Senior Lucas Boudakian, recently back from injury, made some big plays down the stretch as Tenafly came from behind to nip Pascack Valley, 51-43, in overtime on Thursday.
HILLSDALE - Tenafly rallied from an 11-point halftime deficit to defeat Pascack Valley, 51-43, in overtime Thursday afternoon.
“Our one thing is - we’re always trying to win the third quarter,” said Tenafly coach Jeff Koehler. “We didn’t play well [in the first half] but I think PV had a lot to do with that. They came out on fire, they were tough, they were physical, everything you know PV is with Al Coleman coaching. I think my kids played hard. It was just PV was that much better.”
The Tigers took their first lead of the game, 40-39, with 1:25 to go in regulation on a great move by senior Yuval Guttman, who maneuvered around a pair of Valley defenders before driving to the basket for a score. Tenafly senior forward Lucas Boudakian added a free throw with 33.8 seconds to go but Valley junior Trevor Kirkby drove to the basket and tied the game 41-all with 16 seconds left to send the game into overtime.
In the first minute of overtime junior Jake Yanofsky hit a jumper from the top of the key to give Tenafly the lead, but Kirkby again drove and scored to tie it, 43-43.
“Kirkby is awesome,” said Koehler. “When you have a talent like that [playing against you] you’re always worried about him down low.”
The Panthers missed a shot and an outlet pass sprung Tigers senior Reilly Benowitz ahead of the field for a layup. He was fouled on the play and his basket and free throw gave Tenafly the lead for good, 46-43. He finished with a game-high 13 points.
For Benowitz it was his third game of the season as he is back after breaking his wrist playing football a week before the season began.
“He’s one of my favorite all time players,” Koeher said. “When I say favorite, what I mean is he’s an awesome talent, he never misses practice, he’s always there, he’s in the off season and he’s a leader. Even as a sophomore on the team you could see. Defensively from his freshman year to now it’s light years and it’s just getting better and better.”
A minute later Yanofsky hit 1-of-2 free throws and Benowitz canned two more to put the game out of reach for Valley.
“We talk about it all the time - you win and lose games on the foul line,” said Koehler. “When they had to foul we had to get them down. The other day against Demarest (a 59-56 loss) we missed a few and we didn’t hold the ball like we did today. When you get that lead against a team like this with less than two minutes there is one way to win that game. You take care of the ball, they foul you, you make the foul shots. They miss a shot, you get the ball, they foul you, you make the foul shots and you win the game.”
The first half of the game was all Valley. Sophomore Dante DaCosta scored 6 points and Kirkby and sophomore Liam Higgins added 4 apiece as the Panthers took a 15-7 lead in the first quarter. Valley added to the lead thanks, in part, to 6 points from junior Devin Merker in the second quarter to grab a 25-14 lead heading into intermission.
But Tenafly “won” the third quarter and cut the Panthers lead to five, 32-27, heading into the final frame.
“In the [halftime] locker room we were like, ‘We’ve been down much worse.’ We put our heads up, went out there and fought back,” Boudakian said. “We were screening and talking a lot out there. In timeouts everyone was ‘keep your head up, keep your head up,’ even when we were still down. We just kept our heads up and remained confident.”
Tenafly kept chipping away in the fourth quarter. Guttman and sophomore Nicholas Lewin combined for 11 points in the quarter and coincidentally each finished with 11 points in the game as the Tigers improved to 11-6 on the season.
Valley evened its record to 10-10 as Kirkby, Merker and Higgins each had 11 points and DaCosta chipped in with 8.
“PV is a great team - strong, physical, good shooting,” said Boudakian. “We knew coming into this it would be a hard game but we knew we could beat them. We know our talent and we knew we could fight back. The Jambo win helped us tremendously. Our next Jambo game is Saturday against Northern Highlands. We have a lot of confidence and hopefully we’ll go out there like we did last Saturday and beat them and go to the Final Four. We’re not looking ahead, we’re going game by game, day by day and we’ll see what happens next.”
“They’re a tough team and we snuck one out today,” said Koehler. “We know that. Good teams find a way to do it. Our kids realize the magnitude of the games, especially league games. It was a good game and we won but we have to move on. We play them in a week and it’s going to be another battle. We’re going to celebrate tonight and worry about Northern Highlands on Saturday.”
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