Monday, January 12, 2009

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Keith Zury scored a game-high 23 points for Mahwah which knocked off Cliffside Park, 72-55, on Sunday night at the BCSL-NBIL Challenge played at Fort Lee High School.

FORT LEE -- For those not familiar with the geography of Bergen County, Mahwah is a small town that lies in the middle of the county at the top of Route 17, butted up against the border between New York and New Jersey. It is also supposed to be the home of the Thunderbirds, the nickname given to the sports teams associated with Mahwah High School. The reason this background is necessary is because by looking at the boys basketball schedule, one might get the impression that Mahwah lies near another border with New York right near the entrance to the George Washington Bridge.

Counting three games played at the Jack Reilly Holiday Tournament earlier this season and Sunday’s nightcap at the BCSL-NBIL Challenge, Mahwah has now played more games at Fort Lee High School (4) than it has at Mahwah (2). The T-Birds showed that they are now comfortable at their home away from home as it used a 12-2 run to start the second half to pull away from Cliffside Park on the way to a 72-55 win.

“This is our fourth game on the Fort Lee court and, except for one quarter against Old Tappan [in the Jack Reilly Tournament], we have played very well here,” said Mahwah head coach Jim Taranto. “Nine of our first 12 games are either away or on a neutral court, find somebody else that has to do that. Of our first 12 games we’ll have three home games so to be 6-3 at this point means we are doing OK.”

Jorge Jorge led Cliffside Park with 21 points.

When at full strength, Mahwah is a balanced offensive team that can knock down outside shots, get to the basket, hit the offensive glass and all five of its starters are good passers who can exploit the back cut, which it did repeatedly against Cliffside Park’s aggressive man-to-man defense. Dan DeLoof, who plays in the post for Mahwah, found Chris McAvey on a backdoor cut with 19 seconds left in the first quarter and Keith Zury scored on the fastbreak off an assist from Julius Defreese 16 seconds later as the Thunderbirds grabbed a 25-15 lead after eight minutes.

But when, through foul trouble or otherwise, the Thunderbirds are forced to shuffle the lineup, the results can be sketchy. When John Ebeling, an athletic 6-4 guard who can play the point and create all kinds of matchup problems for a defense, went out early in the second quarter with his second foul his team still had its biggest lead to that point at 10 points. When he returned to the floor to start the third quarter, Mahwah was locked in a 34-all tie.

Trailing 29-19 after Mahwah’s Liam Smith put back a missed shot with 4:39 to play in the first half, Cliffside got itself back in the game with a 10-3 run over the next 1:52. Greg Faria kicked off the spurt with a drive down the middle of the lane, Slavko Bajovic hit a baseline jumper and, after Zury hit a three for Mahwah, Ryan McLoughlin hit two straight from down town to draw Cliffside Park to within 32-29. Jorge Jorge’s conventional three-point play and his basket two seconds before the halftime buzzer brought the Red Raiders back even.

Julius Defreese finished with 15 points and six assists for Mahwah, which improved to 6-3 on the season.

McLoughlin was inserted into the starting into the starting lineup for Sunday night’s game and responded with four first half three-pointers and was instrumental in the Red Raiders’ first half run.

“We got good minutes from Ryan Laughlin who came off the bench for us and got us started. He did a great job and knocked down threes,” said Cliffside Park head coach Brian Cameron. “But we have yet to put together four good quarters. We had the spurt at the end of the half and we showed that we can do it, but it just doesn’t sustain for four quarters.”

If the second quarter was Cliffside’s high water mark, then the third quarter was its undoing. Allen Yelegen’s baseline jumper gave the Red Raiders the first points of the third quarter and their first lead since the score was 2-0, but Mahwah quickly took control their after. Defreese’s put back of his own missed shot tied the game for the last time at 36 and started an 11-0 run.

DeLoof again exploited the backdoor that led to an easy Defreese basket, and Ebeling kick out off a drive left McAvey open for a three-pointer that he knocked down and McAvey scored again off a jumper from the baseline. Ebeling’s coast-to-coast layup with 4:54 to go in the third quarter gave Mahwah a 45-36 lead and it was up by the same margin at 54-45 heading into the fourth quarter.

Ryan McLoughlin stepped into the starting lineup and scored all 15 of his points from behind the three-point line.

Ebeling’s layup to open the fourth quarter, on which he also rolled his ankle, put the T-Birds up by double digits and Cliffside Park never got closer than seven points the rest of the way. After Jorge’s pull-up jumper with got Cliffside to within 58-51 with 6:28 left, Mahwah scored nine straight points to decide the outcome and hit 6 of 8 free throws down the stretch to close it out.

“I thought was able to drive and dish. We knew they liked to take charges so we wanted to kick it out to three-point shooters or inside for layups. I thought that we did that well early,” said Ebeling, Ebeling, a senior, who missed two days of practice while at Georgetown on football related business, but was back in time to put up 10 points and six assists. “It a lot more fun [to play a team we don’t know as well as NBIL teams]. I definitely like the challenge of coming to a gym like this and playing a team that we don’t know and that doesn’t know us.”

Zury led Mahwah with 23 points, 12 of them in the first half as the T-Birds got off to a fast start. Defreese, who plays the small forward spot, leads Mahwah in assists this season and he was solid on both ends. Defreese totaled 15 points and four of his six assists came in the first quarter. McAvey and DeLoof each chipped in with 7 points and so did Kevin Steimle, who scored all 7 of his points in the fourth quarter.

The schedule gets no easier for Mahwah this week as it has two road games, including one at Old Tappan, but after that the home games will come in spades and the Thunderbirds had weathered the early storm and are still in position to make runs at the Bergen County Jamboree and at least one home game in the North 1, Group 2 state sectional tournament.

Despite first half foul trouble and a second half sparained ankle, Mahwah's John Ebeling had 10 points and 6 assists.

“We are looking to not going to Sussex County in the month of March. We’d like a home game in the state. We haven’t had that in a while,” said Taranto. “At 6-3 we have to keep our losses at or under 5 to have a shot at the county tournament. Pascack Hills is obviously the class of our league, but everything you’d want, the counties and states, are still there for us.”

Jorge led Cliffside Park with 21 points and all 15 of McLaughlin’s came from behind the three point line. Bajovic finished with 7 points, Faria finished with 6 and Greg Makdis (4 points) had a pair of field goals.

Despite the loss, Cliffside is much improved over last season and now at 3-3, the Raiders have not been ruled out of contention for anything just yet, either.

“As of right now we only have one league loss and two nights from now Fort Lee comes to us,” said Cameron. “It’s the best rivalry in our league and they might have the three best players in our league. We are going to have to put something together against those guys and if we could get it, that might be a win that could turn things around. We need to get a good with against a good team to get some confidence.”

FOR MORE PHOTOS OF THIS EVENT OR TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT OF THIS GAME STORY, PLEASE VISIT 4FeetGrafix.com.