SP-F Boys Basketball Makes Strong Comeback for Win Against Roselle Catholic

The last time Dan Doherty coached the Scotch Plains-Fanwood boys basketball team to a victory was two years ago in the Group 3 state championship game at Rutgers.

While Monday night’s home-opener against Union County Conference Conference interdivision rival Roselle Catholic was just a regular season game compared to a state title contest, it was almost every bit as exciting.

A back-and-forth affair that saw numerous lead changes and included seven ties concluded in the home team Raiders’ favor 54-51 as Scotch Plains came back from as much as an eight-point deficit it faced near the end of the third quarter.

“We just did what coach said and that was to play defense,” said Scotch Plains junior guard Chuck Oliver, who paced his team with an impressive 18-point performance that included the winning basket. “We were down most of the game.”

Scotch Plains trailed 11-7 after the first quarter, 20-18 at the half and then 42-37 at the end of three quarters after scoring the final three points of the third.

“We just had to stick in there, play hard and rebound,” Oliver said.

Scotch Plains, situated in the UCC’s Watchung Division, improved to 1-1 and will next play Wednesday, Dec. 23, at 4 p.m. at Kearny before participating in the John “Butch” Kowal Tournament at Rahway High School Dec. 27 and 29.

Roselle Catholic, a member of the UCC’s Valley Division, fell to 1-1. The Lions will next play Marist at home Dec. 28 at 7:45 p.m. in the first night of the Roselle Catholic Holiday Tournament in Roselle. The second night is Dec. 30.

The last tie was 50-50 with 1:38 left after Roselle Catholic 6-7 sophomore center Jameel Warney – who led all scorers with 20 points – scored inside off an assist from fellow sophomore Wesley Cherry.

Scotch Plains called a timeout to set up a play that eventually worked in their favor.

After passing the ball around for more than half a minute, Oliver saw a small opening in the middle of the lane and drove straight ahead.

Not only did he manage to put up a shot that went in, but he was also fouled on the play.

“I just saw the opening and the coaches told me to attack,” Oliver said. “I knew they were in the 1-and-1, so I was trying to get to the basket and not take a jump shot.”

His basket gave Scotch Plains the lead for good at 52-50 and turned out to be the game-winning goal. His ensuing free throw gave the Raiders a 53-50 advantage with 49.7 seconds left.

Warney was then fouled on the other end, but could make only the first of his two free throw attempts, with Scotch Plains 6-5 forward Matt Jegerde coming down with a crucial rebound after Warney’s miss.

Jegerde and junior center Matt Manns did an admirable job of containing Warney – blanketing him in man-to-man coverage - in the fourth quarter and limiting the Plainfield resident to just three points in the eight-minute stanza.

“We had to stop Jameel, the big guy, because he was killing us under the boards,” Oliver said. “First of all we were letting him get position down low too deep. Once he got there he was able to score. Basically, we just fronted him, had one guy in front and had help side behind him. That’s what we had to do to stop him.”

After Kwaku Morgan almost stole the ball away from Scotch Plains point guard Ian Johnstone and then Steve Morgan almost took it away from Oliver, from holding the ball on the ground Oliver called his team’s final timeout with 17.9 seconds remaining.

After two passes, Johnstone was fouled with 12 seconds left. He made the second of his two free throw attempts to give the Raiders a 54-51 lead.

Roselle Catholic senior guard Rich Ferreira, who played well despite an injured arm that was bandaged, missed his team’s final two field goal attempts as Scotch Plains held on for its first win of the season.

Ferreira was the only other Lion player to score in double digits, finishing with 11 points. Fellow senior guard Brian Petruzzelli, the son of Governor Livingston head coach Steve Petruzzelli, netted six points on two 3-pointers he made in the second half from the left side.

Oliver scored inside and outside for the Raiders and also made most of his free throw attempts.

He is key part of a young, inexperienced Scotch Plains squad that will seek to improve as the season progresses, despite a schedule that includes Linden, St. Patrick of Elizabeth, Plainfield and Elizabeth consecutively in one stretch a month from now.

“We have a real young team and chemistry is a big thing for us,” Oliver said. “We just have to keep working at it. This was an ugly win, but a win is a win at the end of the day.”

Scotch Plains also received big 3-point baskets from junior guard Patrick Dougher to start the scoring in the fourth quarter and pull the Raiders to within two at 42-40 and from junior guard Tim Bonacum and senior forward Doran Nelson back-to-back in the same period.

Bonacum’s second 3-pointer of the game – from the top of the key - pulled Scotch Plains within one at 46-45 before Nelson’s only 3-pointer – from the left side – gave Scotch Plains a lead of 48-46, which was the first time the Raiders were in front since leading 5-3 midway through the first period following Nelson’s second field goal of the game.

"We did a good job of really playing defense for a young team,” Doherty, now in his ninth season at the helm of the Raiders, said. “We know we can shoot the ball, but we’re streaky shooting it because we’re young and we’re not used to the varsity experience. We stayed with it and we said that if we keep the defense we’ll keep it close and the shots will start to fall.”

A free throw by Warney gave Roselle Catholic its biggest lead of eight at 42-34 before Oliver made a free throw and then Jegerde scored his first basket after a Roselle Catholic turnover.

Those three points at the end of the third period were huge, because instead of being outscored by the Lions by six in the stanza, Scotch Plains was only outscored by three going into the fourth.

“In the second half we wanted to force him (Warney) in the middle,” Doherty said. “He was getting too many drops to him. The guys really did a good job of playing bottom side him and force him to go middle. We (meaning Jegerde and Manns, specifically) did a better job of that.”

Doherty may have a go-to player in Oliver.

“He can be a good player and he’s still learning,” Doherty said. “He’s got to learn to be patient. At 50-50, he was patient, saw the opening and he took it and did a good job. He played a nice, consistent game and Timmy got hot.”

Bonacum finished with 12 points and Nelson with nine.

Doherty decided in October to come back as the head coach after last year’s head coach and former Doherty assistant Ben Martinez couldn’t remain the coach because of the hours of his job.

“Ben, through his job, couldn’t do the hours,” Doherty said. “He got a promotion in October. was talking with my AD (Rob Harmer) in October and I just didn’t want anybody, so I said, ‘I’ll take it.’ I wanted to make sure, because you work a lot to kind of build the program up and you want to make sure. This is a good, young team and I knew they were good kids, too, who were going to work hard.”

So this is now the beginning of Doherty’s second stint as the head coach. He could envision himself being around for awhile again.

“You talk about a state championship and if it happens, it happens, but with this team we’re just talking about getting better and better each day," he said.

It was a magical run for the Raiders through North 2, Group 3 and then two more wins to capture their first state championship two years ago.

This year the Raiders may be playing a couple of teams that will go on and win state titles.

“The schedule is tough, but there are certain games we have to get,” Doherty said.

You got the feeling that Monday night’s contest was one of them.

Scotch Plains got it and now we’ll see if the Raiders might be able to build off it.

NOTES: Both teams opened their seasons with conference games Friday. Scotch Plains fell at Plainfield 65-33 and Roselle Catholic defeated Oratory Prep 57-48 in Summit.

Scotch Plains is coming off a 15-14 season in which it reached the North 2, Group 3 championship game for the second consecutive season.

Roselle Catholic went 8-16 last year, but won four of its final six games, including a three-game winning streak in that span.

WATCHUNG CONFERENCE-INTERDIVISION GAME

ROSELLE CATHOLIC (1-1)              11     9     22     9 - 51

SCOTCH PLAINS (1-1)                         7   11     19   17 - 54 

ROSELLE CATHOLIC (51): Jameel Warney 8-0-4-20, Rich Ferreira 3-0-5-11, Steven Morgan 1-0-0-2, Brian Petruzzelli 0-2-0-6, Dominic Gonzales 2-0-0-4, Wesley Cherry 1-0-0-2, Kwaku Morgan 1-0-2-4. Kendall Henderson 1-0-0-2. Totals: 17-2-11-51.

SCOTCH PLAINS (54): Ian Johnstone 1-0-1-3, Chuck Oliver 3-2-6-18, Patrick Dougher 1-2-0-8, Doran Nelson 2-1-2-9, Tim Bonacum 2-2-2-12, Matt Jegerde 2-0-0-4. Matt Manns 0-0-0-0. Alfredo Pawid 0-0-0-0. Denzel Clark 0-0-0-0. Totals: 11-7-11-54. 

2009-2010 SCOTCH PLAINS-FANWOOD RAIDERS

BOYS' BASKETBALL:

12-Doran Nelson (6-3), senior forward

15-Patrick Dougher (6-0), junior guard

33-Matt Manns (6-4), junior center

21-Tim Bonacum (6-0), junior guard

11-Chuck Oliver (6-2), junior guard

42-Matt Jegerde (6-5), sophomore forward

44-Ian Johnstone (5-8), sophomore guard

4-Alfredo Pawid (6-1), senior forward

3-Dave Watson (5-10), senior guard

31-Chris Nix (5-9), senior guard

10-Anthony Scalfaro (6-0), junior guard

20-Denzel Clark (5-8), senior gaurd

24-Yale Gordon (5-9), junior guard

Starters vs. RC: Nelson, Dougher, Manns, Bonacum, Oliver

Head coach: Dan Doherty, ninth season  

2009-2010 SCHEDULE/results (1-1):

Dec. 18 (A) Plainfield 65, Scotch Plains 33

Dec. 21 (H) Scotch Plains 54, Roselle Catholic 51

Dec. 23 at Kearny, 4 p.m.

Dec. 27 vs. Holmdel at Rahway Tournament, 6 p.m.

Dec. 29 vs. Westfield or Rahway in Rahway Tournament, TBA

Jan. 5 at Elizabeth, 4 p.m.

Jan. 9 Mariana Bracet Academy, 1 p.m.

Jan. 14 at Westfield, 4 p.m.

Jan. 19 Union Catholic, 4 p.m.

Jan. 21 Union, 4 p.m.

Jan. 23 vs. St. Mary's, Elizabeth

in annual Coalition to House the Homeless Classic

at Dunn Sport Center in Elizabeth, TBA

Jan. 26 at Linden, 4 p.m.

Jan. 28 St. Patrick, 7 p.m.

Jan. 30 Plainfield, 1 p.m.

Feb. 2 Elizabeth, 4 p.m.

Feb. 4 Westfield, 4 p.m.

Feb. 6 Bernoski Games, TBA

Feb. 9 at Union, 4 p.m.

Feb. 11 Linden, 4 p.m.

Feb. 16 Rahway, 4 p.m.

Feb. 24 Bridgewater-Raritan, 7 p.m.