Foul trouble catches up with Ramapo in loss to Tenafly

After battling Tenafly for four tough quarters in Sunday’s county quarterfinal matchup, Ramapo came up just short of upsetting the Tigers, losing 59-54.  Instead the Tigers celebrated on their home court and were on their way to Ramapo College for the final four of the Bergen county tournament.

Aggressive defense by the Raiders helped them take the lead early, but came back to bite them in the end as Tenafly benefitted from being in the double bonus for the final three and a half minutes of the game.  The Tigers scored all 16 of their points from the line in the fourth, and held on despite a valiant comeback effort by the Raiders.

The game went back-and-forth throughout with Ramapo getting out in front first when Pat O’Hagan hit a three to begin the contest.  O’Hagan was matched by Drew Gross of Tenafly who hit his first two from deep in the opening quarter. 

Ramapo started building a lead thanks to their defense, translating Tiger turnovers into points at the other end and taking a 22-17 lead into the second quarter.

In the second the Raiders’ lead began dwindling as their defense could not force turnovers like they did earlier in the game.  A team who looks to create offense off their defense, Ramapo’s offense looked sluggish when they failed to force Tenafly to make mistakes.

The Raiders continued taking chances on D, which in turn left the Tigers open for open looks from three.  “They hit a couple threes,” said Coach Mickey Hunt.  “We were gambling, we left a couple kids open.”

The Ramapo offense continued to struggle in the quarter, possibly because of the absence of their key big man Matt Bunting.  After scoring three points early in the first, Bunting was on the bench with foul trouble for much of the half.  “It would have been nice to have Matt (Bunting) in the first half,” said Coach Hunt.

Coming out of the locker room down 32-30, Ramapo got the lead back and led by as many as four in the third frame.  Freshman sensation Matt Grassi led the way with four points in the quarter, using great footwork down low to drive past defenders to the hoop.

After coming alive in the second quarter, Tenafly’s star Chris Orozco had a huge second half for the Tigers. Orozco got his team fired up with a tremendous fade-away at the buzzer to put Tenafly back on top 43-42.

“We had done such a good job on him defensively the whole game I thought. And then he hits that three falling back with a hand in his face; what can you do.  He’s a good player making a great play,” said Hunt.

Orozco continued making plays in the final quarter, getting to the basket and drawing fouls.  He made a living from the line all game, hitting seven free throws in the fourth and 12 on the game to finish with a game-high 20 points.

Tenafly got their lead up to seven with under two to play in the fourth, but Ramapo did not go down without a fight.  Tyler Ward energized the Raiders with consecutive and-one drives. Ward hit both free throws, and cut the lead down to just two.  After Jimmy Trolice hit two of his nine foul shots in the quarter, Ward got the ball to Bunting who scored to get the lead back to two with 35 seconds left.  On the next play Ward fouled out, and the Raiders offense struggled without him over the final half minute.

Orozco’s buzzer-beater was the last field goal Tenafly would hit in the game, but that’s all they needed as they went on to defeat the Raiders 59-54.

Game Notes:

• Tyler Ward led the Raiders with 16 points
• Matt Bunting and TJ Hunt both scored 11
• Pat O’Hagan led Ramapo with 10 first half points, but did not score in the second half.
• Matt Grassi scored 6 off the bench