February
19, 2007
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| Kyle Kahler pulled down 9 rebounds as Bergen Catholic held off Pascack Hills and earned its 17th trip to the Bergen County Jamboree final. | |
HACKENSACK -- If the Bergen County Jamboree ever put out a Cookbook for Winning Basketball Games, the recipe under Bergen Catholic would read something like this: Take one part tenacity, one part resiliency and one part grit, mix in a pinch of offense, a splash of defensive pressure and a dash of fourth quarter free throw efficiency and simmer for 32 minutes.
That has been the basic tenet of the Crusader team this year, one that has taken them to a 19-5 record and, on Sunday, earned them a trip to their Jamboree-record 17th championship game appearance.
Their 60-56 defeat of Pascack Hills puts them in line for a chance to tie Hackensack with nine Jambo crowns, and they will face an all-to-familiar foe in Don Bosco on Wednesday night at the Rothman Center in a 7:30 p.m. tipoff.
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| Evan Lampert finished with 13 points and 5 rebounds for Pascack Hills. |
It will be the ninth Jamboree meeting between the two teams, who have split the first eight. It will be the third championship game meeting and the previous two, in 1997 and 2002, went the way of the Ironmen, both in overtime.
For Pascack Hills (19-2), it left the floor at the Rothman Center with the same feeling that many of Bergen’s opponents have had at the end of games this season.
“It was there for the taking, we just didn’t play one of our better games,” PH head coach Chris Kirkby lamented.
Part of the reason is that the Crusaders are what some term a lunch pail team. They don’t have superstars. They are a typical blue-collar team that looks to extract the maximum out of their potential while limiting their opponents by outworking them.
“It’s not always pretty, and sometimes we have to slog our way through things,” BC head coach Joe Dionisio said, “but they find a way to get it done and make enough plays at the end the games. We’ve done that more often than not. It’s a resilient group.”
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| Jon Rigg scored 16 points for Bergen Catholic. |
They did it again against the Cowboys, who were on the precipice many times but just couldn’t get that one successful possession when they needed it.
“We didn’t play particularly well and we missed a lot of free throws,” Kirkby said. “We did a better job of attacking the basket in the second half. In the first half we relied too much on the interior game and our guards weren’t attacking the hoop.”
Believing the road to victory went through the paint, Hills kept trying to punch the ball inside to Evan Lampert or Josh Feit, only to find a Crusader defender dropping down and tipping the pass away or having it stolen down low.
The ‘Boys stayed close through the first quarter, relinquishing the lead on a Ricky Carroll three-point field goal with five seconds left to put BC up 14-12. The Crusaders had a second quarter lead as big as 22-13, but PH came back to within 26-21 at halftime.
Even with the interior defense, Bergen was concentrating on controlling the perimeter as well.
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| Sophomore point guard Jake Wolfin helped keep Pascack Hills close with some big second half shots. |
“We didn’t want to leave (Jake) Wolfin and (Rob) Sobel alone,” Dionisio related. “We wanted to get weak side help and try to see if we could contest passes from the perimeter.”
Wolfin and Sobel began to find the range from outside in the third quarter, and Hills was within 42-40 entering the fourth period after Lampert hit a jumper and then one of two free throws at the third period buzzer.
When Feit scored his only point of the game on a free throw with 5:03 to go, Pascack Hills had pulled even at 44-all. It never could get over the hump, however, as BC ran off the next five points.
Kyle Kahler, who did a nice job of defending Lampert (13 points, 5 rebounds), hit a running jumper with 4:29 left to reestablish the lead for Bergen Catholic, and the Crusaders then began the march to the free throw line.
Jon Rigg hit a pair and Dan Marconi canned the second of two to make it 49-44 with 3:28 on the clock. Bergen kept the Cowboys at arm’s length down the stretch, hitting seven of their last eight at the stripe.
A Wolfin trey had Hills within three at 1:55, a Lampert layup left them down 55-52 with 35 seconds to go, and a Wolfin basket with 18.1 left made it 57-54. Carroll hit two free throws with 16.4 on the clock.
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| Ricky Carroll's free throw in with less than three seconds left finally put the game away. |
Mike Friedberg stole a rebound and hit a jumper with a foot on the three-point line with less than three seconds left, and the referees blew the whistle to correct what was initially thought to be a three-point field goal.
After deliberation, they put 2.4 seconds on the clock, though it appeared that there was less than a second to go when they stopped play. Carroll was fouled on the inbounds and hit the front end of two to ice the game.
“I’ve been real comfortable in my foul shooting lately,” Carroll acknowledged. “I’d rather hit my foul shots than a three-pointer any day.”
Wolfin had 17 points and Sobel 11 for Pascack Hills, which shot 20 of 42 from the floor (5 of 12 on threes) and 11 of 21 at the foul line. Bergen was 19 of 39 on field goals and 18 of 29 on free throws, with Carroll scoring 19 points and Rigg dropping in 16. Kahler added 9 rebounds and Rob Monaco had four steals off the bench.
“It was a very difficult game,” Dionisio expressed, “and we started making foul shots, which we struggled at early in the game. We’re a team that needs everybody going, and we only play well if that happens.”
FOR MORE PHOTOS FROM THIS GAME OR TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT OF THIS STORY, PLEASE VISIT 4FeetGrafix.com.
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