Sunday,
February 7, 2016
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
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With a 25-footer at the buzzer, Evan Schumer gave Pascack Hills a stunning win, a 47-46 victory over Old Tappan in the Bergen County Jamboree. |
ALLENDALE -- As far as last minute execution goes, Northern Valley/Old Tappan could not really have done much better. With Saturday’s Bergen County Jamboree Round of 16 matchup against Pascack Hills tied with 1:07 to play, the Golden Knights grabbed a rebound and got to work. They ran the weave, held the ball without incident for a full tension-filled minute and then got it to their best offensive weapon, junior Justin Minaya, who went hard to the hoop and scored to give NV/OT the lead with 5.3 seconds remaining.
Even on the ensuing in-bounds pass the Knights played it right. They forced Kevin Michael to move toward the inbounder as he caught the ball and even forced Michael to look for a second option. Michael settled for a rushed pass to Evan Schumer, who was about 25 feet from the basket with a defender closing fast.
Given a chance, it is doubtful that Old Tappan would have gone back and changed any link in that chain of events. But it was not enough.
Schumer caught, rose and launched with a hand in his face and buried the 3-pointer from the volleyball line. In as dramatic a finish as there has ever been in the Jambo, Schumer’s high-arced dagger fell through the hoop cleanly just as the buzzer sounded and gave eighth-seeded Pascack Hills a stunning 47-46 win over No. 9 Old Tappan at Northern Highlands High School.
That was fun.
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Justin Minaya's layup with 5 seconds left in regulation gave Old Tappan a two-point lead. |
“I didn’t realize how deep I was, I am not going to lie. Looking at the clock, thinking about time management, I knew I had to get [the shot] up. I got it up in time and hoped for the best,” said Schumer.
Did he know it was going in when it left his hand?
“It felt good,” Schumer said. “So…yes.”
Faced with a similar scenario in the first game of the season, Pascack Hills called the same play and that time it worked as it was supposed to. On that occasion it turned into a game-winner when Nick Guillemain used a screen to get free on the sideline, caught the ball in stride and was the hero. This time it was different.
“They probably saw that play [on tape] because they were ready for it. The cutter running down the side wasn’t open, so I turned and the second option was Schumer and he has a knack for making crazy shots,” said Michael, who picked up an unconventional assist with short pass from inside the center circle. “I just put the ball in his hands and he made it happen.”
Schumer carried the Cowboys offensively all day as he made his first two shots of the game, both 3-pointers, inside the first two-and-a-half minutes. The first one gave Pascack Hills a 3-2 lead and they held the advantage all the way into the latter stages of the fourth quarter. Pascack Hills led 17-14 after the first quarter, 25-20 at the break and stretched it to as many as 11 points by scoring the first six points of the second half. Michael scored off the offensive glass, Guillemain made two free throws and Michael finished a long possession with a back-door cut and layup off a feed from Evan Lazarus that made it a 31-20 game.
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Nick Guillemain scored 8 points for Pascack Hills, which will play top-seeded Ramapo in the quarterfinals. |
That was when Old Tappan began its charge. The Knights ripped off eight of the next 10 points with the last two being the most memorable. Minaya swooped in for a defensive rebound, ran the length of the court, got inside the lane and took off for a two-handed dunk that signaled ‘Game On!’ That brought Old Tappan back to within 33-28 at the end of three quarters.
“I was watching tapes of their games yesterday and today and I saw him do that against Bosco and other teams, but he never dunked it,” said Pascack Hills head coach Kevin Kirkby. “That was impressive. He is a special talent. He is a D1 kid.”
As Pascack Hills was struggling to regain its offensive footing, Old Tappan kept chipping away. Point guard Lucas Casamento made a steal at the top of the key and went in for an uncontested layup that got the Knights back to within 38-35 with 4:42 left and Minaya put back a missed shot to make it 40-39 with 3:17 to go.
Old Tappan finally got the game tied with three straight points, the first one on a free throw by Kevin Eifert, who was a handful inside all game long, and the last two by Minaya, who pulled up at the foul line for a jumper that made it 44-all with 1:26 to go.
Pascack Hills missed an easy one on its next possession and Old Tappan turned that miscue into the long possession that ended with Minaya’s undeniable drive that gave the Knights their first lead since the score was 2-0. They were in good shape as Pascack Hills called a timeout and returned to the court to inbound from under its own basket.
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With plenty of hard work in the paing, Old Tappan junior Kevin Eifert finished with 13 points. |
And then Evan Schumer from the volleyball line happened.
“The kids did everything they could to battle back. We ran the clock down, [Minaya] made that last shot for us and there were five seconds left. We knew we left them a little bit of time to get off a shot, but we would have given them the one we gave up,” said Old Tappan head coach Craig Ferraro. “The kid hit a shot with a hand in his face from almost half court. What are you going to do? It is just one of those things where we were on the wrong end of a great play by their kid.”
Schumer’s game winner gave him 21 points for the game. No other Cowboy reached double figures as Guillemain finished with 8, Jason Shill added 7, Michael had 6 and Brandon Danziger scored 5, all big ones in the fourth quarter.
Minaya and Lucas Casamento had 16 apiece to lead Old Tappan and Eifert scored 13 by mixing it up inside. His four field goals all came inside the paint and his aggressiveness led to 8 free throw attempts, of which he made 5. Ethan Lizarraga and Eric Slater split the other four points for the Golden Knights.
As the 8/9 game, this was supposed to be the best matchup of the Round of 16 and if it is not, it sure is going to be interesting as the tournament switches to Tenafly High School on Sunday. Pascack Hills is one of the four teams so far to punch its ticket to the Rothman Center on the campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University next weekend.
“We set goals at the beginning of the year. We want to win our holiday tournament, we want to try to win our league and we want to get to the Jambo. We got in, they gave us the No. 8 seed and you never want to get upset,” said Kirkby, whose team will play top-seeded Ramapo in the quarterfinals. “This is a great tournament, we get to play one more game at least and we are looking forward to it.”
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