February
6, 2006
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TENAFLY -- Everything Westwood’s boys basketball team does runs through Corey Raji at some point. When that doesn’t happen, things don’t go smoothly for the Cardinals. St. Mary’s did a nice job of keeping the ball out of Raji’s hands in the first half of the Bergen County Jamboree Round of 16 game at Tenafly on Sunday afternoon. The Gaels had their opportunity for an upset, but could not find a basket themselves.
Given the chance to make amends in the second half, Raji and Westwood came alive and went on to a 52-31 victory. The Cardinals will now face BCSL-American Division rival Fort Lee in the quarterfinals next Sunday at 12:00 p.m. at Paramus High School in a matchup of the four and five seeds.
Raji scored 20 of his game-high 29 points in the second half, including all12 of Westwood’s third quarter points. That kept the Cards in the lead going into the fourth quarter, when they turned a 31-27 game into a rout.
“Cory didn’t get enough touches (in the first half), it’s that simple,” Westwood head coach Frank Connelly assessed. “I thought the second half we did a much better job of getting the ball down low and getting him some touches.”
Only a poor shooting performance kept the Gaels (14-4) from being in a better position in the first half. They hit only 1 of 10 first quarter shots and 4 of 22 in the first half, and head coach Matt Stone remarked that, “a lot of them were open looks. We just couldn’t put them down.”
But Westwood was also struggling, shooting on 7 of 23 and getting out of its game. Raji had only three field goals in the opening two quarters, and two of them came off of offensive rebounds.
“Our passes were terrible and we had too many unforced turnovers,” Connelly said of the first half. “We lucked out. We were ripe for the picking there.”
“It was a little frustrating, but coach just told me to come out and play my game and our whole team did that in the second half,” Raji said.
Raji had four baskets and four free throws in the third period, with Anthony Pillari and Mike Deans working it inside to the senior. St. Mary’s also found the range, sinking 7 of 10 third quarter shots, and when Ryan Cuccinelli hit a layup with seven seconds on the clock, it was a four-point game at 31-27.
Deans and Sam Hayes then made their presence felt at the onset of the fourth quarter. The duo sparked an 11-0 run over the first 3:46, with Hayes scoring seven of his 12 points in the burst and Deans scoring off a steal while grabbing two rebounds and sending a long assist down court to Raji.
“I thought he won the game for us,” Connolly said of Deans. “He came off the bench the second half and gave us a defensive spark.”
Cuccinelli finally broke the run with a bucket, but it was 42-29 and that would be the last basket the Gaels would score.
“Once we got up there, we felt confident,” Connolly remarked. “We were able to come out and play some man (defense) and that helped us.”
No St. Mary’s player reached double figures, as Louis Saunders’ nine points was the team high. Despite the hot third quarter, the Gaels were just 12 of 45 from the floor (2 of 8 behind the three-point line) and added five of nine free throws. Chris Slager had six rebounds.
Westwood finished up 20 of 50 from the field (2 of 10 on threes) and 10 of 14 at the line. Raji had 16 rebounds and two blocked shots, Pillari had four assists and Hayes added three steals.
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