February
16, 2006
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| Sophomore Kyle Smyth led Bosco with 13 points, including two clutch fourth quarter free throws. | |
PARAMUS -- Connor Cornine has been something of the forgotten man for the Don Bosco basketball team. The 6-foot-7 senior has toiled in relative anonymity for the Ironmen, content to get his minutes and contribute. On Wednesday night in the quarterfinals of the Bergen County Jamboree at Paramus High School, he stepped to the forefront after center Pete Brown was saddled with early foul trouble and made all the right moves.
With 12 points, 10 rebounds and 3 blocked shots, Cornine became the cornerstone for Bosco’s 51-47 defeat of Bergen Catholic, which earned the top-seeded Ironmen a 7:45 p.m start against fourth seed Fort Lee on Saturday at the Rothman Center.
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| Nick Vier finished with 21 points for Bergen Catholic, but he was the only Crusader in double figures. |
Cornine’s effect on the game might have been a lot different if the game was played in its original slot last Sunday. He turned an ankle in practice on Saturday and would not have been 100 percent, but the snowstorm that wiped out the Sunday slate and forced the game to Wednesday worked to his advantage.
The Crusaders weren’t nearly as happy to see him, as they could not take advantage of Brown’s foul woes. He sat for 13:18 of the first half, going scoreless and grabbing just two rebounds, then missed the final five minutes of the third quarter after picking up his fourth foul.
Enter Cornine, who stabilized in the middle. Usually a player who gets 16-20 minutes a game, he logged the full 32 in this one, and he came up big in many instances where Bergen was starting to grab some momentum. He scored the first three points of the game as Bosco took a 12-8 lead after the first quarter, and when the Crusaders got within 13-12 in the second quarter, he put back a rebound to keep the Ironmen in the lead.
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| Bosco's Peter Brown had 7 points, 8 rebounds and 3 blocks despite getting early foul trouble. |
“I had to wait my turn,” Cornine said of the season to date, “and with Pete dropping out (with fouls), I had to step up.”
Cornine had a layup to make it 35-24 Bosco in the third quarter, but Bergen ran off 10 straight points to creep within one at 35-34 in the opening minute of the fourth quarter. Twice the Crusaders had possession with a chance to take the lead, but Cornine grabbed a rebound on the first chance and used his size to force an off-balance shot the second time down that Kyle Smyth rebounded and drew a foul.
“That’s his best game all year,” DB head coach Kevin Diverio said of Cornine. “You kind of hope a senior will step up in a big moment like that.”
Smyth hit both freebies and Brown threw in a hook shot to get the lead back to five. BC’s Bob DiPiazza had a three-point field goal get a generous iron roll to make it 39-37, but Smyth got an equally nice high bounce off the rim in countering with a three ball for Bosco with 4:18 left.
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| BC's Jonathan Rigg had 9 rebounds to go along with 5 points. |
That started Don Bosco (16-4) on the way to a seemingly safe 47-38 advantage with 1:52 to go, but Diverio and his Ironmen never relaxed.
“They’re so geared to shooting threes, two shots and it’s a one possession game,” Diverio said.
Nick Vier drained a three with 1:41 left, and after Smyth hit one of two at the line, Pat O’Daniels dropped in a three ball with 1:20 on the clock to make it 48-44.
Vier was fouled on a three-point try and hit all three free throws to get BC within a point with 45.4 ticks remaining, and Diverio called a time out.
“I told them you’re still playing from the lead, don’t panic,” Diverio recalled. “Smyth hit the big free throws and that forced them to have to hit a shot. The kids put themselves in a position to win the game.”
Smyth hit the two foul shots with 38.2 showing, and Cornine grabbed a rebound of a Crusader miss and was fouled, hitting one of two with 26.1 to go. Bergen missed a trio of threes before Brown got the final rebound.
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| Trevor Harris and top-seeded Don Bosco will face No. 4 Fort Lee in Saturday's Jamboree semifinal. |
“We fought back like we’ve been doing all year, but it just wasn’t enough today,” said Bergen Catholic head coach Joe Dionisio. “We anticipated it would be a last-minute game, but we just didn’t play well enough early. We didn’t play as well as they did.”
Vier finished with 21 points for Bergen Catholic (11-8), but he was the only Crusader in double figures and he was limited to five field goals, including two three-pointers.
“We’ve stressed defense all year long,” Diverio commented, “and I thought our two sophomores (Smyth and Milligan) and Pete Bonilla did a tremendous job on Vier. I thought he was tired by the end of the game.”
They also did a nice job of shutting off the secondary scorers. Ricky Carroll, averaging 12 points a game on the year and 16.5 in the last six outings, was held to just two points and Jonathan Rigg, another 12-point scorer, had just five.
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| Marc Wade and BC were with one point twice in the fourth quarter. |
“The key for us was take away transition points for them,” Diverio explained. “We did that in the second half. They had six or eight transition points in the first half, and that was our number one priority, to take that away from them.”
Bergen shot 13 of 50 from the floor (6 of 17 behind the arc) and 15 of 22 at the free throw line. Rigg had 9 rebounds while Vier added 5 boards and 3 steals.
Brown had 7 points, 8 rebounds and 3 blocks despite the limited action, and Smyth had a team-high 13 points. Bosco was 14 of 57 shooting (2 of 7 threes) and 21 of 30 at the stripe.
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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