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Rams
Find Life Without Dumas Not Easy |
By Greg Machos
December 28, 2007SOUTH AMBOY, NJ--After giving a valiant fight in a 63-52 loss to Metuchen almost a week ago to the day, hopes were high amongst the fans and supporters of South River High School Boys Basketball. Three straight wins for their longest winning streak since the 2004-05 campaign, a 3-2 start to the season, and most importantly, the team had been showing some fight. Then, came the 2007 South Amboy Tournament, and two tough losses. The first was more heartbreaking than the second as the Rams lost in the final minutes of its opening round game to Keansburg, 56-55. In the consolation game on Friday, the hangover from the deflating loss in the first round to the Titans was evident. South River only managed to score six points in each of the first two quarters for a total of 12 in the first half as it trailed Henry Hudson Regional of Northern Monmouth County and the Shore Conference by an 18-12 margin at the intermission. In the third quarter, the Rams managed to outscore the Admirals by a 15-12 margin to pull within three entering the fourth, but a missed layup off a steal, and then a miss on the follow cost South River some critical points, and most importantly, some much needed momentum going into the final frame, and Henry Hudson eventually went on to win its first game of the season with an 18-10 showing for a 48-37 victory.
Henry Hudson Regional High School, located in Highlands, New Jersey, had a long history of mediocrity, but within the past several years had begun to reverse the trend. The Admirals made the state tournament for the first time in many years with a berth as a 13th seed in the 2005 Central Jersey Group I State Tournament before losing in the first round to fourth seeded Academy Charter (48-46). The following season, in 2006, Henry Hudson qualified again, and earned the 10th seed before falling to seventh seeded New Egypt (49-37). Last year, the Admirals earned their highest seed, and got a first round home game as the eighth seed, but then lost to a Metuchen squad that reached the Final Four of CJ Group I for the third straight year before falling to eventual champion, Create Charter of Jersey City. So while the school, which competes in the Class B Central Division of the Shore Conference, is off to a slow start, it is definitely made steps in the right direction to become a better basketball program. Meanwhile, South River, which has struggled to put a winning product on the floor the past two seasons after making the state tourney in 2004-05, and losing to Metuchen in the semifinals to finish at 16-8, seemed to show signs of progress this season before standout player, Eddie Dumas, went down with an injury in the Metuchen game on December 22nd after scoring a game high 19 points in just a little more than two quarters of play.
The loss of Dumas' talent, scoring, and most importantly, his leadership and intestinal fortitude was sorely missed on the court at South Amboy Middle/High school on Friday afternoon. In the game, the Rams made just 14 two point field goals, two threes, and three foul shots while Henry Hudson connected on the same number of field goals (14), but made three more treys (5), and two more foul shots (5) to make up the difference in this contest. The Admirals scored in double digits in three of the four periods while South River only managed to score ten or more points in only two of the periods. Thanks to the eight point edge in the final period, Henry Hudson outscored the Rams by a 30-25 margin in the second half to secure the victory. In the game, the Admrials were led by senior guard, Nick Tennant, who made five field goals and two three pointers for a game high 16 points while senior forward Travis Harrison chipped in with five field goals for 10 points. Eric Silakowski contributed with 8 points on two field goals, a three pointer, and a free throw while Nick Barradale helped out also with 5 points on a trifecta and two foul shots. Rounding out the scoring for Henry Hudson was junior Trent Karaman (4 points on three pointer, and a foul shot), Charles Niles (two points on a field goal), Dan Frederick (a field goal for two points) and Ahmed Elgohail (one of two from the late late in the game for a point). Meanwhile, for the Rams, sophomore Brandon Walsh led the way in a losing cause with a team high 8 points on two field goals, a three pointer, and a foul shot while seniors Jim Witkowski (three field goals) and Eric Seawright (three field goals), and sophomore Shawn Fenton (three field goals) chipped in with six each in a very balanced attack.
Rounding out the scoring for South River was sophomore guard, Steve Moore with a field goal and a three pointer for five points, senior John Imbriano (a field goal and two foul shots) with 4 points, and junior Michael Wilson (a field goal) with 2 points. After taking in at least part of both games on the final day of action at the 2007 Gene Haley Memorial Tournament in Edison, GMC Hoops arrived in the gym at the 1:05 mark of the third quarter with South River trailing by only three at 30-27 after making what must have been a monumental climb to get back into the contest following a lethargic first half offensively. The Admirals had a chance to increase their lead to five, but missed on a jumper from the left wing at the 52 second mark. South River then had a chance to close the gap to one, but Henry Hudson drew a charge on Wilson with 33 seconds to go in the period. On the next Admiral possession, Seawright seemed to make a game breaking play when he got a steal at midcourt on the side opposite the two team benches, and headed toward the basket from the right side for a layup. However, the athletic senior forward somehow missed the shot, and the ball was rebounded by Fenton, who proceeded to miss the follow as Henry Hudson eventually got the ball back with 16.5 to play in the frame, and maintained its now tenuous three point lead going into the fourth. In the final stanza, the Admirals took the reprieve they got at the end of the third, and used the newly found momentum to put the game away with an 18-10 showing for the eleven point win. The game was essentially decided by a 11-4 run over the first 3:57 of the period for a 41-31 lead.
Sparking the game deciding spurt was Silakowski, who swiped a steal, and proceeded to go in for a layup as he was fouled for a three point play at the 7:05 mark for a 33-27 lead. The Rams had a chance to redeem themselves, and bring the lead back down to four when Wilson got a steal that led to an Imbriano layup attempt that drew a foul at the 6:52 mark. However, the senior missed both free throws, and Henry Hudson remained in front by six, 33-27. Thirty seconds later though, Imbriano atoned for his earlier free throw woes by getting a rebound off a miss by Moore, drawing the foul, and making both from the charity stripe for a 33-29 Admirals lead with 6:22 left. However, Frederick got his only points of the game a short time later with an offensive rebound and putbakc at the 6:02 mark to make it a six point game again at 35-29, and then drew a charge on Witkowski a short time later with 5:46 to play. Tennant converted the turnover with a jumper from the left wing to give Henry Hudson a 37-29 lead with 5:29 remaining. Imbriano, who scored all of his points in the quarter, did his best to keep the game from slipping away as he got his only field goal of the contest with a layup that made the score, 37-31 at the 5:11 mark. Nearly thirty seconds later though, Harrison put the Shore school back up by eight with an offensive rebound and putback off a missed layup by Frederick for a 39-31 lead at the 4:44 mark. Tennant then got a subsequent loose ball for a layup at the 4:03 mark to put the Admirals ahead by ten at 41-31, but the team then gave a point back to the Rams on a technical foul that resulted in one of two at the line from Walsh at the 3:47 mark to make the score, 41-32.
Henry Hudson would call for a full timeout at the 3:23 mark to work on strategy for running out the clock, and they were able to knock off twenty seconds before Tennant was fouled with 3:03 left. However, the senior guard missed the front end of the one and one, and then a little more than a minute later, Walsh gave the Rams faint hopes of rallying with a three pointer from the left side off an assist by Wilson at the 2:01 mark after South River managed to get two offensive rebounds to keep the possession alive. Leading by only six now, the Admirals were starting to teeter on the edge, but Elgohail was fouled shortly after a thirty second timeout was called by Rams head coach, Mike DelAversano. The Admirals senior forward proceeded to make the first foul shot, but missed the second. However, after Wilson got the offensive rebound, he lost possession of the ball, which fell into the hands of Harrison, who put it back in for a crushing blow, and a 44-35 lead with about 1:50 left to play. From there, Henry Hudson outscored South River by a 4-2 margin for the 48-37 victory to improve to 1-5 on the year while South River dropped to 3-4 overall. For more insight on this game, take a look at the blog entry from our Rams Hoops Volunteer.
Team |
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
Henry Hudson (1-5) |
8 | 10 | 12 | 18 | 48 |
South River (3-4) |
6 | 6 | 15 | 10 | 37 |
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