February
5, 2007
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| Westwood's Dylan Cacciola banged home his only points of the game on a three-point field goal with 2:27 left that gave the Cardinals a 50-49 lead. | |
MAHWAH -- Corey Raji has carried his Westwood team on his back many a time. He was doing it again on Sunday afternoon at Ramapo College in the Jamboree quarterfinals against Ramapo, but he wasn’t going to be able to do it by himself in this game.
Enter Mike Deans, Kyle Hourigan and Dylan Cacciola, three teammates who all made significant contributions late in the game before Raji made sure that he would finally step on the court at the Rothman Center to play in the Final 4.
Cacciola banged home his only points of the game on a three-point field goal with 2:27 left that gave the Cardinals a 50-49 lead, and Raji hit two free throws with 17.5 seconds left to solidify a 52-49 victory that puts Westwood into the Final 4 for the first time in school history.
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| Jon Curran led Ramapo with 19 points, including a three-pointer that gave the Raiders a lead with 3:21 to play. |
Westwood becomes the first 16th seed to advance to the semifinals, succeeding where four others had previously failed, the most recent back in 1985. It also extends the Jamboree run of Raji, who has some attainable personal goals in front of him in addition to trying to bring his team into the finals when the Cardinals face Don Bosco on Sunday at 6:30 p.m.
Raji’s 34 points gives him 106 in his three games this year, leaving him 24 points shy of Kent Culuko’s tournament record 130 points in four games, set in 1991. He also has a nine-game total of 210 career points. Bogota’s Pat Sullivan owns the career scoring record with 252 points in 10 games from 1988-1990.
He almost didn’t have the chance as Ramapo (15-5) again pestered the Cards with their defensive quickness and scrappy offensive play. The Raiders, who saw a 10-game winning streak end, had scored the first nine points of the second half to break a 26-all tie, and appeared poised to take Westwood for a second time (they knocked them off, 67-66, in the Indian Hills Christmas tournament).
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| Westwood's Corey Raji scored 34 points, leaving him 24 points shy of the Jambo record of 130 points in four games, set in 1991. |
They even had a seven-point lead with 6:29 to go, but Westwood (15-5) kept crawling back, as Raji scored the Cardinals’ first 11 points of the fourth period. He had a pair of putback baskets and also scored inside off assists from Deans to get his team within two at 46-44 with 4:04 to play.
“I felt I had to make it happen,” Raji remarked, “but my teammates also stepped up, and down the stretch they made the shots.”
Deans was particularly effective in helping to shut down Ramapo’s spread offense which was so effective against Englewood the week before. Deans didn’t score in the game, but he had two key rebounds off missed free throws in the final five minutes and a key steal that kept Westwood within a possession.
“He’s been a sparkplug all year,” Westwood head coach Frank Connelly said of his senior guard. “He’s a phenomenal defender, and when we were down, we had to go to him. What he gave us on the defensive end, you can’t say enough.”
The second of those rebounds sent the Cards down the floor, where the ball settled in Hourigan’s hands off the left elbow behind the arc. He squared up and drilled a three-pointer with 3:43 left, giving Westwood its first lead since late in the second period and sending the capacity crowd of 1,600 into a roar.
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| Ramapo's Dan Berardo finished with 14 points and played well on both ends of the floor. |
Jon Curran matched that with a three-pointer of his own for Ramapo with 3:21 on the clock, returning the lead to the Raiders. After a miss and an offensive rebound, Cacciola sent up a trey from almost the same spot as Hourigan, draining it with 2:27 to play.
“That was a big lift for us,” Raji said of the two three-pointers. “We weren’t making a lot of threes tonight, and they made them when we needed them.”
“I said to those guys at halftime, you’ve got to shoot the ball,” Connelly commented. “Even in the fourth quarter, we’re working it around trying to get it to Corey, they’re not shooting the ball. That allowed Ramapo to triple team Corey at times. I tell them all the time they’ve got the green light to shoot if they’re open.”
“When we’ve had a loss, it’s the threes that hurt us,” Ramapo head coach Joe Del Buono said. “We put so much pressure on the ball, and when they swing it over to the other side, the guy who is left open, we’re a step short and the kid buries the three. Give them credit, they buried the three when they had to.”
A miss at the other end and a Raji rebound gave Westwood the ball, but a turnover by Raji, his only one of the game, set up the Raiders for a game-winning attempt. They deliberately moved the ball around, and Dan Berardo drove the left lane, only to have Raji force a turnover with 19 seconds left. He secured the ball and was fouled.
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| Kyle Hourigan hit a big fourth quarter 3-pointer to help Westwood into the Final 4 for the first time in school history. |
“I’m very happy for him, because if it didn’t go our way and we ended up losing by him dropping that pass the possession before, a kid who gives his all for the program, I’d hate to see his county tournament end on that note,” Connelly said.
After Raji’s two free throws, Ramapo had a chance for a tying three-pointer, but the shot hit iron and came away.
Raji went 11 for 22 from the floor and 12 of 16 at the foul line, and the Cardinals were 18 of 37 shooting and 12 of 18 on free throws as a team. Raji added 13 rebounds and three blocked shots.
Curran topped Ramapo with 19 points and Berardo added 14 in what Del Buono termed his best game of the season on both ends of the floor. The Raiders shot 18 of 41 from the floor (5 of 16 on threes) and 8 of 17 at the free throw line, including 0 for 5 in the fourth quarter, leaving the door open just enough for Raji and company to step in.
“The last three years we made it this far and lost,” Raji acknowledged, “and I wanted it real bad this time. It feels real good to get to the Rothman.”
FOR MORE PHOTOS FROM THIS GAME OR TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT OF THIS STORY, PLEASE VISIT 4FeetGrafix.com.
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