Jake Schweid scored a game-high 27 points for NV/Demarest, which held off Fair Lawn, 62-60 in overtime, on Thursday in the opening round of the Bergen County Jamboree.
DEMAREST – Northern Valley/Demarest came up one spot short of a first round bye in the Bergen County Jamboree. The consolation prize for that, usually, is a cushy home game against a border line team that barely snuck into the tournament and is just happy to be in the Jambo for a minute before parachuting down into The BIT.
Instead, Demarest got Fair Lawn.
"We talked about it when the seedings came out; [Fair Lawn] is much, much better than a 24 seed. They could have been right in the middle of the pack without much argument from anyone," said Demarest head coach Pat Gabriele. "That is a really good basketball team and I knew we were going to have our hands full.
How good of a basketball team was Fair Lawn in the first half? The Cutters shot 9-for-10 from inside the arc, 4 of 8 from beyond it and was on an 80-point pace when the first quarter ended with Fair Lawn in the lead 20-17.
Despite those gaudy percentages, however, Demarest was similarly efficient on the offense end and neither team could force any space between the other. Throughout the regulation four quarters there was no lead bigger than four points either way. It was not until Julian Gorenstein's two free throws with 25 seconds left in overtime to make it a 6-point game when Demarest could finally take a deep breath.
Fair Lawn fought to the end, even getting within two points with two free throws with :02.6 left in the extra session, but it is Demarest that is heading for Saturday's Round of 16 with a 62-60 win. The Norsemen will play No. 8 Northern Highlands in Allendale at 2:30 p.m.
"We have a group of five guys that have all played in these kind of tough games last year, the section final, so in the big moments we know how to calm down," said Demarest junioor Julian Gorenstein. "We just got together in the huddle and relaxed because we have been in bigger spots."
Sophomore Moxley Betonces made three 3s and finished with 15 points for Fair Lawn.
The "game of runs," cliche was not applicable at all in this one. It was always a one or two possession game straight through to the final 30 seconds of overtime. The game was tied at 33 at halftime, at 44 after three quarters and at 53 at the end of regulation.
The difference in the outcome was all about the fundamentals, like making free throws. Demarest was 10 of 14 from the free throw line while Fair Lawn was a combined 5 for 13 in the game.
"We made the 2s and we made the 3s, we just didn't make enough of the easy ones from the free throw line. Honestly, that has been a problem all season," said Fair Lawn head coach Kyle Sabella. "But take nothing away from Demarest. This is a different kind of team. It is exhausting; it is full court pressure and like nothing we have played against this far. We handled it. Our turnovers were manageable, but we could have done a better job in the second half."
Fair Lawn earned its way into the tournament by playing Ridgewood, the No. 5 seed in the Jambo, to a two-point game just before the cutoff and then beat No. 17 Cliffside Park on the cutoff day to get to 6-5 on the season. The Cutters (7-6) showed they belonged right from the jump.
Fair Lawn has offensive options, it has a coach that makes sure they are all used accordingly and they came out sharing the ball as the whole starting five and senior Jaden Douglas off the bench each scored at least one point in the opening period. Seniors Daniel Jimenez (20 points) and Douglas (10 points, and sophomores Moxley Betonces (15 points) and Luis Warren (12 points) all finished in double figures for the Cutters.
Demarest (12-5) is quite the opposite. Gorenstein and Schweid, two juniors whose brothers, Nick and Zach, were the leading scorers on last year's team that made the North 1, Group 3 final, have picked up the slack for their graduated siblings, which makes a different Gorenstein and Schweid this season's leading scorers. They combined for all but two of Demarest's 33 first half points and 51 of the 62-point total.
Julian Gorenstein scored 24 points for 9th-seeded Demarest, which will face No. 8 Northern Highlands in Saturday's quarterfinal round.
Jake Schweid finished with a game-high 27, while Julian Gorenstein totaled 24. Garrett Dorn made two third quarter field goals, Joel Mathew made a third quarter 3 and Anthony Bernardez made two fourth quarter free throws to round out the scoring for the Norsemen.
It was by design.
"There was a point where [Gorenstein] came up to me and said, 'Let's take over.' It was probably near the end of the first quarter," said Schweid. "We had [our brothers] as role models and I give a lot of credit to both of them. They showed up how it was done out on the floor when we were on the bench. We saw the way they played, but also the way to be good teammates and how to operate as a team on the floor."
It was Schweid's 3-pointer with 42 seconds left in regulation that eventually forced the overtime where Warren's patient, spinning jumper in the lane 24 seconds in gave Fair Lawn its last lead of the game at 55-53.
Schweid tied the game for the last time with two free throws before Gorenstein's jumper from the foul line with 2:21 left gave the Norsemen the lead for good, 57-55.
It wasn't easy, but Demarest is now in the Round of 16 for the third straight year and looking for its third straight quarterfinal berth. Northern Highlands is a formidable roadblock. The Highlanders beat Demarest, 60-48, back on January 13 in Allendale.
"We are going to have our hands full going over there, but at least we are familiar with them. We played them already this year, we played them twice last year and we have played them every year that I have been here," said Gabriele. "It's not going to be some crazy scouting report to prepare for in one day. This was a good win, happy to move on and we will see what happens."
What happens to Fair Lawn now is that it drops down to The BIT with a legitimate chance to win it. The Cutters reached the semifinals of that tournament last year before falling to Westwood by three points. This time around they will play North Arlington on Saturday at 9 a.m. at Garfield High School.
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