Saturday, January 26, 2008

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

Abdul Ais finished with 14 points, 8 rebounds, 2 steals, and 2 blocks for Emerson, which improved to 12-4 and 6-3 in the HCIAA-Coviello Division.

UNION CITY – For nearly a century, Emerson and Union Hill have battled each other on the hardwood for town bragging rights. In recent years, Union Hill has had a resurgence in the HCIAA-Coviello Division and gotten the best of the Bulldogs, winning the last four meetings. Three of those wins came last year, including one in the HCIAA-Coviello quarterfinals and another in the North 2,Group 3 state tournament to end Emerson’s season, all of them taking place on Union Hill’s home court.

Next year, the two schools will combine to form Union City High School. That meant last night’s game would be the last ever scheduled between the two schools. With the exact same record coming into the game and being side-by-side in the league standings, there were plenty of reasons that this game was important. But for the players, it was one more chance to put on their school’s uniform and go against their cross-town rival and play for the one thing that will stick with them forever...pride.

Jairo Cruz and Abdul Ais came up big down the stretch as Emerson led the entire game, but could not rest easy until the waning seconds of a 47-40 victory in front of a raucous crowd estimated at 1,200 at Emerson High School.

“They beat us three times last year, and we’ve been waiting for another shot them all season,” said Cruz. “This is a big, big win for us. We all know each other pretty well. It came down to defense and we weren’t going to give this game away, this game meant too much for us.”

The crowd was extraordinarily loud before the game even started and when it finally began, Emerson fed off that energy and set the tone with smothering defense on Union Hill’s dynamic inside-outside tandem of Justin Sanchez and Jewry Hernandez. The Bulldogs scored the first seven points of the game and grabbed a 12-point lead early in the second quarter.

After missing 11 of their first 12 shots, Sanchez helped the Hillers heat up with back-to-back three-pointers. Backed by stellar play from Stephen Arxer, Union Hill was able to stay within striking distance. Xavier Corporan’s only points of the game trimmed the Bulldogs’ lead to three at the half, 22-19.

Any momentum the Hillers had was quickly erased as Cruz scored a pair of easy baskets to start the third quarter. The first of several critical junctures of the game came minutes later with Union Hill down five. They had four straight possessions to cut into the lead, but they did not score on any of those possessions, with a missed lay-up, a missed jumper in the paint, and two traveling violations under the basket.

“That was the point where I felt we should have pulled ahead,” said Union Hill head coach Carlos Cueto. “I thought we weathered their storm in the first half and kept fighting until we made it a game again. But we never got over the hump and took the lead. We had our chances, but we didn’t take advantage of them.”

Union Hill did get the lead down to a point on an Arxer lay-up and had the ball in the final seconds of the third quarter with a chance to take the lead. But a shot misfired and Emerson’s Jeremy Delgado beat the buzzer with a three-pointer to push the lead back up to four, 33-29, going into the fourth quarter.

“Jeremy hit a big shot, I thought it was the biggest shot of the game,” said Ais, Emerson’s point guard. “I think we were getting a little nervous and that shot helped settle us down going into the fourth quarter.”

In the past, the Bulldogs have relied on their offensive prowess to outgun teams in the fourth quarter. But this is a different Bulldog team and it was on the defensive end where this game was won.

After Union Hill scored on its opening possession of the fourth quarter to cut the lead down to a basket, Emerson held them scoreless for nearly six minutes after that to take back control of the game, pulling ahead by eight.

Sanchez hit two free throws to trim the lead back down to four, 38-34, with 1:44 to play. The Bulldogs were not going to be denied this time and with Ais playing a major role in that. He sank both ends of a one-and-one, then made a steal at midcourt and went in for a lay-up to put the game away.

“I thought we came up with some big defensive stops when we needed to have them tonight,” said Emerson head coach Drew Marano. “We were worried about their shooters and (Jewry) Hernandez inside, and we had to pick our poison. We played well defensively and we got great production on both ends from Sony Diaz in the paint.”

“Beating Union Hill is always big for our confidence. But this year, every league win is a big win. All of the teams are so competitive that every one counts.”

Ais finished with 14 points, eight rebounds, two steals, and two blocks for Emerson (12-4, 6-3 HCIAA-Coviello). Cruz, who scored his 1,000th point last week, and Diaz each had 12 points, while Delgado added nine points and seven rebounds.

Stephen Arxer netted a game-high 17 points for Union Hill (11-5, 5-3 HCIAA-Coviello). Sanchez added 12 points, to put him two away from the 1,000-point plateau, six rebounds, two steals, and two blocks.

The Bulldogs have little time to rest on their laurels with defending HCIAA-Coviello champ Lincoln coming in to play them on Tuesday night. But for now, they can poke their chests out and walk around town with their heads up high with their first win over Union Hill in three years.

“This win was about getting some payback,” added Ais. “We have a lot of respect for Union Hill, like they do for us. We have to give them credit because they beat us three times last year. This was the most important game of our season so far. I think it is the first step towards our main goal of winning a county title. But it is just the first of a lot of big steps we need to take to become county champs. It feels pretty though to finally get past Union Hill and that will only motivate us to work harder.”

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