Friday, March 4, 2016

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Sophomore Atiba Taylor, Jr. handled the point and the pressure in Hackensack's 61-52 win over defending champion Eastside in the North 1, Group 4 state sectional quarterfinals on Thursday.

HACKENSACK – To put it gently, not all of the Hackensack players that started the season on the roster are still on that roster now in the state sectional playoffs. There have been some ups and downs for the Comets for sure and a season can go one of two ways when a cast member or two jumps ship. Either the team can tear itself apart or it can sew itself together, get through the adversity and grow from the experience.

For Hackensack, it appears to be the latter. Not only have the Comets hung together, but they are thriving now after beating Eastside, last year’s Group 4 champion and this year’s Passaic County title holder, 61-52, in the North 1, Group 4 state sectional quarterfinals on Thursday night on Mel Henderson Court.

“We went through some adversity as a team and, for the most part, we have stayed together as a team,” said Hackensack head coach Aaron Taylor. “I believe that things happen for a reason and the adversity we went through has brought the guys closer. They want to play for each other and they are playing for the outcome now, not the individual.”

The Comets took the lead for good on Bryce Drakeford’s 3-pointer from the corner 1:07 in. They led wire-to-wire and never let the Ghosts get closer than six points in the fourth quarter in what might have been their most complete performance of the season. Hackensack shot the ball well, shared it, won most of the loose ball scrambles and hit the boards as a team.

Eastside junior Nahzir Smith led all scorers with 23 points.

“We just had to play hard right from the jump because we know Eastside and we know they are going to play hard the whole time. We had to compete,” said Edward Emedoh, Hackensack’s senior center who more than held his own on the low block. “This is my last year and it’s time to go all out. We all felt that way and we had to match their aggressiveness with some of our own.”

One of the byproducts of the roster reshuffle has been a change in the backcourt alignment. Sophomore Atiba Taylor, Jr. has taken over a lot of the business of handling the ball. At 6-foot-4, Taylor has turned into match-up nightmare for opposing guards on both ends of the floor and his ability to handle the position has made senior MJ Richardson into more of a classic two, a catch-and-shoot guy who can pick his spots rather than always trying to draw them himself.

Richardson caught fire in the second quarter as he nailed three 3-pointers in a span of less than three minutes. The third one gave Hackensack a 33-20 lead 2:45 left in the second quarter and it led 35-24 at halftime. Eastside got no closer than eight points in the third quarter and it trailed by double digits, 46-36, after Hackensack’s BJ Saliba made both ends of a one-and-one to close period scoring.

Saliba made two more free throws to start the fourth quarter followed by two more by Richardson as the Comets opened a 14-point spread with 6:09 to play, but this being Eastside, there was never going to be any quit.

BJ Saliba had 12 points for Hackensack, which will play Union City on Saturday in the semifinals.

Junior point guard Nahzir Smith, who helped lead the Ghosts from eight points down in the final four minutes to a win in the Passaic County Tournament final against Wayne Valley less than two weeks ago, scored five points in a 20-second spurt. The last three of those came on a rainbow banker in the lane on which he was fouled and he made the accompanying free throw to get Eastside to within 54-47 with 2:49 left. Smith’s two free throws with 1:25 left brought the Ghosts as close as they would get, 55-49, with 1:25 to play, but Hackensack had the answer.

Breaking the Eastside halfcourt trap all by himself, Richardson dribbled around and through the Ghosts. He avoided the five-second count at the top of the key, turned the corner into the lane and then dribbled back out before firing a pass to a wide open Saliba, who made the wide open layup to just about ice the game.

The Comets then ended the game in style when Richardson lobbed one up for Emedoh, who was just finishing off his alley-oop dunk as the final buzzer sounded. The win sends fourth-seeded Hackensack into Saturday’s sectional semifinal where it will visit top-seeded Union City, a winner over Montclair on Thursday night.

“We played Eastside earlier in the season and we lost but I feel like tonight we played with a lot more courage. We have a better chemistry now. We’ve had some ups and downs, but at the end of the day we are a team, we are a family and we executed very well,” said Razeyah Surrell, who gave Hackensack quality minutes off the bench. “All of the things that we have been through have made us really close. We have helped each other and that is what is a team is supposed to do.”

Junior Al-Jamu Johnson had 8 points for Eastside, which finished the season with a 19-6 record.

Hackensack’s unity showed on the score sheet. Richardson led the way with 16 points, but the shots were evenly distributed. Saliba (12 points) and Emedoh (11 points) also finished in double figures while Taylor added 8 points to go with his good work with the ball. Surrell finished with 6, Drakeford had 5 and Mykel Swanston had the other 3 points for the Comets, who improved to 19-8 on the season.

Smith led all scorers with 23 for Eastside (19-6) while Ta’Wan Grier and Al-Jamu Johnson, who battled foul trouble all night long, each had 8 for the Ghosts, who will have four of five starters back next year.

There will be a new champion in North 1, Group 4 this season and Hackensack is one of four teams left with a chance to claim the crown. The Comets last sectional title came in 2013 in Taylor’s first year as the head coach.

“We are excited about going down to Union City because it means we are alive to play another game,” said Taylor. “We will get prepared tomorrow and we will be ready to go on Saturday.”

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