Sunday, February 14, 2010

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Jason Rosenberg had 25 points and 8 assists for Wayne Valley, the No. 6 seed that knocked off No. 3 Passaic, 57-49, in the Passaic County quarterfinals.

PATERSON - - Earlier this week in an interview previewing the Passaic County Tournament quarterfinals, Wayne Valley head coach Joe Leicht called his point guard, senior Jason Rosenberg, the engine that drives the bus. On Saturday against third-seeded Passaic, his teammates were fully on board that bus and it is driving straight to next weekend’s semifinal round.

Rosenberg scored made 10 of his 11 shots from the floor, four of his five shots from the free throw line, handed out eight assists and was the engineer of a clinical possession late in the third quarter that illustrated his status as the definition of a true point guard.

With his team up by six with just under two minutes to play in the third quarter, Rosenberg quarterbacked a stall set in which he kept his defender in a stance for the better part of a minute and 20 seconds. When the referee would start a five-second count, he would blow by and then pull it out. When he got himself in too tight a corner, he would flip to a teammate and hurry to get the ball back. When it became too frustrating for the defense, a foul was called and so was a technical foul, the result of a choice word to an official.

Tyshon Pickett driving the baseline for the basket that gave Passaic its largest lead, 22-15, with 3:42 left in the first half.

And when a teammate missed the two technical free throws, Rosenberg got those two points right back with a drive to the basket. When it was all said and done, sixth-seeded Wayne Valley had a 57-49 win over No. 3 Passaic, a spot in next weekend’s semifinal round against No. 2 Kennedy and coach who had a bunch of praise to heap on his point guard.

“He’s just unreal and what he did today he does in all of our games. I haven’t had to worry about bringing the ball up the court for four years and whatever college is smart enough to sign him is not going to have to worry about bring the ball up the court for four years, either,” said Leicht. “He knows where all of his teammates are two steps before they get there, he gets them the ball and he is the prototypical point guard. He gives the ball up to whoever has the best shot.”

Often times it was Rosenberg himself who had the best shots, but on plenty of other occasions it was junior Tom Larranaga, who hung around the three-point line and was quick to pull the trigger. The first of his five three-pointers helped the Indians get off to a 7-2 lead, his second, which closed the second quarter scoring drew his team out of a lull and got it back to within 14-12, and his third and last of the first half had the same effect.

Wayne Valley's Tom Larranaga scored 15 of his 17 points from behind the three-point line.

Passaic, playing without forward Najee Salaam, had scored the first six points of the second quarter and then opened their biggest lead of the game at 22-15 when Tyshon Pickett drove hard to the baseline with 3:42 to go in the first half. But then Larranaga hit a three from the wing that cut the Indians’ deficit to four and kicked off a 12-2 run that had them leading 28-24 at halftime.

“I had some open shots and Jay got me the ball. Everybody has been telling me that if I score, we will win and my shot was on today,” said Larranaga. “I’ve been in a little bit of a slump lately, but my shot was falling today and it helped get us a win that we really wanted.”

Passaic responded to tie the game at 30 with 6:25 to play in the third quarter, but Larranaga hit his fourth three-pointer nine seconds later to give his team the lead for good and his final trey, with 4:44 to go in the third gave it its largest spread to that point at 39-32. Pickett answered with a three-pointer of his own, but right after that it became the Rosenberg Show and he did not disappoint.

Shakir Rhodes finished with 12 points for Passaic (17-5).

He got out on in the open floor with one defender to beat and did so with a stutter step near the free throw line that froze that defender and left the lane to the basket empty. Wayne Valley’s next possession was the Rosenberg showcase that ended in the technical fouls. Valley led 43-38 after three quarters and maintained at least an arm’s distance in the fourth on the way to the semifinals.

“It’s the most fun when the bright lights are on, especially against an up-tempo team like Passaic when you know you are going to be able to get out and run a little bit,” said Rosenberg, who is drawing plenty of attention from Division 2 programs and many of the teams in the NJAC. “This was a funny game because they blinked early and we went up. We blinked in the second quarter and they ran by us and in the locker room coach told us to just go out and do what we do best. For us, that is taking the ball to the hole.”

Rosenberg and Larranaga (17 points) combined to score 42 of Wayne Valley’s 57 points, while Andrew Herasimtschuk added 7 and Nick Siljee and Keith Greve each added 4 for the Indians, who got all of their scoring from their starting five.

WV's Andrew Herasimtschuk finished with 7 points.

Passaic’s starting five accounted for all but three of its 49 points and Pickett was outstanding as he scored 25, more than half of his team’s output. Shakir Rhodes finished with 12, Reginald Pennie had 6, Andre Dixon made a first quarter three-pointer and Gilbert Morales’ three-pointer with 6:33 to go in the game were the first and only points scored by a player from either bench in the game.

Passaic fell to 17-5 on the season, while Wayne Valley improved to 13-6 and earned its spot in the semifinals amidst two parochial schools, one of which is ranked nationally, and Kennedy, a storied inner city program. Even against those odds, Wayne Valley is looking forward to the challenge.

“It means a lot for a school like ours to be going to the Final 4,” said Rosenberg. “There are great private schools that are in this county, great public schools with great histories, too. For us to play with the cards that we were dealt coming into high school from Day 1; coming together, playing well, gelling well, I think for us it means a lot more.”

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