Thursday, December 27, 2007

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

HILLSDALE -- The Joe Poli Holiday Girls Basketball Tournament is stocked with talented teams and that is the way Pascack Valley head coach Jeff Jasper likes it. The tournament is named in honor of his friend and former colleague, Joe Poli, who was a principal at Pascack Valley High School before passing away in 1989 and is a celebration of his legacy.

The tournament, which includes two ranked teams from Essex County and six from Bergen County, is a fitting tribute to the man for which it is named.

In the first clip in the playlist under the Audio Report to the right, Jasper talks about what Poli meant to the PV community and about the tournament, which is being played in the brand spankin' new gym on the Pascack Valley campus.

RUTHERFORD 54, MT. ST. DOMINIC 32 -- As for the action on the floor, Rutherford, the defending BCSL-American Division champion and a state sectional finalist last season, improved to 6-0 this year with its 54-32 win over Mt. St. Dominic.

Jackie Mann led Rutherford with 17 points and Taylor Wootton scored 12 for the Bulldogs, who will play Old Tappan, which knocked off Montclair in the tournament opener, in Friday's semifinal round.

We caught up with Rutherford head coach Nick DiBari after his team's win. In the the second clip in the above Audio Report playlist, DiBari talks about what his team was able to do in the impressive win. In the final clip, DiBari talks to NJS.com's Cory Doviak about dealing with the pressure of being a marked team, one that not only is capable of making deep runs in the county and state tournaments, but also one that is expected to.