Sunday, Febriary 28, 2016

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Al Jamu Johnson about to release the 3-pointer with 33 second left in the game that gave Eastside the points it needed to beat Wayne Valley, 49-47, in the Passaic County Tournament final on Saturday.

WAYNE – Through three-and-a-half quarters, Wayne Valley had all the answers. The Indians put Eastside in foul trouble early, forced the Ghosts into a zone to conserve manpower and energy, hit big shots and had an eight-point lead. Just 4:59 of game clock separated Wayne Valley from the first Passaic County boys basketball championship in school history.

Eastside had no choice but to turn the final moments into a scramble and hope for the best.

“We stayed in the halfcourt [defense] for a long time just to by Nhazir [Smith] some time. He was win foul trouble, [Al Jamu Johnson] had four fouls, but we had to extend. We went to the bench and not that they got scared, but it looked like we rattled them a little bit,” said Eastside head coach Juan Griles. “We took them out of their comfort zone.”

Eastside not only took away Wayne Valley’s level of comfort, it also ripped away the county championship. There were six lead changes and one tie in the final three minutes, but the one that counted most came on a Johnson 3-pointer from the wing with 33 seconds left that provided the winning points. With a 49-47 victory on Wayne Valley’s homecourt, Eastside won its fourth Passaic County title in the last five years. And this one was a classic.

Wayne Valley had the pace of game it wanted. It was mostly played in halfcourt sets and with Eastside sitting in its zone, the Indians found the cracks. The Indians outscored Eastside 14-5 in the second quarter and when Nick Goodwin absorbed some contact and converted inside, Wayne Valley had a 21-17 lead at halftime.

Eastside put the ball in the hands of Smith as often as possible and had a plan. The Ghosts did not employ the high ball screen that might have allowed a second Wayne Valley defender to try to spring a trap that might have forced the ball out of his hands. If Wayne Valley was going to stay true to its man-to-man roots, and it did exclusively, then it was going to have to guard Smith, one of North Jersey’s top guards, one-on-one. Smith used hard cuts to get into the lane and his left-handed floater to keep the Ghosts close. He hit a hanger for the final points of the third quarter to get his team within 31-30 heading into the final eight minutes.

Alex Kokos' hit a 3-pointer with 4:59 left in the fourth quarter to give Wayne Valley a 38-30 lead.

Shortly after, however, it looked like Wayne Valley had seized the lead for good as it opened the fourth quarter with 7-0 run over the first 3:01 and forced Griles to burn two timeouts early in the period. The Indians were up 38-30 when Alex Kokos drilled a 3 from the wing.

“Wayne Valley is a well-coached team and a very good team. Everybody knows their role, the guy Joe Leicht is one of the best coaches in New Jersey, he doesn’t get his proper due,” said Griles, who knew his team was facing a tough road to get back in the game at that point. “That team is always ready whether they have a lot of talent, a little talent and this team they have this year is very talented with great shooters and it is very smart. They are very difficult to play against.”

Wayne Valley won the regular season meeting between the two and was on the verge of a clean sweep, but that all changed in the matter of 2:03 as Eastside ran off nine straight points to take the lead. Smith flipped in a layup, Lamar Johnson converted a 3-point play, Johnson came up with a steal and turned it into a free layup and Yohely Ortiz scored in transition to complete the spurt that put the Ghosts up 39-38 with 2:56 to play.

It was anybody’s game from there and both teams took their swings. John Zarka hit a 3 from the corner with 2:30 to give Wayne Valley a 41-39 lead. Lamar Johnson’s putback with 1:56 left put the Ghosts in front 42-41 before Nick Guiliano came right back the other way and nailed a 3 from just to the left of the top of the key to give the Indians the lead back. There was a tie at 44 before Kokas hit a 3 and Eastside turned the ball over as Wayne Valley held a 47-44 edge with 1:07 to play.

Nhazir Smith had a team-high 19 points for Eastside.

Not crazy enough? Then check out the final minute when Wayne Valley missed a wide open layup and passed up a chance at another. Had the first one gone in it might have sealed the win. And if the second one was even attempted things might have turned out differently. Instead, that Wayne Valley possession ended when Smith made a steal and turned it into two free throws. He made both with 42 seconds left to get Eastside within 49-47 and give it time to set up its press. The result was a long pass that was intercepted by Lamar Johnson and Al Jamu Johnson’s whereabouts were lost in the shuffle. He appeared on the right wing from where he let go the shot that broke Wayne Valley’s heart.

“I wasn’t thinking, I just shot it. I saw the steal and I just ran to a spot that was open and looked for the ball,” said Al Jamu Johnson, who was in his first game back after suffering a concussion last week. “We just kept working. We never gave up, we just kept working baseline to baseline until we could finally take the lead.”

There were 13 seconds left when Wayne Valley missed a layup that would have tied the game and 10 seconds left when Eastside missed the front end of a one-and-one that could have iced the game. With only three second half team fouls to that point, Eastside started to give fouls away to break Wayne Valley’s rhythm as it tried to advance the ball up the floor.

The Ghosts gave the first two away without incident, but the third one almost cost them. Kokos, a heady point guard, almost pulled off the niftiest of tricks. Just after receiving contact, Kokos decided to launch a shot at the basket, which, had the foul been called as he was in the act of shooting, would have given his three free throws. He did that one better as the shot he threw up actually banked in, but the referees were not swayed. In the NBA, Kokos would have gotten the benefit of ‘continuation’ and a chance at a four-point play. In high school, Wayne Valley got the ball on the side out of bounds and its chance at a last shot was snuffed out in the corner as Eastside, the No. 2 seed, survived.

Nick Guiliano scored a game-high 20 points for Wayne Valley.

Smith had 19 points to lead Eastside and Al Jamu Johnson added 13. Lamar Johnson (8 points), Terra Gatling (7 points) and Ortiz provided the supplementary offense for the Ghosts. Guiliano led all scorers with 20 points for Wayne Valley and Goodwin added 10. Kokos scored all 9 of his points from behind the 3-point line, Zarka (6 points) made two second half 3s and Jared See had the other 2 points for Wayne Valley, which will try to get itself straight in time to make a run as the No. 3 seed in the North 1, Group 3 state sectional bracket where it will open at home against No. 14 Montville on Monday.

Eastside is the No. 5 seed in what should be a wide open North 1, Group 4. The Ghosts, who won it last year and made a run all the way to the Tournament of Champions as the Group 4 state champions, have a good a shot as anyone else in the bracket, especially now that it has its full complement of players. Graduation losses, injuries and other issues have made this an up-and-down season for the Ghosts, but they are whole again for the first time in a long time.

“I would be the first one to admit that we are not as talented as we were the last two years. We are not as tall and we are not as deep and that is why when one kid missed a game for whatever reason this year, we lost. Everybody has to be here  because everybody is an integral piece,” said Griles. “Al Jamu was recuperating from that slight concussion and didn’t play against Old Tappan and we lost. We have to execute. We are not going to go in there [to the state tournament] and blow everybody out. If you get rattled by a press we might get you by 10 or 15 points, but our last nine or 10 games have been decided by one-to-three points, so it has been perfect for us to get ready for the state tournament.”

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