Sunday, February 19, 2012

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

Sam Litzky helped Wayne Hills keep its cool down the stretch in its 47-38 upset of top-seed and defending champion DePaul in the semifinals of the Passaic County Tournament.

WAYNE – With it size and athleticism, DePaul's girls basketball team has intimidated many of its opponents before they ever even stepped on the floor. Wayne Hills, however, is not one of those teams and the Patriots heading into Saturday's Passaic County Tournament semifinals looking to prove that their two close losses to DePaul during the regular season were no fluke by any stretch of the imagination. Led by the backcourt of Sam Litzky and Nickolette Driesse, Wayne Hills took over down the stretch, was deadly from the foul line and finally finished off one of their fiercest rivals.

Zana Haobsh, Driesse, and Litzky all hit both ends of one-and-one situations in the final two minutes as fifth-seeded Wayne Hills knocked off top-seeded and defending Passaic County champ DePaul, 47-38, in the Passaic County semifinals at Passaic County Technical Institute.

“This is a huge win for these kids and for our program as a whole,” said Wayne Hills head coach Vinny Porta. “We want to bring back a winning tradition to this program. Beating the defending county champion and getting to a county final is a huge step towards that. When we got behind in the second half we kept our cool and fought our way back. I couldn’t be more proud of the effort we put forth today.”

Brianah Ramos finished with 10 points for DePaul.

Litzky got off to a hot start, hitting a quick three-pointer in what turned out to be a see-saw first quarter before an unfortunate injury changed the complexion of the game. DePaul center Breanna Ramirez is a key cog to the success of the Spartans and in taking the heat off of star forward Jade Walker. After a steal near midcourt, Ramirez dribbled towards the hoop before coming to an abrupt stop. Her left knee buckled underneath her and went down with a knee injury and had to be helped off the floor. She did not return.

After Ramirez’s injury, Walker picked up her third foul just eight seconds into the second quarter and was forced to the bench for the remainder of the half, but the Patriots were only able to take slight advantage of that void in the middle when a pair of free-throws from Litzky gave her team an 18-16 lead at the half.

After a lackluster first half, the Spartans started to assert themselves in the third quarter. Twice they took five-point leads, once on a three-pointer from Brianah Ramos and again on a conventional three-point play from Walker. Wayne Hills refused to wilt as Christie Cherup’s foul-line jumper cut the lead to three, 32-29, heading into the fourth quarter.

“We had a bad third quarter, but we were only down three and we knew we could come back and win this,” said Litzky. “Our team has been in a lot of close games this year, which really helped us. As long as we didn’t let them go on a run in the fourth quarter, we knew we had a good chance to win it. We wanted this game so bad and we never stopped believing that we would win.”

Christie Cherup scored 7 points and was a key to Wayne Hills' stingy defense.

Once again, it was Litzky who stepped up and made a shot when her team needed it. The senior guard drove the baseline and rose up to hit a huge shot with a hand in her face to give Wayne Hills a one-point lead with 4:41 to play.

“I felt pretty confident shooting the ball all game, I’m just glad that shot went in,” added Litzky, who hit a three-pointer with three seconds to give Wayne Hills a 41-39 win over DePaul back in December of 2010. “When I hit my first two shots, it got me into a rhythm. I felt like if I was open, I was going to make it, but there was still a lot of time left and the game could have gone either way. It all came down to playing defense and hitting free-throws.”

The lead was still one with less than two minutes to play when Zana Haobsh got fouled. Haobsh had not taken a shot in the second half and now was asked to step to the foul line for a one-and-one with the momentum of Wayne Hills’ biggest game of the season hanging in the balance. She calmly knocked down both ends to make it 40-37.

DePaul had a chance to tie but Jada Hutchins’ three-pointer from the top of the key was off the mark and Driesse was fouled with just under a minute remaining. It was still a one-and-one situation and a miss on the front end would have given the Spartans another chance to tie the game. Driesse got a shooter’s roll as her first shot hit the front and the back iron before dropping through to make it a two-possession game. She left no doubt on the second one as it swished through. After another DePaul miss, Litzky iced the game by hitting both ends of another one-and-one as Wayne Hills celebrated one of its biggest, if not the biggest, win ever in the Passaic County Tournament.

Rachel Ranieri and DePaul fell to 16-4 on the season.

Litzky led the way with a game-high 18 points for Wayne Hills (16-6), which was a remarkable 11 of 12 from the foul line in the fourth quarter. Driesse added 11, including 6 of 6 from the foul line in the fourth. Cherup was as valuable as any player on the court, scoring 7 points and defensively holding Walker to just 11 points, well below her season average. Walker finished with 11 points and 12 rebounds, and Ramos scored 10 points for DePaul (16-4).

Wayne Hills moves into uncharted territory, advancing to its first-ever Passaic County final where it will face third-seeded Passaic County Tech. After avenging two losses and beating the overwhelming favorite to win the tournament, the Patriots are ecstatic, not only because they have made it this far, but also because they have the program’s first county title in 30 years directly their sights.

“We’ve wanted to be in this situation all year and now we’re one step away from being county champs,” said Driesse, a junior who is committed to play soccer in 2013 for the University of North Carolina. “We were really focused today and everyone was cheering each other on because we knew we could do this if we stuck together and played our ‘A’ game. We were close twice and the third time was a charm. This is such a great feeling and I hope it its even better if we can do it again next week.”

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