Demarest senior Zach Schweid scored a game-high 31 points for NV/Demarest, which advanced to the Jambo quarterfinals with a 69-52 win over rival Old Tappan.
DEMAREST -- So many times the game's biggest shot comes late in a close game, a tie-breaker or buzzer beater in a dramatic moment. Sometimes it comes shortly after the opening tip. Twenty seconds into Saturday’s Bergen County Jamboree Round of 16 matchup against sister school Northern Valley/Old Tappan, NV/Demarest senior Nick Gorenstein buried a 3-pointer from the corner and it was significant.
Old Tappan likes to play a zone, a 3-2 that does not necessarily extend out aggressively. On days when the opposition struggles from the outside and, more specifically, from behind the 3-point line, the Golden Knights become dangerous. Had Demarest struggled from deep, they might have been in for a nail-biter at Tenafly High School.
Gorenstein early trey was the first sign that the Norsemen were not going to struggle on the offensive end.
“It just set the tone for the whole game. To come out and hit a big shot was important. It’s the Jamboree, it’s single elimination and we wanted to win and move on,” said Gorenstein. “It was also a rivalry game, so we wanted to come out playing hard right from the start.”
Gorenstein’s shot gave Demarest its first lead that was momentarily erased when Old Tappan sophomore David Brennan nailed a 3 on the other end, but Zach Schweid scored the next five points of the game and the Norsemen were off and running on the way to a 69-52 victory.
Schweid, the senior point guard who needs just four points to become the all-time leading scorer in program history, close the gap on current record holder John Buckley (1,265 points) with 31 points that included making 5 of his 6 3-point attempts.
Schweid sees the game like the varsity veteran that he is and knew exactly how to attack the intra-district rival.
“It was nice to play a team that you know because it was the same scout as normal. We were prepared this time for the zone,” said Schweid. “We were trying to isolate one side of the zone, overload it to one side. Then once we got the ball to the middle of the floor the whole zone opened up.
Nick Holloway hit four 3s and scored a team-high 18 points for Old Tappan, which is now 10-6 on the season..
Finding quality shots is one thing, knocking them down is another and Demarest had no problem doing that. Gorenstein hit three first quarter 3-pointers and Schweid and Joel Mathew hit one apiece Mathew’s came with 34 seconds left in the first quarter to put Demarest up 19-10 after one period and Schweid’s 3-pointer to open the second quarter pushed the Norsemen’s lead into double digits for the first time.
Demarest led by as many as 12 in the first half in which it hit eight 3s, but four straight points by senior Nick Holloway got Old Tappan to within 32-24 at the intermission. The Knights have their fair share of shooters as well and hung on the periphery of the game for most of the third quarter, but the combination of Demarest staying hot and Old Tappan staying in its preferred defensive alignment made it tough to close the gap.
Julian Gorenstein, the sophomore younger brother of Nick, hit a step-in jumper to give Demarest a 52-33 lead heading into the fourth quarter and that was about it.
Holloway (18 points, 4 3s) and Dylan Drullinsky (16 points) led Old Tappan, which fell to 10-6 on the season.
Schweid’s 31 points and Nick Gorenstein’s 15 led the Norsemen while Mathew and Marco DeCroce each finished with 8 meaning Demarest’s four senior starters combined for 62 of NVD’s 69 points.
Demarest has advanced to the quarterfinals for the second straight season and will play defending champion and No. 4 seed Don Bosco Prep in next weekend’s quarterfinal round. The Norsemen are on a five-game winning streak and is 13-3 on the season, one that the tight-knit group of seniors has been looking forward to for a long time.
“As kids we would talk about how this was our year. Senior year was going to be the one,” said DeCroce, who will play football at Fordham next year. “It’s crazy that we are actually here, but I love playing with these guys. It’s a brotherhood.”
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