Janiary
29, 2007
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| Despite not scoring for the first 3:45 ogf the game, Westwood's Corey Raji finished with 39 points and 11 rebounds as the Cardinals took care of Northern Highlands. | |
PARAMUS -- Westwood’s recent Jamboree lineage has been remarkably consistent. Win the first game, then go down swinging in a close battle against a very high seed. It is a pattern of frustration the Cardinals would like to change.
Their chance comes next Sunday, when they head to Tenafly High School for a 3:15 p.m. Round of 16 game, thanks to a 71-52 defeat of Northern Highlands in their opening round game.
There will be a couple of familiarities, the first being the high seed opponent. This time, it will be top-seeded St. Joseph Regional as the opponent, and it will be the fourth and last time that Corey Raji gets the chance to play more than two games in a county tournament.
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| Reed Nicol led Northern Highlands with 21 points. |
Raji certainly did his share of damage against Highlands, scoring 39 points and adding 11 rebounds and 4 blocked shots. He dominated the inside when it mattered the most, in the first and third quarters, as the Cardinals, the 16th seed, had an easier than expected time with the 17th seeded Highlanders.
“When we come out tentative and with no aggressiveness, that’s when the turnovers come and there’s a lack of defense,” Cardinal head coach Frank Connelly related. “I’m always concerned when, before the game, I see that lack of focus in the locker room and in warm-ups.
“Today, I’m looking at them on the bus and in the locker room, and I saw it in their faces. I said, guys, we’re going to play well. They were breaking a sweat and ready to come out and play.”
They blitzed Highlands early, blowing out to a 27-10 lad after one quarter. The amazing part of the first period was that Raji did not score a point over the opening 3:45. In fact, on four straight trips down the floor, he didn’t even touch the ball.
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| Westwood's Dylan Cacciola finished with 14 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists. |
Guards Max Padula and Dylan Cacciola were getting the job done, though, scoring seven straight points between them to get the Cardinals moving. Once the did get him the ball, however, Raji was a scoring machine, getting 15 over that final 4:15 of the quarter.
“It’s not that we don’t want to get him the ball, it’s that at times we struggle to get him the ball,” Connelly said. “You don’t have to be a genius to know he’s got to get the ball, and overall I thought we did that pretty well in this game.”
Highlands (10-4) had no answer offensively, hitting just 6 of 23 first half field goals and only 2 of its first 15 three-point tries.
“When we play like this, obviously good things are going to happen,” Connelly remarked. “It not even so much offensively, I thought defensively we did a real nice job. That’s what gets our kids motivated into the game.”
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| Taylor Barrise finished with 10 points for Northern Highlands. |
The lead was up to 37-15 at halftime even though the Cardinals (10-4) did not score in the first 5:11 of the second period, and it kept ballooning to 56-23 after three periods.
Cacciola had 14 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists while Padula added 11 points, and their efforts were not lost on Connelly.
“They protected the basketball well, they got Corey the ball, they hit the open shot and they went to the basket well,” he assessed. “They did everything today.”
Raji was 12 of 18 from the floor (including a three) and 14 of 15 at the free throw line, part of Westwood’s 26 of 45 shooting performance and 15 of 18 job at the line. Kyle Hourigan had five assists and Mike Deans came off the bench to record three steals.
Northern Highlands hit on 17 of 52 shots and went 12 of 20 at the free throw line. Reed Nicol hit 12 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter, and he had four three-pointers in the game. Taylor Barrise was the only other Highlander in double figures with 10 points.
FOR MORE PHOTOS FROM THIS GAME OR TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT OF THIS STORY, PLEASE VISIT 4FeetGrafix.com.
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