Jake Ellis, a sophomore from Hoboken, piloted St. Mary past Hackensack, 66-60, and into the Bergen County Jamboree semifinals for the first time since 2013.
HACKENSACK – The one free transfer rule certainly has changed high school basketball in New Jersey. Gone are the days when student athletes were locked into their geographical sending districts and whether that is a positive development for the overall health of high sports is up for debate. What is not debatable, however, is how that change has positively affected individual players on the micro level.
Had the old norms been in place the wider Bergen County audience may never have heard of Matt Kennedy in anything other than a box score and Jake Ellis would certainly never introduced himself. Kennedy came from Lodi, a program that is not regularly included in the Bergen County Jamboree field, and Ellis comes from Hoboken, a Group 1 in Hudson County.
Because both chose to transfer to St. Mary, both are now on the big stage and making the most of it. Kennedy scored a game-high 20 points and Ellis added 17 from the point guard spot as the Gaels used a huge third quarter to get the best of Hackensack, 66-60, in the quarterfinals of the Jambo at the Bogota Savings Center on the campus of Fairleigh Dickinson on Sunday.
"This was the first Division 1 court that we ever played on. To be in this atmosphere, it was a blessing," said Kennedy, a senior who is on the radar of a host of Division 2 colleges. "I always dreamed about playing in a big gym like this. Especially where I come from, we never had stuff like this available to us."
Hackensack, the No. 6 seed, came out flying and took a 10-2 lead to open the game and had a 14-9 advantage after the first quarter, but St. Mary made a quick and impactful adjustment. The Gaels are a predominantly man-to-man defensive team but switched to a 2-3 zone after giving up 10 of the game's first 12 points. It worked so well that they never came out of it.
"We were down 10-2 early in the first playing straight man. We switched to zone and never looked back," said St. Mary head coach Brian Gaccione, who crossed the 400-career win milestone earlier this season. "Once we switched to zone the whole game changed. We stayed with it and dared them to make some shots."
Senior Marcos Estrada topped Hackensack with 14 points.
St. Mary made up all of the ground lost early and took its first lead, 17-15, with 5:42 left in the first half on a Kennedy 3-pointer. Up 27-25 at halftime, St. Mary opened the third quarter with a 13-3 run to force some separation. Five different Gaels scored in the period with Kennedy leading the way with 9.
St. Mary scored 40 points in the middle two quarters and the outburst was enough to earn the Gaels spot in the Jambo semifinals for the just the second time in school history. The first and last time came in 2013 when, as the No. 20, they were the lowest seed ever to make the Final 4 before falling to eventual champion Teaneck.
This time St. Mary is the No. 3 seed and has a date with No. 2 Tenafly next Sunday with the winner earning a first ever spot in Bergen County championship game. And the Gaels, who scheduled hard on purpose, have been on a tear.
"We were 5-3 at one point and got killed by Seton Hall Prep, but we have won 15 in a row since then, we have 20 wins five years in a row now. Happy where we are at. Pretty cool," said Gaccione, whose team lost in the first round of the Jambo last season before parachuting down and winning the BIT. "I think our out of conference schedule had a lot to do with us being able to play in games like this. We went out and played 6 or 7 of the top teams in the state, winning a couple and losing a couple, but I think we learned a lot of playing against tough competition."
Hackensack proved to be tough competition, too, as the Comets made a run at it in the back half of the final period. Down 49-31 after three quarters and down 20. 57-37, after Kennedy scored on the fastbreak with 4:22 left in the regulation, Hackensack threw everything it had at a comeback.
Merrick Olkowski scored 16 points for St. Mary, which will play Tenafly in the semifinals next weekend.
Abdul Konate's putback kicked off a 10-2 Hackensack run that got the Comets back to within 12, 59-47, with 1:50 to play and continued to narrow the gap through the final minute-and-a-half, but St. Mary had built a big enough cushion to ride out the storm.
Marcos Estrada (14 points), Quadir May (13), Jamiko Smith (11) and Konate all finished in double figures for Hackensack. Kennedy, Ellis and Olkowksi (16 points) all finished in double figures for St. Mary. CJ Brown knocked down a pair of 3s, Ilan Santos added a pair of field goals and a free throw and Eli Quiles' second quarter field goal rounded out the scoring for the Gaels, who are one win away from their first-ever county final appearance.
"It was fun. I was just a really great experience and I am glad that we were able to win, get to the Final 4 and get back here next week," said Ellis. "Just to be able to experience the growth of this program. We have become a family. We are a small private school, we love each other and we love getting in the gym and winning. That is it, that is everything."
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