Monday, February 22, 2016

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Joseph Radi scored 10 points, 4 big ones in the fourth quarter, and grabbed 9 rebounds for St. Joseph Regional, which reached the Jambo finals for the first time since 2009 with a 51-43 victory over Pascack Hills on Sunday night at FDU.

HACKENSACK – It is time to stop referring to Pascack Hills as some type of high school basketball version of Rocky, the always underdog that somehow summons the courage to keep getting in the ring with the big boys and winning in unlikely fashion. The Cowboys are no longer a feel good story. They are a collection of talented basketball players that, when they are rolling, can play with any team this side of St. Anthony or programs of that ilk.

To give Pascack Hills its deserved validity is also to credit St. Joseph Regional because it is the team that finally ended the Cowboys’ run through this year’s Bergen County Jamboree. The fourth-seeded Green Knights found a way to stay in front of Pascack Hills’ shooters through all of their picks and pops and crafty in-bounds plays, clamping down defensively in the second half and coming away with the spot in the county final that was on offer.

With a 51-43 victory in the Rothman Center on the campus on Fairleigh Dickinson University, St. Joseph advanced to the county championship game where it will play No. 2 Don Bosco Prep at FDU on Friday night at 7:00 p.m.

“They weren’t trying to slow it down. They run a great offensive set or many sets and our kids really had to dig down,” said St. Joseph head coach Mike Doherty. “This was not an easy opponent by any means and this was a game that I am not sure we would have been able to win earlier in the year. Our kids have really grown and I am really proud of them.”

Nick Guillemain scored 14 points and made 2 of Pascack Hills' 7 3-pointers.

Because of SJR’s size up front and its length throughout its lineup, it stood to reason that Pascack Hills was going to get crushed on the backboards and that did eventually happen, but in the first half the Cowboys limited that phase of the game by just not missing that many shots. If there are no rebounds to grab, then the fight for them is a moot point and Pascack Hills made 5 of 8 first half 3-pointers to serve notice. Evan Schumer made two 3s in the first quarter, Nick Guillemain made another and the Cowboys had a 15-10 lead after eight minutes.

Jason Shill and Guillemain made second quarter treys, the second of which had Pascack Hills up 27-23, but that was about the point that the Knights started to reel the Cowboys back in. Joseph Radi hit a deep 3 from the right wing and Nate Garvey, who scored 9 of his game-high 17 points in the second quarter, faded away for the bucket that gave SJR a 28-27 halftime advantage.

“They hit five 3s in the first half and I thought our guys really toughed it out to get that one-point lead,” said Doherty. “We were not playing poorly, but if they were going to hit that many 3s in the second half, we were just going to have to [pat them on the back] and say congratulations.”

There were no congratulatory back slaps to be seen when Guillemain and Schumer opened the third quarter with 3-pointers to give the Cowboys the lead back, and a five-point advantage at that, but only the realization for the Knights that they were in a game against an opponent that truly believed it was going to win. And why not? The eighth-seeded Cowboys won on a buzzer-beater in the Round of 16 and then knocked off top-seeded Ramapo in last weekend’s quarterfinals.

Nate Garvey scored a game-high 17 points for St. Joseph, which will play Don Bosco Prep in the Jambo final.

“We knew they were a very good team and we knew their record. They were 21-1 coming into this game and we did not expect it to be easy,” said Garvey, SJR’s smooth-shooting senior guard who is leaning toward Howard University as his college choice. “Defense was the key. We knew that in the second half we had to make shots harder for them.”

The Knights buckled down on the defensive end in the third quarter and held Pascack Hills scoreless for nearly four-and-a-half minutes, long enough to run off 10 straight points that gave them the lead back for good. Isaac Hippolyte scored four straight to get the run started, Garvey scored the next four and JT Giles-Harris’ jumper from the top put SJR up by 5. Guillemain finally broke the schneid with a spinning layup that got Pascack Hills back to within 38-35 heading into the fourth quarter.

Guillemain then scored Pascack Hills’ only points off the offensive glass, a put back with 6:09 to play that had the Cowboys within 40-37 and it was no more than a one-possession game for the next 5:19. Pascack Hills got as close as one point at 40-39, 42-41, and 44-43, but St. Joseph scored the next two points each time. Garvey spun in a layup and Joseph Radi had a clutch put back with 3:01 left.

Pascack Hills had two chances to really apply the pressure, but missed two free throws with 2:04 left and couldn’t complete a 3-point play with 1:19 to go that instead left them trailing by one for the final time. Garvey made both ends of a one-and-one with 1:15 to play and the Knights went 5 of 6 from the line in the final 50 seconds to seal the win.

Evan Schumer scored 14 points for Pascack Hills, which lost for just the second time this season.

Garvey led all scorers with 17 points and Hawkins, his backcourt mate, scored 12, but SJR needed other contributors like Radi, who scored the four key fourth quarter points and 10 in the game to go along with 9 rebounds as part of the Knights’ 31-19 advantage on the boards. Hippolyte provided 6 points off the bench and Giles-Harris and Bryan Griffin scored 3 points apiece.

Guillemain and Schumer each finished with 14 points for Pascack Hills while Evan Lazarus added 7. Shill finished with 5 and Steve Steiger and Brandon Danziger split the other 4 points for the Cowboys, who lost for just the second time this season.

St. Joseph (16-8) is heading back to the county final for the first time since 2009 and is just one win away from its first Jambo championship since 2005 and the fourth in school history.

“We knew they were going to drain shots, but we just had to weather the storm and we did it and we eventually came out on top,” said Radi, a 6-foot-4 junior. “It feels great to get to the county final because we were so close last year, but we lost in the semifinals. We are now one step further, but we have to go out and win it.”

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