Mickell Taylor had one of the best offensive days in Jambo histoty. He went for 47 and Teaneck needed every one of them in a 86-78 win over River Dell in an overtime thriller.
TENAFLY – Mickell Taylor is no secret. The leading scorer in all of New Jersey this season, Taylor is on the top line of every opponent's scouting report and the focus of every gameplan. Saying "we have to stop Taylor," is a whole lot easier than stopping, or even slowing, the senior guard.
He is a killer, an unlimited range shooter who can rip it with his feet set or off the dribble. Try to run him off the 3-point line and he happily and aggressively goes to the basket. Put him on the free throw line and it is lights out.
Those phases of his game are there for everyone to see, but he also has intangibles that lead to overflow offensive production. What is not so obvious is his engine, his use of angles, his strength and his cool-under-pressure demeanor.
The perfect illustration was down the stretch of a barnburner on Saturday morning, a Bergen County Jamboree Round of 16 game where the 4th-seeded Highwaymen we locked in a battle with No. 13 River Dell that needed an extra period to decide.
River Dell has an experienced and locked in coaching staff that knew, just like everyone else in the gym, that the best way to try to get a stop was to force the ball out of Taylor's hands. There was just no way to do it.
Taylor worked behind every pick, squeezed through every tangle, maintained his dribble in tight spaces and never forced a thing except fouls from the Golden Hawks when every other option was exhausted.
Taylor finished with 47 points that included seven 3 pointers and, after not shooting a free throw through the first three quarters, he finished 16 of 19 from the stripe to carry Teaneck to a 86-78 victory and into the Jambo quarterfinals where it will play No. 12 Cresskill, an upset winner over No. 5 Ridgewood, next Sunday at Fairleigh Dickinson University.
"He is our best player, he is the leading scorer in the state of New Jersey overall and he is ready for the big moments. Tonight, he showed it," said Teaneck head coach Damon Wright. "I didn't think we played our best basketball for three quarters, but in the fourth quarter and overtime [Taylor] came for it."
Sophomore Iain Rossig scored 22 points for River Dell, which gave it a run from the No. 13 seed.
Before Taylor fouled out three different starters in the final 1:30 of the extra session, the Golden Hawks were giving as good as they got. Their 24 second quarter points took them from down 10 at the end of the first period to up 31-29 at the intermission.
"We've been on a good run the last three weeks and we are playing with some confidence," said River Dell head coach Ronnie Van Saders. "I thought our kids played really well, really hard. The effort was great and they never quit."
With a 10-2 run to open the second quarter River Dell led for final 6:04 of the first half. Four straight points by David Liranzo put the Hawks up 17-14 and they led straight through until Jon Jimenez fastbreak finish to open the third quarter scoring got Teaneck back even. There was another tie at 36 after Taylor's triple from the wing, but sophomore Iain Rossig's basket in transition put River Dell back in front where it stayed right through to the end of the quarter, which ended 50-49.
The impressive part of Taylor's game is that he leaves room for his teammates to contribute. He takes the most shots by far, but few are forced and he will get up one his own for a better one for someone else. It was Anthony Odoemelam's conventional 3-point play to open the fourth quarter that put the Highwaymen up 52-50 and Anthony Farrell's hanger in the lane that made it 54-52 with 6:40 left in regulation.
But as the stakes grew, the ball rarely left Taylor's hands and he answered everything that was thrown at him by a variety of Golden Hawks who took turns trying to wrest control.
River Dell's Nick Clark hit a 3 from the wing with 4:39 left to put RD up 58-57 and Taylor answered with driving layup and added a steal-and-score to put Teaneck up 61-58. Liranzo dropped a 3 to tie it back up at 61 with 2:26 left and Taylor answered with two free throws at the other end 18 seconds later.
The last tie of regulation was at 66 after Rossig's putback a miss, made a free throw and was fouled with 44 seconds remaining and if all that was not enough, it got even wilder from there. Taylor made two free throws with 42 seconds left before Charlie LoPresti gave River Dell its last lead of regulation and the game with a 3 from top of the arc.
AJ Farrell finished with a double-double for Teaneck, which will play Cresskill in the quarterfinals.
Taylor again made two free throws (he was 6 for 6 in the fourth quarter) with 17 seconds to go for a one-point Teaneck lead before River Dell's final possession culminated with two free throws down 70-69 with just :01.74 ticks left. The first free throw bounded out, the second was pure and Farrell's heave from halfcourt just missed.
Overtime...
Taylor gave Teaneck the lead right out of the gate with a 3, and Liranzo tied it for the last time, 75-75, with a second chance triple with 2:31 to go. But all of the chasing, all of the energy expended and all of effort put into trying to keep the ball away from Taylor eventually took its toll. He made six straight free throws in a 48-second span to finally push Teaneck on to the quarterfinals.
River Dell (10-7) bowed out in rousing fashion as Rossig (26 points), a sophomore, and Liranzo (22), a senior, combined for 48 points. Clark scored all 9 of his points from behind the arc, LoPresti (8 points) made a couple of 3s, David Nunez finished with 7 and Joe Sayilik added two field goals for the Hawks.
Farrell (11 points, 10 rebounds), Odoemelam (10 points, 8 rebounds), Mateo Bensimon (7 points, 9 boards), Jayden Robinson (6 points), Ben Roberts (3 points) and Jimenez all were key support pillars to Taylor's 47-point banger.
"It was pretty heated all game, but the pressure? I didn't really feel the pressure. I was just staying composed, trusting my game and trusting my teammates' game to pull out the win. I just took what the defense gave me and my coach trusts me enough to make those reads," said Taylor. "Now we have the opportunity to put ourselves out there more. We want to continue to win and keep pushing through."
FOR MORE PHOTOS FROM THIS EVENT PLEASE CLICK HERE. TO BUY A COLLECTOR'S PRINT OF THIS STORY PLEASE VISIT 4-FeetGrafix.com.
