Bergen Jamboree: Ramapo boys basketball ends Public suffering, to face Don Bosco in final
HACKENSACK – Ramapo broke through a concrete barrier to become the first public school in almost a decade to reach the finals of the Bergen County Jamboree.
The Green Raiders advanced to the finals of the 67th Jamboree boys basketball tournament with a magnificent performance in Saturday’s 69-57 semifinal victory over Bergen Catholic at Hackensack.
Ramapo was good enough the past two years to reach the NJSIAA Group 3 final, winning it last year, but it took three consecutive Jamboree semifinal showdowns with Bergen Catholic to finally break though.
“We’ve had a lot of goals over the past couple of years, and this is the one we haven’t accomplished,” said Ramapo coach Nick Vier, who, ironically, is a Bergen Catholic graduate. “So we wanted to get back here and get over the hump.”
Ramapo, the No. 3 seed, will face defending champion Don Bosco for the title on Sunday, Feb. 18 at 1 p.m. at Fairleigh Dickinson's Bogota Savings Bank Center in Hackensack. (Tickets will be sold online through hometownticketing.com). The Green Raiders are the first public school to reach the final since Teaneck in 2015.
Top-seeded Don Bosco advanced with a surreal 63-49 semifinal win in which No. 5 Northern Highlands must have caught some of Ramapo’s public-school vibe and transformed it into a 29-28 halftime lead.
"We don't care who we're playing as long as we're there, and that was our goal," said Don Bosco coach Kevin Diverio, whose team beat Ramapo last month, 59-45. "Now we've got to get prepared for them, and they're playing really well right now."
Here’s what you need to know about the two semifinals:
Ramapo’s terrific trio
Ramapo features a trio of senior veterans in Peyton Seals, Wyatt Eglinton Manner and Chris Cervino, and they were simply outstanding. They combined for 62 points as the Green Raiders led at halftime, 31-28, and took control in the third quarter. The role players really did their jobs as well.
Seals, the Princeton commit, had 20 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Cervino stroked five 3-pointers and had 21 points and five assists. Eglinton Manner, who suffered a season-ending injury in last year’s 71-57 semifinal loss, had 21 points and seven rebounds.
“I thought we played amazing,” said Eglinton Manner, whose Green Raiders lost last month to Bergen Catholic, 50-43. “We game-planned this week, so we knew what the goal was, and I thought we just executed.”
Ramapo (18-7) pulled away late in the third by hitting four consecutive 3-pointers to extend its lead to 54-38. Eglinton Manner hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key, Cervino hit a trey from the left corner, and Seals hit one from the top of the key and closed the quarter with another from the right wing.
“I loved how we played fast, up and down the floor,” said Cervino, whose Green Raiders shot 10-for-17 from beyond the arc. “We got out, we made shots, and it was so much fun today.”
Bergen Catholic (19-7) applied heavy pressure in the fourth and came within 56-48 on a 3-pointer by junior Naiim Parrish. He finished with a team-high 14 points, while sophomore Jaden Brown scored 12 and junior Declan Wucherpfennig had 11 points and 11 rebounds.
“I’m really proud of my kids. They played really, really hard,” said Bergen Catholic coach Billy Armstrong, who next season returns almost every key player. “Obviously, credit to Ramapo. They came out in the third quarter and made some big shots.”
Harper to the rescue
Dylan Harper, the senior All-American and Rutgers commit, had to excel at both ends of the court for Don Bosco (21-3) to take the lead after three quarters, 43-37, and pull away in the fourth. He had a game-high 31 points, as well as four rebounds, three steals, one assist, and one block.
In the second half, Harper defended Northern Highlands junior guard Lucas Dipasupil, who hit six 3-pointers in the first half en route to eight treys and 26 points. Harper focused solely on Dipasupil, giving no help. Dipasupil still snuck in a pair of treys that were near 30-footers.
“It’s just me doing whatever I can to help win,” Harper said. “That’s my biggest thing, just doing what I’ve got to do for the team, no matter if it’s scoring 30, or guarding the best player, stuff like that.”
“Tough battle,” Diverio said. “They played really well. Going into the game, I felt like they had the best guard in the county that no one knows about, and he proved that today. They play really well together, and we were just fortunate to get out of here with a ‘W’.”
Northern Highlands (17-6) led by as much as 29-22, after Dipasupil’s 3-pointer from the left wing. The Highlanders tied it in the third at 31 on putback by 6-3 senior Freddie Kanning, who scored eight and had to guard 7-1 sophomore Keiner Asprilla (nine points, 11 rebounds).
“They don’t just come here and think they can win, they go out and truly believe they can win,” Northern Highlands coach Jonathan Schmitt said. “They’re a bunch of winners, and we’re going to continue pushing this season, and we’re going to use this as a steppingstone heading into the states.”
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Bergen Jamboree: Ramapo basketball ends Public curse, faces Don Bosco
