North Boys Basketball Starts Out Strong and Keeps Pushing to Defeat Ramapo

Clarkstown North High Schoool boys basketball defeated Ramapo, 52-43, Wednesday evening in front of a packed house at home.

“Transition certainly seemed to be the deciding factor,” said Rams head coach Danny Goldberg.  “We didn’t play our best game, but we had a spurt there where we started finishing in transition and they didn’t.  They missed their shots that were open and good looks and they might normally make and I really think that definitely turned the game around.”

Defensively, the Rams’ strategy was simple: shut down the Gryphons' star, David Haye, and keep the Gryphons on their toes with a variety of different defensive tactics.

“We were really mixing it up,” said Goldberg.  “Their guy Haye is a top-flight scorer and we really keyed in on him, I think he finished with 26, but he only had 3 or 4 in the first half and we mixed up our defense, played some zone, played some man to man, showed them different looks and it seemed to kind of have them stagnant.”

Patrick Mensah of the Rams agreed, saying, “Our main thing was to play hard and play tight defense on #32 who is a great scorer, but just got to lock down on everybody and have to do our job and come out with the victory.”

The Rams dominated in the first quarter, outscoring the Gryphons 14-1.  Swarming, hustle defense pushed the tempo as the Rams forced tough shots and multiple turnovers.  This translated into points for the Rams in transition.  They were able to build on these points with good ball movement and player movement away from the ball.  Meanwhile, the Gryphons could not get a shot to drop.  Patrick Mensah led the way for his team that quarter with 8 points.

Play continued much the same in the second, except that the Gryphons were finally able to settle down a bit and get their offense going.  Kevin Taylor and Haye got it going with four points a piece to combine for the Gryphons’ eight points that quarter.  The Gryphons were still unable to slow down the Rams offensively, as Travis Samuels led the way for his team with five of the Rams twelve that quarter.

The second half began with the Rams securely in the lead at 26-9.  Fueled by an offensive outburst from Haye, the Gryphons made it an 11 point game by the end of the quarter.  Haye had 10 as they outscored the Rams 16-10.  The Rams seemed somewhat complacent as they allowed a series of easy buckets which got the momentum moving in Ramapo’s favor.  Anthony Barbetto was the scoring leader for the Rams that quarter, ending it with six points and a three at the buzzer.

“They were knocking down their shots, and again, Haye is a top-flight scorer and when he gets a little bit of daylight, he knocks it down,” said Goldberg.  “I think he had about twenty in that second half and he’s gonna make them.”

Victor Lleshaj of the Rams added to this, saying, “I guess it was probably just miscommunication between our team, just had to get it back together, maybe a little over confident, just let it slip away a little bit.”

Haye continued to go off in the fourth as he led his team with 12 of their 18 points.  The Rams were definitely not complacent anymore, but Haye was on fire.  Despite this outstanding effort, the Rams held onto the lead as they nearly matched the Gryphons point for point.  Mensah led his team in the effort with eight points.

Haye was the high scorer for the night with 28 points.  Mensah had an excellent night of it himself, as he led the Rams in scoring with 17 points.

For Barbetto, the key to their win was simple.  “Just never giving up,” said Barbetto, “and once we were up all we had to do was keep pushing them down and down, and not giving them the chance to come back in the game.”

The Rams improve to 7-8 for the season.  The win is a good start to the week for the team, which has three more games to finish off the regular season.  Playoffs begin next week and North is in as of last week.

The Rams play again today at home against Tappan Zee at 5:30 p.m.