Senior Freddy Herbst scored a game-high 32 points for Dumont, which improved to 4-1 with a 61-48 win over Rutherford at the Herb Cohen Holiday Tournament in Wood-Ridge.
WOOD-RIDGE – Every coach, or at least the good ones, builds lasting relationships with the players that come through his/her program. That being said, this particular group just hits different for Kenny Martoral, the Dumont boys basketball coach. His son Derek is part of an all-senior starting 5 and one of 8 seniors on the roster that have grown up in and around the head coach’s family. Scratch that…all of them are part of the family.
“You are going to make me get emotional,” said the elder Martoral after his team topped previously unbeaten Rutherford, 61-48, in the opening round of the Herb Cohen Holiday Tournament played on Tuesday at Wood-Ridge High School. “This has been a special run and I love these kids. They are in my house, they wake me up at night beeping their horns outside at 11:30 at night, they have been in the backyard; we have been on vacations together. This is the best crew I have ever had and I have been doing this for 30 years.”
Dumont is looking to make the most of this last go-round and is off to a pretty good start. The Huskies’ win over Rutherford ran their record to 4-1 on the season and put them in the tournament semifinals where they will play Becton on Wednesday. Demarest will take on Waldwick in the other semifinal while in the consolation bracket Park Ridge will match up against Rutherford and Elmwood Park will meet host Wood-Ridge.
All of Dumont’s seniors have a role to play and Freddy Herbst’s is to be the centerpiece of the offense. At 6-foot-6, Herbst is just as comfortable leading the break as he is finishing it, is just as capable of making the midrange jumper from the foul line as he is diving from there to the hoop and he gets after it on the offensive glass.
Always the focus of opposing defenses, Herbst poured in a game-high 32 points that included a made 3-pointer and 7 of 9 made free throws. He scored 17 points in the first half that ended with the Huskies in front, 36-19.
Senior Danny Francisco scored a team-high 13 points for Rutherford, which is now 4-1 on the season.
“I just come out fighting and ready to play each game. It’s up to me to stay confident, to trust my teammates and trust my coaches to put me in the right spots and then go out and execute,” said Herbst. “We have been together for such a long time. The bond is there, the love for each other is there and we are just going to keep working. This will not be over until we see that state championship ring.”
Dumont is at its best when its secondary scorers can take some of the pressure off of Herbst and Jackson Angeles did the trick early against Rutherford. He opened the game’s scoring with a wide open 3 from the corner off a ball reversal and added another midway through the opening period. Dumont closed out the first quarter on an 11-2 run with Gabe Victoria’s fastbreak bucket off a give-and-go with Nick Giangregorio giving the Huskies a 18-7 lead after one.
Giangregorio, the lone junior in Dumont’s rotation, hit a 3-pointer 34 seconds into the second quarter to make it 21-9 and the lead stayed in double digits the rest of the way. Herbst scored 11 points in the second, including a buzzer-beating layup off an inbounds play, to give the Huskies a 36-19 edge at the intermission.
“Rutherford is a young team and they are good, don’t get me wrong, but we are a veteran team and we came out strong,” said Angeles (10 points), who was one of three Huskies to finish in double figures. “We work around Freddy. When Freddy catches the ball on the elbow he draws the whole defense and then he is looking for us, getting us wide open shots like I had in the corner to start. We play off him and then keep going.”
Nick Vasilakis’ (10 points) bucket off a Derek Martoral feed put Dumont up by 20 for the first time, 47-27, with 3:27 left in the third quarter before Rutherford (4-1) finished with a strong final period. The Bulldogs with just two seniors – Danny Francisco and Matt Scheibe – in the starting lineup are off to a good start to the season and showed their potential down the stretch when they got the tempo up and started to turn defense into offense.
Senior Jackson Angeles (10 points) was one of three double-digit scorers for Dumont, which will play Becton in the semifinals on Wednesday.
Herbst is difference maker as he can erase mistakes in the in the middle of the Dumont defense and the rest of the Huskies are strong and capable defenders and rebounders. Rutherford struggled in halfcourt sets, but when it sped things up it found success. Sophomore Max Gastelu hit a 3-pointer to open the fourth quarter scoring and then completed a conventional 3-point play with 4:56 left that kicked off a 7-2 run that helped close the final deficit.
Rutherford also got production from its bench with Maximo Correa (10 points), Chris Gioia (8 points) and Chris Marullo combining for 21 of the Bulldogs’ 48 points. Fernandez finished with a team-high 13 points, Gastelu scored all 6 of his points in the fourth quarter, Matthew Remias added two field goals and Scheibe and Noah Pesantez split Rutherford’s other 4 points.
Herbst, Angeles and Nick Vsasilakis all finished in double figures for Dumont, whose only loss this season came against fellow North 1, Group 2 state sectional tournament contender Ramsey. Derek Martoral, Connor McAllister and Victoria all chipped in with 2-point field goals and Giangregorio had a 3 for the Huskies.
“Rutherford battled and I give them a lot of credit. We have the size and experience and every time we went on a run looking to put it away they battled back. Kudos to them, that’s a great program with a great coach and they are going to win a lot of games,” said Kenny Martoral. “Freddy was big today like he always is. He is probably 80 percent of our offense. Everyone knows it, they know he is the man we go to and we just keep feeding him and he finds a way. He gets beat up every single night, but he is a warrior. Every time we needed a basket we found Freddy and he would either make a big shot, knock down some free throws are find a wide open shooter.”
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