Sophomore Mikell Taylor scored a game-high 25 points for Teaneck, the No. 5 seed, which advanced to the North 1, Group 3 state sectional semifinals with a 72-71 victory on the road at No. 4 Demarest.
DEMAREST – This late in the season there are only good teams left playing basketball, teams with an understanding of the circumstances and the ability to execute a game plan drawn up by coaching staffs that have obviously put the time in.
Or sometimes the coaches are confident enough in their teams’ abilities to just let them loose, no sitting in a zone to try to limit possessions, no taking advantage of the fact that there is no shot clock in New Jersey High School basketball to shorten games.
Such was the case on Tuesday night in the North 1, Group 3 state sectional quarterfinals where No. 5 seeded Teaneck visited No. 4 Northern Valley/Demarest. There were adjustments made by the respective coaches for sure, but no harnesses were applied in a back-and-forth thriller.
Teaneck was on pace to score 96 points through the first half and Demarest led as late as midway through the fourth quarter, but a mini 5-point run in the final minute gave the Highwaymen just enough gas to get over the finish line in a 72-71 victory. Teaneck advances to Thursday’s quarterfinal round where it will visit top seed and defending champion Ramapo.
“I am feeling good that we got the win, but the way we got it was just too close for my comfort,” said Teaneck head coach Damon Moore, whose team was 3-for-4 from the free throw line heading into the fourth quarter and just 4 of 8 in the final period. “You have to make free throws down the stretch and we made it tough on ourselves.”
Everything about this game was tough. The two teams, which are league rivals, split the season series and while both nearly gained some separation at different points in the game, the other was always able to reel itself back in to set up a fourth quarter in which neither had more than a five-point advantage.
Senior Jake Goldenberger was one of four Demarest starters to finish in double figures..
Demarest raced out to a 10-2 lead, but also set a pace that Teaneck was only too happy to oblige. Sophomore Mikell Taylor and junior Ty Carnegie are a backcourt tandem that are tough to stay in front of. Both have lightning quick first steps, both can shoot off the dribble and also share the ball. Junior Jarell Harmitt was an early beneficiary as he scored 10 of his 15 points in a first quarter that saw Teaneck go from down 8 to up 22-20 by the end of the period.
Carnegie made three second quarter 3-pointers, Taylor made two and scored the final five points of the first half to give the Highwaymen their first double digit lead, 48-38, at the intermission.
A 96-point pace was nothing that Demarest was interested in trying to match and, while it stayed in the man-to-man to start the second half, it put Zach Schweid on Taylor with no help responsibilities and that wedged a stick in the spokes of Teaneck’s offensive rhythm in a third quarter. The Highwaymen scored just nine points in the period as the Norsemen pulled back into a 57-all tie heading into the fourth.
“Second half I was just focused on my teammates and getting stops, playing defense,” said Taylor, who was held to just one third quarter field goal. “I knew they were going to come out and try to face guard me so I just wanted to knock down the shots that I got.”
The answer to getting open was to get out in transition, get the ball on the move and get to the other end before the defense could set up. Three of Taylor’s four second half field goals came in the open floor and two of them came in quick succession when the Highwaymen really needed them.
Brandon Srebnik, the Demarest senior who was honored before the game for reaching the 1,000 career point milestone in the opening round, double overtime win over rival NV/Old Tappan, hit a pull-up jumper with 4:07 left in regulation that gave the Norsemen a 63-60 lead.
Ty Carnegie finished with 20 points for Tenaeck, which will play top-seeded Ramapo in the semifinals on Thursday.
Taylor then hit a 3 in transition to tie the game and got out on the break again to put Teaneck up 65-63 and it would never trail again, but there was one more tie at 65 when Srebnik’s up-fake and step through resulted in a layup with 2:49 to go.
Taylor’s lone second half basket that resulted from a halfcourt set was the driving layup that gave Teaneck back the lead for good and it was followed by two Harmitt free throws that made 69-65.
Srebnik answered with a slicing layup off a feed from Schweid with 1:34 before one of those “No, no, no…Yes, yes, yes” moments. With the ball at the foul line and closely guarded, Teaneck’s Mason Mingo saw Nasir Middleton cutting to the basket and decided to throw a behind-the-back pass that hit Middleton in stride for the layup that made it 71-67 with exactly one minute to play. A 1-for-2 trip to the line by Carnegie with 28 seconds left gave Teaneck a five-point lead with 28 seconds left before Schweid hit a 3 from the corner 6 seconds later cut the Demarest deficit to 72-70.
Teaneck was already in the bonus and Demarest, after a timeout, could have foul right off the inbounds, but instead opted to see if it is press could force a 10 second call or some good fortune. It happened when Teaneck turned the ball over. Srebnik dove on the loose ball, Demarest got a time out with him on the floor and in possession and :10.8 left on the clock.
Demarest held for one shot, was fouled with :03.5 left but only made one of two free throws, which left in one point short. Teaneck missed two from the stripe at the other end, but when the second one bounced off it fell into no man’s land as the buzzer sounded.
“There were definitely some nerves in the fourth quarter, but you have to stay poised and focused,” said Carnegie. “We stayed together as a team and that was the difference tonight.”
It would be hard to pick out any player on either team that did not contribute in some way. Taylor (25 points), Carnegie (20) and Harmitt (15) combined to score 60 of Teaneck’s 72 points. Middleton added 6 points, Caleb Brown had two second quarter field goals, Mingo added a fourth quarter bucket to his highlight reel assist and Emmanuel Smith battled inside and grabbed a couple of tough rebounds.
Srebnik (24 points), Schweid (13), Jake Goldenberg (14) and Nick Gorenstein (11) all scored in double figures for NV/Demarest, which probably just completed one of its best ever season. The Norsemen finished 20-6 against a brutal league schedule, won a state playoff game and reached the quarterfinals of the Bergen County Jamboree for the first time since 1985.
But it is Teaneck that gets the next shot at the Ramapo juggernaut, which is now on an 8-game state tournament winning streak dating back to last year when the Green Raiders won the outright Group 3 state title.
“The Teaneck tradition has always been there, way before I got here and we, as a coaching staff, are just trying to keep it alive. This was a remarkable win. We know how good Demarest is, we know it from the league, which is one of the toughest in New Jersey. All six teams made the state tournament and three of them were playing in this round,” said Wright. “The next one is going to be tough. We play Ramapo and it is an uphill battle. They are a great team, a great program and we just have to play hard and see if we can come out with a victory.”
FOR MORE PHOTOS FROM THIS EVENT PLEASE CLICK HERE. TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT OF THIS STORY PLEASE VISIT 4-FeetGrafix.com.
