Thursday,
March 6, 2014
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
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Elijah Cross attacked the rim all night during New Milford's 48-47 win over Hasbrouck Heights in the quarterfinals of the North 1, Group 1 state sectional tournament. |
NEW MILFORD – The game and the season came down to one possession. New Milford had a one-point lead in the North 1, Group 1 state sectional tournament quarterfinals, but Hasbrouck Heights had the ball and had just called a timeout with 12 seconds left to set up its final play. The state tournament is one-and-done and so was a last defensive stand for New Milford, which had seven team fouls meaning it would have to play clean or risk sending the Aviators to the line for potential game-winning field goals.
New Milford's Lucas Silva figured that at some point Hasbrouck Heights was going to try to get the ball into the hands of Mike Schroback, the senior point guard who has been the Aviators' best scorer for the last three years. So when the bounce pass came, Silva was ready.
“I was a little scared because I had just missed a free throw that could have given us a bigger lead, but I knew we just needed one stop to win,” said Silva. “I saw [Schroback] cutting behind me, but I thought they were going to fake that pass because I was right there. They didn't fake it and my had was right there to catch it.”
Silva picked off the pass and got the ball ahead quickly to Elvin Herrera running the other way. Heights had no time and no opportunity to foul and New Milford, the No. 4 seed, escaped with a 48-47 victory on its home floor. The Knights will next visit top-seeded Cresskill in the section semifinals on Friday night.
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Senior point guard Mike Schroback scored a game-high 20 points for Hasbrouck Heights. |
“This one feels good. In yesterday's game against Boonton [in the opening round] we were supposed to win. We did and it felt good, but today we knew that this was going to be tough. We knew Heights was a good team and that we could not take them lightly because they were coming here to win,” said Bobby Blunt, New Milford's senior point guard, who had to watch the final 2:20 of the game from the bench after fouling out. “It was tough to watch at the end and not be able to be out there, but my teammates have been coming through all year and I knew they could do it again.”
The game was a classic small school state playoff game with both teams using tight rotations and neither being able to pull way. Hasbrouck Heights' largest lead of the first half was six points at 19-13 after Schroback completed a rare 4-point play and then hit a step-back jumper on the next possession early in the second quarter, but New Milford came right back with a 12-2 run and it was the Knights that had the halftime lead at 25-23. There was one tie and six lead changes in the third quarter before New Milford looked like it might take control of the game with an 8-0 run in the final 1:28 of the period.
Blunt hit two free throws, Herrera made a 3 and then Blunt hit a contested 3 from the corner to just beat the buzzer. The home crowd was into it as the Knights took a 40-33 lead into the final 8 minutes and the roof nearly came off the place when Joey Poveromo threw the perfect alley-oop pass for Elijah Cross, who threw it down to give New Milford a 42-35 lead with 5:29 to play. That dunk included, Cross scored six points in 1:32 and his putback of his own missed shot gave New Milford its largest lead of the night at 46-37 with 3:57 to play, but it was in no way going to be easy down the stretch.
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New Milford's Bobby Blunt scored 14 points before fouling out late in the fourth quarter. |
Heights responded by scoring the next 8 points including back-to-back 3-point plays by Keith Mlenak and Pat Dowd with the second of those two and-1s hanging the fifth and final foul on Blunt. The next minute was an adventure for the Knights, who lost their point guard at the most crucial phase of the game.
“Bobby Blunt means so much to our team and when he is not out on the court it is a little bit of a piece-it-together kind of thing,” said New Milford head coach Mike Mayer. “And we had to piece it together at the end, that is for sure.”
After the teams traded turnovers, New Milford got the ball back with just over one minute to play still clinging to a one-point lead and with Hasbrouck Heights still having to give three fouls to reach the bonus. Instead of waiting for the Aviators to give the fouls and get to the free throw line, New Milford launched two ill-advised 3-pointers that both missed. Fortunately for the Knights, they grabbed both offensive rebounds and Mayer called a timeout to settle things down with 59 seconds to go.
Off the inbounds, Poveromo found Cross for a layup that gave New Milford a 48-45 lead before Schroback nearly pulled off a miracle shot while being fouled. His twisting layup attempt in traffic just rolled off the back of the rim, but he did hit both free throws to make it a one-point game with 18 seconds left. It took only five seconds for the Aviators to give away the rest of their fouls and finally put New Milford on the line and that was when Silva missed the front end of the 1-and-1 to give Heights its final possession. Silva made up for the missed free throw with the steal that sealed New Milford's 19th win of the season and kept it alive in the state tournament.
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Pat Dowd had 13 points for Heights, which finished the season with a 17-9 record. |
The deep run into March has been a bit of a surprise as the Knights have played the entire season without Chaheen Payne, the lightning quick junior guard who suffered a knee injury late in the football season. But now they are one of just four teams left with a chance to win the North 1, Group 1 sectional title.
“It's exciting and these kids deserve it. They have put in the work, they knew we had to step up in certain spots because of missing Chaheen and they have really put together a special season. “Nineteen wins...we can't be more excited than that.”
Hasbrouck Heights (17-9), the No. 5 seed, got all put two of its points from three of its starters who all finished in double figures. Schroback (20 points), Dowd (13 points) and Mlenak (12 points) carried the scoring load while Jack LaForge had the other 2 points for the Aviators. Blunt and Cross led New Milford with 14 points apiece, Herrera (9 points) made one 3-pointer in each of the first three quarters, Silva chipped in with 6 points, Andrew McElroy added 3 and Poveromo made a third quarter field goal to round out the scoring.
If New Milford was the favorite in the first round and the quarterfinals was a pick 'em, then it will changes roles into that of the underdog when it goes on the road to Cresskill, which won the regular season matchup between the two teams by a comfortable 78-42 margin.
“We have to relax and play our game and not let them do everything that they want to do like we did the first time we played them,” said Blunt. “We have to do it on the defensive end. We have to get stops against them to give ourselves a chance to win.”
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