Ridgefield Park's Jeremiah Rementilla scored a game-high 20 points for the Scarlets, which won the the first Bergen County title of any kind on boys basketball with a 60-50 victory over Ramsey in The BIT final in Montvale.
MONTVALE – In the decade-plus since Teaneck won the last of its five straight Bergen County titles, non-public schools have won every one contested since. This year Bergen Catholic is the varsity, JV and freshman county champion and in all three title games the opponent was another parochial school.
While nothing lasts forever and maybe someday whether soon or in the distant future, the pendulum will swing back the other way. For now, however, small to midsize public schools have to look for alternate prizes.
State sectional titles are always coveted and in Bergen County there is The Bergen Invitational Tournament, the brainchild of former Ramapo head coach Joe DelBuono, which has grown in stature steadily over the last 16 years. The final on Saturday night at St. Joseph Regional was played in front of a packed house.
It's a big deal and that is why Chris Gaskin, who has been the head coach at Ridgefield Park for a quarter of a century, was pretty emotional after his team won its first-ever BIT title, actually its first-ever Bergen County title of any kind in the history of the boys basketball program.
"When this tournament started a lot of people were like, 'What is this? Why do we need this? Why do we need another tournament?' But I just told Joe DelBuono that he won. He had the vision and he saw what it could be," said Gaskin. "People look at this tournament now as one you really want to win. Good teams are here every year, competitive games and it is so well run. And tonight was a gigantic win for the program."
Julien Quinerly finished with 17 points for Ramsey.
The game itself was befitting of a county final, too, even if the game trends might suggest otherwise. Ridgefield Park scored the first 8 points of the game, led wire-to-wire and won by double digits. Those facts suggest a comfortable victory for the Scarlets. That assumption could not be more wrong.
Ramsey trailed 16-8 after the first quarter, then spent the second period closing the gap. Julien Quinerly's spinning layup got the Rams within 3, 18-15, James Cunningham's 3 with 4:12 left in the quarter made it 20-19, Ramsey was within one two more times in the half and trailed by just two, 28-26, at the intermission.
"Hopefully we make the section finals so we can play another game like this, but we knew coming in here that this might be the biggest game we ever play, especially for me. I am a senior," said RP's Francisco Then. "[Gaskin] told us at halftime that even though we had the lead we were not playing close to perfect basketball. We had to clean up the mistakes and stay together. We went through so much to put us in this spot, so we had to capitalize."
The Scarlets looked like they finally had some breathing room when Nick Cartegena and Cameron Hanna hit back-to-back 3s and Jeremiah Rementilla scored in transition to forge a 38-29 lead with 5:28 to go in the third quarter, but Ramsey reeled them right back in.
Quinerly, the senior point guard who was just about impossible to stay in front of all night long, got to the basket with 42 seconds left in the third to get the Rams back to within 44-43 before 6-foot-7 sophomore Sabastian Capurso made two free throws to put the Scarlets up 2 heading into the final quarter.
Ridgefield Park's Nick Cartegena was named Tournament MVP.
The RP lead was 52-50 with 3:35 left in regulation after Ramsey's Owen Morycz followed up a missed shot, but what was probably the biggest shot of the game came at the opposite end of the floor. It was from the left wing that Rementilla launched a 3 that was true from the release and pushed the lead back to 5 with 2:22 to play. That was the knockout blow as the Scarlets closed the game on an 8-0 run.
Rementilla was effective from a variety of spots on the floor as, working the free throw line, he helped force Ramsey out of its zone defense. He was a killer in the midrange, went hard to the basket, was 5-for-5 from the free throw line and finished with a game-high 20 points. Capurso (13 points) and Junior Nick Cartegena (12 points, 12 rebounds), who was named the tournament's MVP, made it three Scarlets in double digits. Hanna added 6 points, Then, who was 4-for-5 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter, added 5 points and Peter Choea's first quarter 3-pointer rounded out the scoring for Ridgefield Park, which is now 23-4 on the season. Owen Farley (19 points) and Quinerly (17 points, 4 assists) finished in double figures for Ramsey, which is 17-9.
Ramsey is the No. 1 seed in the North 1, Group 2 state sectional tournament bracket and will host No. 16 High Point in the opening round on Tuesday. Ridgefield Park is the No. 3 seed in North 2, Group 2 and will host No. 14 Snyder on Tuesday.
"This win means a lot to me, to all of us. We didn't know how good we would be at the start of the season, so to be here and win this just shows how much work we have put in," said Cartegena. "States are next and we want to keep it rolling."
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