Aidan Goldschneider helped lead Tenafly to its 17th straight win to start the season, a 67-49 win at Old Tappan on Tuesday..
OLD TAPPAN - Tenafly opened the second half with an 11-2 run and coasted to a 67-49 win over the Golden Knights Tuesday afternoon. A couple of days after advancing to the Bergen County Jamboree quarterfinals, the Tigers kept their focus and improved to 17-0 on the season.
"I knew we had a very talented group," said junior guard Adin Goldschneider, who finished with 21 points. "I didn't think 17-0 but I knew we could win a lot of games. It doesn't seem real, 17-0. It's a great season. It feels amazing."
"We had a good season last year, 20-6, and made it pretty far in the states," added senior co-captain Nick Baldini, who led all scorers with 25. "We lost some key players, our captain Jake [Yanofsky] and our big man Dan [Regev]. So I was a little worried how we would match up with teams size wise, but [junior forward] Jase [Harris] has been amazing filling that role perfectly. I didn't think we would be as good as we are now but I really did think we were going to be good. I was so confident and I was excited to play."
The Tigers jumped out to a quick lead but a 3-pointer by Knights senior Luke Behrens and a jumper by sophomore point guard Jake Totten gave Old Tappan a 5-4 lead. Totten did a nice job in relief of junior starter Carmen Porcelli, out with an injury.
"I thought he played so tough," Old Tappan coach Craig Ferraro said of Totten. "He really stepped up and handled the point against one of the best defenders in the area. And he played great 'D' to stay in front of Goldschneider. But Goldschneider is legit. He hits contested shots like he's wide open."
After Baldini buried a 3, senior Joey Martin tied the game for OT with a putback. But a 9-0 run, featuring a putback by Goldschneider, jumper by senior Nick Lewin and a long trey and drive to the basket by Baldini put the Tigers ahead for good.
On offense the key to Tigers' success is the way they move the ball. They zipped it around the perimeter to set up open shots throughout the game.
"I think we were all feeling it," Baldini said. "We've been feeling really good as a team recently, especially on the days leading up to this game. I think our practices were really team-efficient. We all want to play, we all want to win together and win as a team. A product of that has been really good ball movement."
"We do that a lot in practice," Goldschneider said. "That's what we focused on the last few days. We realized in the Lyndhurst game (a 58-57 win in the Jamboree) how we played a little selfishly and sometimes when we weren't it was really working. So the last few days we emphasized really moving the ball and playing together. That's what you saw today. It was all interconnected and it was such an efficient game we were very happy with the outcome."
Tenafly coach Jeff Koehler was impressed with the ball movement and was happy that the passing (especially by Goldschneider) led to open shots.
"What Adin is doing so well is dishing assists," Koehler said. "He was getting three a game but now he's getting 8, 9, 10. One thing we talked about over the summer was Michael Jordan. Jordan could score 73 and lose but if he scored 30-something and got 10 or 15 assists and got people going, now you have something. Adin and the rest of the guys are getting that. It starts with Nick [Baldini] and Caleb [Berkowitz], the captains, and they do a great job."
Old Tappan fought hard throughout the game. Midway through the second quarter junior David Brennan scored from in close and a minute later tallied on a putback to cut Tenafly's lead to 26-20.
"David Brennan is one of the best players in the county," said Koehler. "He is someone I have a lot of respect for. He's a monster, is relentless on the boards and is only a junior."
Brennan and Martin each scored 13 points to lead the Golden Knights in scoring.
The other key component of the Tenafly offense is their balanced scoring.
"It helps so much," Goldschneider said. "There are so many threats on the team they can't just ice out one guy. If they ice out one guy someone else is going to step up. Nick (Baldini) played amazing today. I thought I played pretty well, [Nick] Lewin (14 points) played well, Jase (Harris, 5 points) played well. We all played very well. We all stepped up to help win the game. We all trust each other."
"That's been the message all year," said Baldini. "It's not about any individual player, it's about the team. And that's what's been driving us to win games. We all want to win together. We don't care about how much anybody scores on the team, we just care that we're winning games."
But as good as the offense is, any Koehler team emphasizes defense above all.
"Koehler likes to say he doesn't even care about offense," Baldini said, laughing. "And he's right. When I was a freshman and sophomore I wasn't a great offensive player so I had to work on my defense to get onto the court. And I think that's something I brought with me. Now as a captain I try to share that message with the team. Defense is so important and it leads to great offense and defense is something that really wins games."
"I think we did very well today with rotations," said Goldschneider, "denying their two best players, holding them the first three quarters very well. I think that's what won us the game - playing hard knowing that defense actually wins the game."
Tenafly hosts Pascack Valley Thursday night and then plays Don Bosco in the quarterfinals of the Bergen Jamboree on Saturday afternoon.
"They have to understand they have 17 days left in the season, 17 basketball days of practices and games combined, excluding the states," Koehler said. "It's a blink of an eye in a person's life. They're in a moment where they can make history. I think they are up for the challenge. But it starts one day at a time, one practice at a time."
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