Wood-Ridge Grounds Aviators In First Round of State Tournament

The Wood-Ridge boys basketball team hosted the Aviators last night, delivering a crushing victory, 86-54, to give them a first round playoff victory.

“We came out exactly as we had wanted to. We continued where we left off during practice yesterday, and the shooting was crisp,” said Devil’s head coach, Ed Rendzio. “We moved the ball well and hit a lot of shots.”

The Devils hit a staggering 11 out of 16 attempts from beyond the arc, while clogging the middle on defense to stymie the Aviators inside game.

“There’s not much you can do when a team is hitting threes like they did,” stated Aviators’ senior-forward, Antonio Crecco. “We didn’t move our coverage enough, and they got a lot of good looks.”

The Devils came out firing from the start of the first period, hitting four of their first five shots (including back-to-back threes) to get a quick 11-0 advantage. The period would end with the Devils commanding a 26-12 lead.

The Aviators would slowly chip away at the lead, but were unable to put together any significant runs, thanks to a Devils defense that was dedicated to stopping any ball penetration.

The second period saw the Aviators go to their dynamic duo, seniors Varun Shivkumar and Boris Plakalovic, who led the charge to keep them within striking distance.

“There wasn’t anything we could put together to get the lead,” Shivkumar stated. “We needed to slow them down, but they kept shooting their threes and making them. It’s tough.”

This sentiment was shared by Aviators head coach Mike Cebula. “They’re a tough team to beat. We put ourselves in a big hole early on, and we spent the whole time trying to get out.”

By halftime, the Aviators were at a 51-26 deficit. It became clear that if they could not slow down the Devils, then they would have to start making their own threes. Freshman guard Mike Schroback responded by nailing a long three at the start of the second period.

This would be followed by Shivkumar making two consecutive steals and converting both of them for 3-pointers. The Devils, who had held Shivkumar in check during the first half, were now unable to slow him down in the second, as he went on an 11 point outburst in the third period. He would finish the night with a game high 20 points, 7 rebounds (three on the offensive glass) and 2 steals.

Plakalovic, who had given the Aviators consistent scoring throughout the game, tallied 13 points, 11 rebounds and 4 blocked shots to end his high school career with yet another double-double.

The Aviators effort on rebounding was greatly improved in this game, an area which had been a major concern.

 But the Aviators found little solace for their last game of the season.

“A loss is still a loss,” remarked Cebula. “we can look at a lot of things that we did well or did not, but in the end we did not do what we came to do. But they (Devils) did it, and that’s why they’re celebrating.”

Devils’ head coach Ed Rendzio noted his own team’s prolific outcome while praising the Aviators.

“We’ve always played this way, to keep taking the threes. We feel that we’re good enough to make them, and if you take enough of them, good things will happen, which is why we wanted Al (Alvarez) to keep shooting. But those guys (Aviators) are good. They have a good coach, and  you saw how he (Shivkumar) kept attacking the basket. But two of their players will be graduating, so they’re similar to us in that we’re both young teams.”

“Our team will get better as they grow," Crecco added. “Once the younger guys like Schroback start getting taller, they’ll be even more difficult for the other teams to deal with.