tenafly High School.
Entering the fourth with a narrow 38-35 lead, St. Mary’s began to work the ball around, using quick passes to keep the tiring Bucs moving across the floor before eventually finding the open man inside.
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| Andre Beghyn was the only Bogota player in double figures, finishing with 17 points. |
“We felt we weren’t playing hard enough on the offensive end in the first half,” said St. Mary’s head coach Matt Stone. “We knew they would play a junk defense, but we were just jogging through to all our spots, so their defense didn’t really have to move hard to shift. The second half we made them run harder, and it opened up the guys on the block.”
Chris Slager had seven of the15 points in the streak, all off of passes from the perimeter baseline. He got the run started with a layup and, after Ryan Cuccinelli hit a jumper, he converted a three-point play to make it 45-35 with 5:44 left.
At that point, Bogota head coach Jay Mahoney made his first substitution to try and get something going, but the Bucs had nothing left. Their shots were coming up short and the taller and more athletic Gaels were cleaning the glass.
Louis Saunders hit a layup and Donald Lee canned four straight free throws before Slager finished the sequence with another layup for a 53-35 lead with 3:13 left.
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| Donald Lee was a key part of St. Mary's game-clinching spurt. |
Ray Carrasco finally got Bogota back on the board with a jumper with 2:54 remaining, and their only other points of the final period came on a Justin Appleton basket with 19 seconds left in the game.
“That was the main thing to me,” Stone said of the defensive effort in the fourth. “We did a better job of getting outside on the penetration and we did a better job of contesting all their shots.”
The first half was nip and tuck, as Mahoney encouraged, commanded, cajoled, confronted and comforted his players at every turn in his usual cantankerous way. They had a16-14 lead after the first quarter, with Matt Kittner draining a pair of three-point field goals and Andre Beghyn throwing down seven points.
The second period saw four lead changes and two ties, with St. Mary’s (12-3) getting a basket from Kevin Jiminez for a 26-25 lead at the half.
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| Chris Slager scored 11 points to go with 7 boards for St. Mary's. |
Bogota (11-5) had a 33-30 lead midway through the third quarter before the Gaels began to assert themselves. A pair of Slager buckets in the paint and consecutive hoops by Cuccinelli became an 8-0 run that had Mary’s up 38-33. Carrasco hit a layup with three seconds left in the third, but missed the free throw on the foul.
Beghyn was the only Bogota player in double figures with 17 points, and Carrasco and Peter Lynch topped the Bucs with 4 rebounds each. Bogota shot 16 of 46 while connecting on 5 of 6 free throws.
Cuccinelli topped St. Mary’s with 16 points and 7 rebounds, while Saunders had 12 points and 4 assists and Slager scored 11 to go with 7 boards. Damon Merkerson had seven assists for the Gaels, who were 24 of 42 from the floor and 8 of 15 at the line.
FOR MORE PHOTOS OF THIS GAME OR TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT OF THIS GAME STORY, PLEASE VISIT 4FeetGrafix.com.
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