Ridgewood, Ramsey drop semis
Elizabeth (Group 4) and Newark Arts (Group 2) advance to championship games
ELIZABETH — Johnny Jackson and Ridgewood were still in it into the final minute against Elizabeth.
The Maroons competed to the final shot of a 58-54 loss in Tuesday night’s NJSIAA Group 4 boys basketball semifinal in front of a partisan Dunn Center crowd that included Elizabeth mayor J. Christian Bollwage.
“Obviously losing stinks,” Ridgewood coach Mike Troy said, “but I couldn’t be more proud of my guys.”
Long-distance shooting kept Ridgewood (21-9) in it, with an occasional drive mixed in. Jackson scored a game-high 26 points, hitting a trio of 3pointers, including a 35-footer at the final buzzer. Senior Evan O’Reilly hit a pair of step-back 3-pointers and scored 18. Elizabeth (22-5) was bigger, stronger, faster and, as an annual host site, enjoyed home-court advantage. Senior big men led the Minutemen, with London Carson scoring 18 and Chris Clark 14, including a layup for a 51-47 lead.
Ridgewood, which lost this semifinal two years ago to Elizabeth, 72-53, made it a game this time. The Maroons came as close as 49-47 on a putback by Jake Roth. They pulled within 54-51 on a hard drive by Jackson with 28 seconds left in the game.
“They’re an excellent team, they’re a matchup nightmare, and I thought our guys played their hearts out right down to the (final seconds),” Troy said.
“Coach touched on a lot of good things,” Jackson said. “Honestly, they’re a better team than us, we’re outmatched in every single aspect, and we fought to the end no matter what.”
Ramsey loses to Newark Arts
ELIZABETH — Ramsey’s five senior starters came out of the game with 5.6 seconds remaining so they could receive one final round of applause.
The quintet that helped capture a third consecutive North 1, Group 2 title saw its careers come to a close with a 3730 loss to Newark Arts in Tuesday’s night’s NJSIAA Group 2 semifinal at Dunn Center.
“Seeing the crowd applaud us as we go off is really something special,” Ramsey senior center Logan Bahn said after scoring a team-high nine points.
“This senior group is something special,” Rams coach Mark Christiansen said of Bahn, Mike Bernius, Ollie Hochstein, Max Nierenberg and Matty Stone. “To be with them four years, some of them two-year starters playing valuable minutes, I’m just so proud of them. I’m truly going to miss them, and they were the big reason why we got to where we did.”
Baskets were hard to come by for both teams and Ramsey (22-8) fought back from a 22-10 halftime deficit and twice took the lead in the second half: Stone scored all of his eight points in the third, and Hochstein hit a 3-pointer to cap a 15-2 run and give the Rams a 25-24 lead. Nierenberg scored on a drive early in the fourth for a 27-26 advantage.
“We played the game we wanted to play,” Bahn said. “We slowed them down, it’s just sometimes you don’t hit the shots, sometimes the shots they hit go in. I think we played a really good game.”
Newark Arts (24-8) closed the game with a 7-2 run. Sophomore Jayden Holman’s 15-footer gave the Jaguars a 32-28 lead. Senior Anthony Akande [teamhigh nine points] made four free throws in the final 20 seconds to seal it. In between, Ramsey missed a potential game-tying 3-pointer.
“I’m really proud of my guys and how we came out and really performed in the second half,” Christiansen said. “To hold a team like them, one of the top teams in the state, to 37 points — I’m just so proud of our guys and what we did defensively. We had a rough first half scoring, but I thought we came out with a lot of energy in the second half and made it a game.”