Friday,
February 12, 2016
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
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Michael Wittenburg scored 7 of his team-high 9 points in the third quarter as Park Ridge pulled away en route to a 38-26 win over Palisades Park. |
PARK RIDGE – Good things have happened on Park Ridge’s home floor all season. The Owls have gone undefeated in their cozy gym and it allowed them to build the resume necessary to qualify for the Bergen County Jamboree, earn the No. 1 seed in the upcoming North 1, Group 1 state sectional tournament and hold a one-game lead on Bogota as the race for a league title enters in final stages.
But nothing that has happened before and maybe not from here on out may come close to producing the kind of good feelings that burst from the Owls’ bench with 13 seconds left in Thursday night’s 38-26 win over Palisades Park.
Michael Russell, a senior and the quintessential teammate, a kid who stuck it out through two years on the junior varsity level, scored his first varsity points on a late 3-pointer from the right wing that hit nothing but the bottom of the net. Everybody was pumped about it.
“Michael Russell just works so hard in practice and the kids love him. His attitude is just infectious for everybody else,” said Park Ridge head coach Adam Kaplan. “I don’t know who was happier that he made that shot, Russ or his teammates.”
Park Ridge, with is patented zone defense, smothered Palisades Park. The Tigers, who scored 66 points not too long ago against Group 4 Hackensack in the Bergen County Jamboree, were held to four single digit quarters. The Tigers made just four first half field goals and scored just 11 points through the first 16 minutes and just could never put together enough offense to stay close in the second half.
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Kevin Taylor scored 9 points to top Palisades Park. |
James Bargmann hit a 3-pointer with 3:27 to go in the second quarter and neither team scored another point until Sean Mahoney beat the halftime buzzer with a 3-pointer to cap a 9-0 Park Ridge run that gave it an 18-11 lead at halftime.
Pal Park scored the first five points of the second half on a baseline runner by Se Yong Park and a conventional 3-point play completed by Kevin Taylor and drew to a close as 19-18 when Will Taylor put back his own missed jumpshot with 5:34 to go in the third. but that was the high-water mark for the Tigers. They scored just two more points in the period and just six more in the game as Park Ridge steadily pulled away.
Glen Hafemeister’s half-a-hook shot kicked off a 10-2 run that gave the Owls a 29-20 lead heading into the fourth quarter and Tommy Morgan made two straight buckets to open the final period and basically put the game away.
Bargmann made both ends of a one-and-one with 1:07 left to make it a 34-20 game, but his most heads-up play came about 30 seconds later. With Pal Park in possession, Bargmann saw Russell kneeling in front of the scorer’s table waiting to check into the game. He gave away the foul to halt the game and let the substitutions come on.
On Park Ridge’s next possession, its last of the game, Russell buried the 3-pointer from the wing and the place went nuts.
“It felt great. I really wanted that shot. I have been working hard every day and my teammates, hats off to them, they really encouraged me. I practice that shot every day and I am glad it fell,” said Russell. “I love my teammates and I am really enjoying this season. I have never been a part of a winning franchise and I am happy to be here on this team.”
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Glen Hafemeister scored 6 points for Park Ridge, which improved to 17-3 on the season on the same day it was named the top seed in the North 1, Group 1 state sectional tournament bracket. |
It was a defensive struggle all the way through as no player on either team finished in double digits. Mike Wittenburg, Park Ridge’s senior center, scored 7 of his team-high 9 points in the third quarter to help the Owls pull away. Hafemeister added 6 and Bargmann, Mahoney, Tommy Morgan and Craig Kochakian all finished with 5 points in front of Russell’s 3. Kevin Taylor had 9 to lead Pal Park while no other Tiger made more than two field goals nor finished with more than 5 points.
The win pushes Park’s Ridge’s record to 17-3 on the season. They have a one-game lead in the league to protect and home court advantage all the way through the state sectional tournament for as long as they last. But what might be the Owls’ strength might be its self-awareness. They realize that they have not blown out teams on a consistent basis, but instead have built their impressive resume one quality defensive possession after another.
Any loss of focus for an extended period could spell disaster and that is what they are guarding against.
“Coach stresses defense at practice every day and I think we work well together as a team and we realize that one player can’t do it alone. With our defense, a 3-2 zone, it has to be five players working as a cohesive unit,” said Bargmann, one of the five seniors in Park Ridge’s experienced starting lineup. “I like our chances, but the thing is that every game has been close. You look at the season and you see that we have won a bunch of games by less than five or 10 points, so we know that we have to come out working hard against every team every single day.”
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