Tuesday, January 20, 2009

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Junior Mike Pena scored a game-high 20 points for Dumont, which kept its Jambo hopes alive with a 76-66 win at Cliffside Park on Monday night.

CLIFFSIDE PARK -- The Dumont boys basketball team has its eyes on a spot in the Bergen County Jamboree and even though the tournament field won't be selected for nearly another two weeks, the Huskies were faced with what was basically a play-in game on Monday night when they visited Cliffside Park. The winner would escape with its Jambo hopes in tact, while the loser would likely have to refocus its attention toward playing spoiler in league play while trying to make the state tournament.

If it was survive and advance even before the tournament starts, then it is Dumont that lives to fight another day after its 76-66 win kept it in contention with a 6-4 record while Cliffside Park fell to 4-5 on the season.

“Goal No. 1 is absolutely the Jambo,” said Dumont head coach Adam Sitrow. “We are 6-4 going into Rutherford and Tenafly this week. If we win those two games plus Westwood next week, we are in the Jambo or at least have a chance at it. We can’t look past any of those games, we still have to go out and win them, but we know what it is going to take to get us there.”

Jorge Jorge led Cliffside Park with 11 points.

Cliffside Park likes to play an up tempo game and Dumont decided to take them up on that style with the game taking a 100-point pace in the first quarter. Cliffside’s Ryan Loughlin and Koko Kareljian hit three pointers in the final minute of the first quarter as the Red Raiders took a 25-20 lead. When the pace slowed in the second quarter it was Dumont that was more effective in its half court sets. Ozzie Grossman’s putback and Mike Pena’s three-pointer just before the halftime buzzer erased the last Cliffside lead as gave the Huskies a 35-33 lead at the break.

It was in the third quarter that Dumont started to assert itself as it found easy baskets against Cliffside pressure and forced turnovers that led to opportunities in transition. Four straight points by Mike Peralta, two from the free throw line and two on the fastbreak set up by Pena’s steal and assist pushed the Huskies’ lead to seven points at 56-49 with 18 seconds left in the third quarter.

“We didn’t defend well. I thought we could step out and pressure the ball more, but we played bad team defense,” said Cliffside head coach Brian Cameron. “I thought there were opportunities for us to trap, but we did not get there for whatever reason and we had no rotation at all.”

Alex Maurice (14 points) was one of four Dumont players to finish in double digits.

Pena opened the fourth quarter by turning the corner for an easy layup and Grossman got free on a backdoor cut to make it 60-52 Dumont and the Huskies pushed their lead to nine points at 64-55 when Alex Maurice got free in an inbounds play and built its first double digit advantage at 66-56 when Paolo Trujillo got all the way to the basket with 4:29 to go in the game.

Trujillo, the Huskies’ point guard, is one of three juniors (Pena and Maurice are the others) to make the leap from junior varsity last season to varsity starter this year, and the 10-game crash course that this season has been so far is starting to pay off.

“We still have a lot of work ahead of us but with every game and every practice we are getting better at it, staying patient and getting used to the varsity game,” said Trujillo, who finished with 8 points but helped push four others into double figures by spreading the ball around. “We knew that this was going to be a fast paced game and that is our game too, but we had to stay smart and not rush. We played well offensively, but the big thing was that we were able to play good defense and rebound all game.”

Dumont’s lead was still nine at 69-60 with 2:30 to play when Trujillo stepped through a trap and found Grossman all alone under basket, but Cliffside still had one run left in it. Back-to-back steals that were converted into layups by Jorge Jorge and Loughlin got the Red Raiders back to with 69-64 with 1:44 to go, but a Grossman free throw and Pena’s steal and layup restored the lead to seven as Dumont closed things out with an 8-2 run to keep their Jambo hopes alive.

Dumont point guard Paola Trujillo scored 8 points and spread the ball around as Dumont improved to 6-4 on the season.

“This is a big win because the Jambo cutoff is right around the corner,” said Pena. “We knew that we needed four wins to get in and it was good to come out tonight and get the first one.”

Pena led all scorers with 20 points while Maurice finished with 16 points and Peralta and Grossman each added 14 points. Trujillo’s 8 points and Norman Gomez’s two field goals rounded out the scoring for the Huskies.

Cliffside also had a balanced score sheet as nine different players had at least one field goal. Jorge (11 points) and Tommy Makdis (10 points) were the double digit scorers while Greg Faria and Ellis Haroldson each finished with 9 points. Loughlin finished with 8 points, Josh Alvarez and Kareljian each added 6 and Slavko Bajovic chipped in with 5 for the Red Raiders, who are now one game under .500 and are faced with readjusting their priorities.

“The focus now has to be making noise in every game we play in the BCSL-[American Division] and get our selves back in position for the state tournament,” said Cameron. The frustrating part is that we came out last week and played our best game of the season against a very good Fort Lee team. We lost 81-80, but we took it to overtime and we had great intensity. Then to play like we did tonight defensively…we just can’t find that consistency. I still think we have the kind of talent on this team that can win games, but that doesn’t mean much unless we get it together and start doing it.”

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