Saturday,
December 19, 2015
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
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Yassin Salah made two free throws with 5.6 seconds left to seal Rutherford's opening nigh stunner, a 48-45 win at home against defending state sectional champion Manchester. |
RUTHERFORD – Manchester returns much of its team from last year when it went on a brilliant postseason run that culminated in a North 1, Group 2 state sectional championship. The Falcons were a tough opening night draw for Rutherford, which is climbed back into relevance just last year after a few down years. A loss would not have been the end of the world for the Bulldogs, who could have used it as a lesson in what it takes to compete with the top teams of like size in North Jersey.
Well, what should the Bulldogs do now?
Not only did they compete with the talented defending champion, but Rutherford scored six of the game’s final seven points in the final 1:23 of the fourth quarter to pull off a stunner, a 48-45 victory that certainly changes the mindset of the program.
“Now it’s kind of the opposite,” said Rutherford head coach Nick DeBari. “Now we are not trying to pump them back up, the message now is, hey, let’s get back to work. We’ll enjoy this, but we are coming back in here tomorrow at 10:30 in the morning and this one is over. This is just one game, not a season.”
But what a game it was for Rutherford (1-0), which avoided getting blown out early, survived another Manchester attempt to pull away in the second quarter and then executed precisely down the stretch to pull out the win.
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Senior Alex Morales scored 18 of Manchester's 20 second half points and all 11 in the fourth quarter. |
“We got blown out by them twice last year and there were a lot of people who thought that it would happen again, that we would be blown out at home in the first game of the season,” said Rutherford point guard Dom Mignone. “We took all of that negativity and used it as motivation to come out and get the ‘W;.”
Manchester is still in line for another special season. The Falcons are huge across the front line with Akiel Murray, Luis Perez and Alex Morales, but it is in the backcourt where they are biding their time. Behind starters Keshon Pearson and Zach LeGreaux is a hole that will have to wait to be filled as three backcourt players are ineligible for the first 30 days of the season.
It didn’t look like it was going to be much of a problem early on as LeGreaux scored the first six points of the game with two 3-pointers in the first 1:27. But Rutherford’s zone made it tough to get open looks from distance after that and Manchester did not hit another 3-pointer in the game, zero over the final 30:33.
Manchester also went zone for a majority of the game, which allowed Rutherford to keep the pace in its favor and when the Bulldogs finally got some shots to go down after falling behind 11-3 to start, the game was on. Chris Lopez’s lone field goal of the game came on his first shot of the game, a 3 from the wing finished off a 10-2 run that brought Rutherford even at 13 after the first quarter.
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Point guard Dom Mignone scored a team-high 17 points for Rutherford. |
The Bulldogs took their first lead of the night on Prince Smith’s reverse layup to open the second period, but Manchester responded with a 10-3 run to retake control. Morales, one of North Jersey’s most talented offensive threats, was content to distribute the ball in the first half and he had five assists in the second quarter alone. His drive and dish set up Perez for a layup that gave the Falcons a 25-18 lead before Mignone answered with a 3 that made it a four-point Manchester lead at the half.
There were three ties in the third quarter before Mignone hit the last of his four 3-pointers in the game. That one, with 4:49 to go in the third, gave Rutherford a 32-29 lead and it had the same three-point cushion, 32-29, heading into the fourth quarter.
With the game hanging in the balance, Morales, the senior who scored 563 points last season, left the passing to his teammates and took over on the offensive end. He scored 18 of his game-high 21 points in the second half and all 11 of Manchester’s 11 fourth quarter points. Morales scored off the offensive glass and in transition to give his team the lead back at 38-37, but Rutherford matched him point for point. The game was tied at 38, 40, 42 and 44.
It was Mignone, off a line diagonal pass from a sideout that tied the game for the last and Regan Scanlon’s putback with 44 seconds to play that gave Rutherford the lead for good, but it wasn’t over yet. Morales made one of two free throws with 15 seconds to play to get Manchester to within a point and the Falcons used up their final two teams fouls to put Rutherford in the bonus.
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Akiel Murray scored 10 points for Manchester, which is playing short-handed until mid-January. |
Yassin Salah had the chance to put the Bulldogs in prime position to seal the win. He faced a one-and-one situation with :05.6 left in the game. He made both without so much as touching the rim to put Rutherford up three and Manchester barely got off a desperation 3 as time expired and it fell well short.
“I’ve been working on free throws all the time in practice, all the time. My teammates are always asking me why I am always shooting free throws, but it is for times like that,” said Salah. “When we got into halftime and we were still in the game, we knew we were going to find a way to win it. We just had to execute.”
Rutherford had just one double-digit scorer as Mignone scored a team-high 17, but it got contributions from all eight players it ran out on the court. Scanlon, in the middle alone against Manchester’s huge front court, scored 8, but his more important contributions were in changing shots and limiting second chance opportunities. Salah scored all 6 of his points after halftime and Smith also added 6 off the bench. James Dolaghan (4 points) made two third quarter field goals and Lopez and Joey Briccola each made first quarter 3-pointers to keep Manchester from pulling too far in front early.
“The preseason was such a rollercoaster. We would play one scrimmage good then one bad and I didn’t really know what to expect,” said DeBari. “Then we come out here and I thought we played great for 32 minutes, which we needed to do against a team like that that is so good, so athletic. It’s a great start.”
It was not exactly the kind of start that Manchester (0-1) was looking for, but there is no reason to panic. Morales led the way with 21 points while Murray (10 points), LeGreaux (8 points) and Perez (6 points) rounded out the scoring for the Falcons, which will have a tight rotation until the reinforcements arrive in January.
“We are short-handed. I have three ineligible guards and that kills the depth and leaves us short of shooters. When you can’t hit from the outside, the emphasis for the defense goes to our main guy Alex and they were triple-teaming him. That made it tough,” said Manchester head coach Rich Sponzilli. “We have a lot to prove this year after what we did last year and we know that everybody wants to test themselves against Manchester. We are going to get everybody’s best shot and tonight shows us that we have to be ready to match that type of intensity.”
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