March
4, 2007
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Ryan Belisle, Elmwood Park's freshman center, going up for the basket that gave his team a lead with 23 seconds left in regulation. But there was still plenty of game to play before the Crusaders could finish off a 67-61 overtime win over Bogota in the Saturday's North 1, Group 1 semifinal. |
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ELMWOOD PARK -- Bogota held leads of 19-17 after the first quarter, 37-28 at halftime, 45-38 after three quarters and was ahead 54-44 with just about six minutes to go in the fourth. Why is it important to mention those facts first? The answer is to get the background out of the way before getting into the good stuff, the amazing final 10 minutes, which included a game-tying buzzer-beater at the end of regulation and an overtime in a classic North 1, Group 1 State sectional semifinal.
Oh, yeah…Elmwood Park wound up winning, 67-61.
Now, here is how it happened.
Sixth-seeded Bogota was coming off of Thursday night’s upset of Wood-Ridge in which it had to run up and down the floor and put up 97 points just to make it to Saturday, and by the fourth quarter in Elmwood Park’s packed and sweltering gym, it was just trying to hold on. Elmwood Park, on the other hand, was just trying to make shots, to overcome the bounces that seemed to being going the Buccaneers’ way for most of the night, at least through the first three-and-a-half quarters.
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| Bryan Antrom scored all 16 of his points in the first half and Bogota led for most of the first three-and-a-half quarters. |
Like a boxer just trying to stand up through the final rounds against a barrage of punches, Bogota was against the ropes for the final six minutes of regulation and EP looked as though it was going to record the knockout at any time.
Bogota lost Ray Carrasco to fouls with 3:18 left in the fourth quarter and scored just one fourth quarter field goal from the time that Danny Brown made a steal and a layup to give his team the 10-point advantage with just over six minutes left, until there were just two seconds showing on the fourth quarter clock... but we’ll get back to that later.
“Carrasco’s fifth foul really hurt us,” said Jay Mahoney, who picked up his 476th win in his 28th season as Bogota’s head coach when the Bucs upset Wood-Ridge. “He is one of the best role players around, he does so many things for us on both ends of the floor, and we he went out it really hurt because we are not very deep. We had everybody out there playing their butts off, but we really missed him when they made that run."
That run was an 8-1 spurt that Elmwood Park put together, with only a John Arochena free throw interrupting the string, to draw within three points. Walter Michalec’s putback got the Crusaders to within 55-52 and, after a Sean Rothenburger steal and a timeout, Eli Tillerson hit a pull-up jumper to make it a one-point Bogota lead with 46 seconds left.
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| Jimmy Scmitt hit two free throws to put Elmwood Park up three with 11 seconds left in regulation, then hit 3 of 4 in the final 15 seconds of overtime to seal the win. |
After Bogota missed a contested layup, the Crusaders came down the other end and pounded the ball inside their freshman center, Ryan Belisle, who went up strong in traffic only to see his shot bounce off to the right.
But Belisle never gave up on the play. He hustled to grab his own miss and put it back in to give Elmwood Park a 56-55 lead, its first since it held a 22-19 advantage early in the second quarter, with 23 seconds left. After a Michalec blocked shot and two Jimmy Schmitt free throws, the Crusaders were ahead by three with 11 seconds showing on the clock.
“When I went up the first time and saw that I missed it, I wasn’t going to let anybody beat me to that rebound,” said Belisle, who was a effective inside all night and is going to be a force on the Bergen County scene for the next three-plus seasons. “When the second one went in, my heart almost stopped. I thought that was going to be it, especially after Jimmy made the free throws, but you have to give Bogota credit for that last shot.”
Ok, time for that last shot, which almost did not come off at all. After Scmitt's free throws gave EP the three-point lead, Bogota rushed the ball to midcourt and called its final time out. Elmwood Park put a man on the ball to make the inbounds pass difficult and Lynch was pinned on the sideline, unable to call another timeout and desperately close to being called for a five-second violation.
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| Bogota's Mark Veras hit the 3-pointer with three seconds left in regulation that forced the OT. |
His last option was a floater that just cleared the outstretched arms of a defender and landed in the hands of Brown on the left wing. The defense rushed toward Brown, who then dropped a pass off to Mark Veras, who let go the three-pointer that seemed like it would never come down.
But when it did, it fell right through the heart of the net, tied the game with three seconds left and sent it to overtime.
“It was the greatest feeling ever when I hit those free throws to put us up three and then it was the exact opposite when that kid hit the three-pointer to tie it. It was crazy to go from being that fired up to realizing that we were going to overtime where anything could happen,” said Schmitt. “I was disappointed for a second, but then I realized that we didn’t lose. We still had a chance to win the game and I knew were the better team and we would get it done in overtime.”
Tillerson hit a jumper from the corner for the first points of the OT before Bogota threw its last punch, a Brown three-pointer that put the Bucs up, 61-60, 54 seconds in. But that was the last field goal that a weary Bogota could muster and Schmitt answered with a three-pointer of his own with 2:13 to go to put the Crusaders ahead to stay.
Schmitt also made 3 of 4 free throws in the final 15 seconds to seal Elmwood Park’s first trip to the section final since it beat Park Ridge in the championship game in 2003 and going on to give Bloomfield Tech all it could handle in the Group 1 semifinals.
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| Eli Tillerson pull-up jumper with 46 seconds left in the fourth quarter got EP within one point at 55-54. |
With all of that, one would think that EP head coach Pat Gabriele would have been all smiles. But, while obviously happy with what his team had accomplished, he was also mindful of the disappointment being felt in the opposing locker room.
“For me this is really bittersweet because Jay [Mahoney] is such a good friend of mine. I taught his daughter in Clifton and I have known him for 10 years now. Even when I was coaching up at Ramapo [College], I would stop by a Bogota game just to talk to him,” said Gabriele. “Obviously I am excited for our kids to be going to a sectional final, but then to see kids like Jimmy Lynch and Carrasco in the [handshake] line with tears in their eyes, your heart breaks for them.”
Brown, a sophomore and one of the stars of the Bucs’ State championship football team who Mahoney said “could become one of the best two-sport athletes to ever come out of our school,” led Bogota with 20 points. Bryon Antrom scored all 16 of his points in the first half before being slowed by foul trouble, Lynch added 11 and Veras finished with 9, all from behind the three-point line.
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| Jimmy Lynch scored 11 points for Bogota, which finished its season with a 17-12 record. |
The Bucs dedicated this season, which finished with a 17-12 record, to the memory of a youth basketball coach who helped shaped this senior class. Dave Moore was the seventh and eight grade coach for 30 years at Bogota and was also a principal for one year at the high school. He retired to Florida before succumbing to cancer in October of last year.
And what was a ragtag group before the season started, turned into a Bogota team that pulled off one of the biggest state tournament surprises of this year and was a shot or two from making the section final. Going from a team scored just five points in a half against Dwight-Englewood in a Christmas Tournament game, to where it finished was an accomplishment in itself.
“We are talking about a team that played all year without Pete Lynch [injured in the football State final], a three-year starter, without a 6-3 kid who just decided not to play and another kid who also decided not to come out. We were without three players before the season even started,” said Mahoney, the only coach in history to lead a Group 1 school to two Bergen County Jamboree championships. “John Arochena hasn’t played since eighth grade, he’s a senior who just came out this year, Antrom is a transfer from Teaneck and we just put it all together in the last week.
“I’ve been here 28 years and you never want to say you are more proud of group over any other, but I do know that I am as proud of this group as any that I have ever had here.”
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| Walter Michalec (left) was one of five Crusaders to finish in double digits. |
Elmwood Park has plenty of reason to be proud as well as it needed, and got, a complete team effort to survive and advance. The Crusaders had five players in double figures with Schmitt’s 15 leading the way. Belisle finished with 14, Michalec added 13 and Tillerson and Jared Forestieri each dropped in 11.
So now it is on to the section final where Elmwood Park will take on top-seeded Leonia, a 67-56 winner over Cresskill, on Monday night at Hudson Catholic High School.
“You could pick out a play that each player on our team made tonight that helped us get there,” said Rothenburger, one of Elmwood Park’s five seniors. “It was a great game by Bogota. They made a great shot to send it into overtime, that kid [Veras] was the one who beat Wood-Ridge the other night, but we just stayed calm and pulled it out. We are back to work tomorrow, right back in the gym because the state final is where we’ve wanted to be all year.”
FOR MORE PHOTOS OF THIS EVENT OR TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT OF THIS STORY, PLEASE VISIT 4FeetGrafix.com.
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