Thursday, March 11, 2010

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Tom Hasenstab, one of Cresskill's five senior starters, led the Cougars with 12 points in their final game of the season, a 59-38 loss to Univeristy in the Group 1 state semifinals.

EAST ORANGE – Eleven minutes and 15 seconds had been played in the Group 1 state semifinals and Cresskill had yet to give an inch against favored University at East Orange Campus High School. Cresskill was taking care of the basketball against University’s vaunted pressure, it was limiting the Phoenix on the offensive glass and it even took a lead when Tom Hasenstab made a basket with 4:25 left in the first half. In short, everything was going according to plan for the first quarter-and-a-half.

But University’s style, and the type of talented players it used to employ it, never relents and the Phoenix eventually seized control. It wasn’t one specific play or one dynamic performance by one particular player; it was just the constant pressure of forcing an opponent to be perfect that swung the game in University’s favor.

The Phoenix scored nine of the last 11 points of the first half to take a five-point lead and then outscored Cresskill 15-6 in the third quarter on the way to a 59-38 win and a spot in the Group 1 state final where they will play South Jersey champion Woodbury at Rutgers University.

Derrick Hunter scored 8 points for University, which will play Woodbury in the Group 1 final.

“We were right with them in the second quarter, we were with them, but we had a couple of key turnovers right before the half that hurt us,” said Cresskill head coach Mike Doto. “And I think in the second half their athleticism, their depth just took over and before we knew it we were down 10 and then 15. It happens quick against a team like that.”

It happens quickly because, to a man, University is quick and after Hasenstab had given Cresskill its last lead at 19-17 with 4:45 to go in the second quarter, the Phoenix showed their considerable skills. Derrick Hunter scored off the offensive glass to tie the game, Tyrose Felder hit a three-pointer to put University in front for good at 22-19 and a steal and breakaway dunk by David Harris that short-circuited Cresskill’s next possession had the Phoenix off and running, literally.

University held Cresskill scoreless for the first 5:25 of the third quarter and by the time Reuben Torenberg hit a jumper from the elbow to break the drought for Cresskill, it was trailing by a 31-23 score and University responded right away by scoring 8 of the game’s next nine points to put itself up by double digits for good.

Felder’s three-pointer at the third quarter buzzer gave University (26-4) a 41-27 lead and his conventional three-point play to open the fourth just about put the game away for the Phoenix. Nine different players cracked the scoring column for University, which was led by Felder’s 12 points and Hunter’s 10. Kazembe Abif was a force in the middle for the Phoenix when needed and he finished with 9 points, 8 rebounds and 4 blocked shots. Brandon Waters added 7 points and Keith Foster had 6.

Reuben Torenberg scored a team-high 12 points for Cresskill, which finished the season with a 26-4 record.

The Cougars were led by Hasenstab’s 12 points and Torenberg added 10. Elya Golubitsky and Mike Perez each finished with 6 points and Derrick Wilson had two field goals for Cresskill which, with its all-senior starting five, finished the season with a 26-4 record, with a share of the BCSL-Olympic Division, an invitation to the Bergen County Jamboree, a Jambo win and the North 1, Group 1 state sectional championship. Not too shabby.

“I am proud of our team; we played our butts off all season. We got our state sectional championship and I told them coming in here that we were playing with house money now,” said Dodo. “We came in here looking to compete and looking to give ourselves a chance to win. We played as hard as we could, we stayed close for a while, but they just started hitting shot after shot and there wasn’t much we could do. But this loss does not take away from everything else we accomplished this year and I am going to make sure they know that.”

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