Friday, March 13, 2015

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Zamir Wright scored 17 points for University, which led by double digits for most of the game before holding on for a 56-55 win over Cresskill in the Group 1 semifinals on Thursday.

EAST ORANGE – One more made field goal. One more made free throw. One more defensive stop, one less turnover or even just one more second on the clock. Any of those might have made the difference for Cresskill, which saw its brilliant season come to an end just one point short of catching University in a 56-55 loss in the Group 1 state semifinal on Thursday evening at East Orange Campus High School.

Tariq McKenith hit a 3-pointer just 2:24 into the game to break the final tie and give University a 7-4 lead. Cresskill spent the next 29-plus minutes trying to catch up and got close a couple of times before making a mad dash at the end, but the Cougars were fighting themselves as much as their opponent. Open looks that usually go down, layups usually made, passes usually connected and defensive rebounds usually grabbed were far from locks, especially in the first half which ended with Cresskill in a 27-20 hole.

“I don't know what happened [in the first half]. We never came out like that before. We weren't intimidated by these guys, we saw them on tape and we felt confident coming in,” said Cresskill head coach Mike Doto. “I don't know why we came out so sluggish, but we didn't give up. We worked our butts off and we had an opportunity to win the game.”

The opportunity to win the game came only after trailing by double digits for nearly all of the third quarter. Marad Banks scooped in a layup in traffic to give University, which also beat Cresskill in this same round back in 2010, a 41-28 lead before three straight points to end the period by Matt Flood got the Cougars in position for a fourth quarter charge trailing 41-31.

Cresskill senior Sean Kelly scored 19 points, including the 1,000th of his career on a fourth quarter layup.

It was Flood's 3-pointer with 6:14 left in regulation that bounced on the rim three times before finally falling through that kicked off the Cougars' comeback in earnest. It was followed by a conventional 3-point play by Zac Garcia and, after looking all but done for three-plus quarters, Cresskill was right back in it, trailing 43-38 with still 5:50 to play.

“I told my guys that this is just like the NCAA Tournament. Anything can happen, anything goes and even though we might play a tougher schedule over all then those guys with the conference that we play in, just like in the NCAA Tournament all of that goes out the window. It's a one-game elimination,” said University head coach Elijah Allen, who once dropped 43 points on the University of Connecticut while playing for Fairleigh Dickinson in the 1998 Big Dance. “Cresskill played great in the second half, they kept the pressure on us and I told my guys that if they want to win a state championship that they have to win games like this.”

Four straight points by Sean Kelly, including a layup off a Zac Garcia feed with 5:02 left that gave him 1,000 career points, got the Cougars to within 46-42. Kelly's 3-pointer from the corner with 4;16 left made it a 48-45 game before University answered with 6-2 run to bump its lead back up to 54-47 with 1:22 to play.

Maurice Nwamara looked like he had put the exclamation point on the game with his breakaway dunk with 49 seconds to play, but Cresskill's Luke Kushner nailed a 3-pointer on the other end to 56-53. Cresskill then forced turnovers on the next two University possessions and Flood turned the first one into a driving layup that with 22 seconds left that had the Cougars to within 56-55, as close as they had been since the score was 7-6.

Kyle Wright finished with 12 points for University, which will play Paulsboro in the Group 1 final on Sunday at Rutgers.

Garcia forced the next turnover by knocking the ball off the knee of a ballhandler near midcourt and Cresskill, unbelievably, had the ball back with 16 seconds to go trailing by just a single point and got an open look, a 3-pointer from the wing that looked good in the air but rattled out. A fight for the rebound led to a held ball with the arrow pointing in Cresskill's direction, but there was just :00.1 showing on the clock.

Seb Castano, Cresskill's tallest player, was inserted in the game during a University timeout and the final instruction from Doto was to throw the ball up for Castano to try to tap it in, but the final horn sounded with the ball in caught in a tangle of arms underneath the basket.

“We waited until it got too late. We came out for three quarters sluggish, we couldn't get anything going and we waited until the last quarter to show some energy,” said Doto. “We made up the deficit and if there was another second on that clock I think we win this game.”

Instead, Cresskill's brilliant season came to an end with a 27-4 record. Flood and Kelly, the two 1,000-point scorers among the all-senior starting five, each finished with 19 points. Garcia scored 5 of his 8 points during the fourth quarter fight back and AJ Gentile had, whose bank shot at the end of regulation in the section final made it possible for the Cougars to play on Thursday, finished with 4. Kushner's 3 and a second quarter field goal by Matt Ferrara rounded out the scoring for Cresskill.

Zamir Wright led University with 17 points, Kyle Wright finished with 12 and Abdul Adams had 10 for the Phoenix, who will play Paulsboro on Sunday in the Group 1 state final at Rutgers.

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