West Orange Boys Suffered through Season of Close Losses

The season began with a heartbreaking loss to Bloomfield. That was just a hint of the remarkable and oft-times painful journey the West Orange High boys basketball team took through a season that ended recently with an 8-16 record.

The Mountaineers lost more than half their games by five or less points. They could have easily finished 12-12 with a few breaks. 

"We're a solid program that had a bad year,'' said West Orange coach Mark Cacciacarone. "It happens to Duke, it happens to North Carolina. If it can happen to Dean Smith (former University of North Carolina coach) and Mike Krzyzewski (Duke coach) it can happen to West Orange. We'll learn from it. We all could have done things differently. I take full responsibility when the team doesn't play well. That's on me. That's my name on the front door."

West Orange went 2-6 in its first eight games. With a break or two that went the other way, the Mountaineers could have been 6-2, the coach said.

"It's almost like the dye had been cast in those first eight games," he added. "Essentially it set the tone for the season and we couldn't get out from behind the wave. We tried to rally here or there, but we couldn't shake those first four or five losses and the way we lost. The worst ones came early."

The close losses carried a negative aura around the team. 

"That's when you fight things bigger than your opponent," he said.

They limited opponents to just 52 points per game — a good number. But the problem was the 19 turnovers the Mountaineers made per game, the 63 percent they shot from the free throw line, and the 24 percent from 3-point range. The Mountaineers shot a fair 48 percent from two-point range. 

"You can win if you're a poor shooting team, but don't turn it over," Cacciacarone said. "We were a poor shooting team that turned it over a lot. When you do that on the offensive end — when you make that many turnovers — you make it very difficult to win."

The leader of the team was clearly senior Duane Morgan, who was chosen Tuesday night as a first team All Super Conference Liberty Division player. Morgan, who will likely play at the college level, averaged 17.5 points, nine rebounds and 3 ½ blocks per game.

"He was really the reason we were in games," said Cacciacarone, adding that Morgan has been chosen to play in the 33rd annual North-South All Star Game March 20 at Poland Springs Arena on the campus of Toms River North.  Game time is noon. Morgan's the first West Orange player to be chosen for the game since 2002. 

"Duane has been patrolling the paint for us for three years, his shot blocking, his inside game," added the coach. "Losing him will be a crushing blow. He had to lead the county in put-back dunks."

Senior forward Christian Smith — a healthy Smith — was sorely missed. He broke his hand during football season as the Mountaineers quarterback and took some time to get into basketball shape. 

"Going into the season a lot of (how well the Mountaineers would do)  it depended on how well or how quickly our inexperienced guards would come around and now the worst thing that happened, one of  our three experienced kids got hurt — we opened with two kids with varsity experience — Duane and (junior) Carlos (DeChavez)," Cacciacarone said. "We thought we would turn the corner. But Christian getting injured hurt us badly and it hurt more than I thought. We thought we could survive better. But he is a seasoned varsity athlete and even when he came back and I love him for coming back, he was not nearly at full power. He wasn't ready.''

Smith showed how much of a presence he could be. He averaged 7 ½ points per game and was named to the second-team Super Essex Liberty Division.

"He's a program kid, a gritty player, a tough, jack of all trades kind of kid," Cacciacarone said. "Those two kids will be tough losses and tough shoes to fill."

DeChavez was named to the division's honorable mention. He will be one of the few experienced players back next season. But the Mountaineers' freshman went 13-4, and the junior varsity was over .500, so perhaps a return to better days is ahead.

"We're going to be drastically different," Cacciacarone said.