January 16, 2010
Blue Tide rally in fourth to down Pats
Walter Sessoms scored nine of his 22 points in the fourth quarter for Harrison.
Click Here for photos from Secaucus at Harrison.
By Jason Bernstein
Editorial Director
SECAUCUS – After suffering tough last-minute losses on Tuesday, yesterday’s meeting between Harrison and Secaucus represented a critical moment in each of their seasons.
What started as a matchup between two teams desperately seeking a conference victory quickly morphed into a duel between the Blue Tide’s Walter Sessoms and the Patriots’ Zac Schlemm.
Schlemm won the individual showdown between two of the BCSL National’s premier scorers with 28 points, but in the end Sessoms and Harrison prevailed with a 51-50 victory.
“It’s fun because you keep going back and forth and you keep talking them,” Sessoms said about his duel with Schlemm. “You say things like ‘good shot. Yeah you’re on tonight. Or I’m going to stop you.’ It’s really competitive.”
With the Blue Tide (6-4) trailing 40-31 after three quarters, Sessoms opened the fourth quarter with a pair of 3-pointers to cut the deficit to three. Sessoms would add another basket to cap off the 12-0 run and scored nine points in the fourth.
“Tonight he got away (from Secaucus’ defenders) a few times and he was hitting,” Harrison coach Nick Landy said.
“We tried to do the best we could on (Sessoms),” Secaucus coach Bill Millevoi said. “We just tried to face guard him a little and not allowing him to touch the ball. But, a good player as he is, once he got the ball he was able to shoot the three and drive the ball.”
Trailing for the first time since the game’s opening minute, Schlemm scored four points in the final minute. But a drive to the basket from Schlemm with 40 seconds left was blocked by Harrison’s David Passos to preserve a two-point lead.
Passos, a four-year starter would deliver the final dagger with a pair of free throws with 13.5 seconds left. Foul-shooting had been an achilles heel for the Blue Tide in Tuesday’s loss to Wood-Ridge.
“We missed 16 the other night against Wood-Ridge and that’s insane,” Landy said. “For the last two days that’s all we did in practice, basically shoot foul shots and try to concentrate and focus.”
Sessoms also delivered a key foul shot in the last minute and finished with 22 points.
While Sessoms prevailed with his scoring late, it was Schlemm who came out of the gates at a blistering pace. He scored three quick baskets on consecutive possessions to give the Patriots (2-7) a six-point lead just 2:39 into the game.
“I hit that first (shot) and then I made the two layups in a row coming down the court,” Schlemm said. “I was feeling it. You can’t really tell the feeling, you just know.”
“Zac really led us in the first quarter,” Millevoi said. “He came out and he was really aggressive.”
A scalding-hot Schlemm had nine points in the opening quarter and had 20 of Secaucus’ 28 points in the first half.
“I was on fire pretty much. I was feeling it.,” a disappointed Schlemm said. “It’s heartbreaking. We’ve come up short this entire season. Hopefully it will turn around soon.”
“We’ve been in a lot of tight ball games,” Millevoi said. “We’re just not getting over that hump.”
It was the second straight game where the Patriots were knocked off in the game’s final minute. Wallington beat them on Tuesday with a buzzer-beat from Tyler Soto.
Eddie Delgado added 12 points for Secaucus, Raj Patel had nine assists and Joe Impreveduto had six points and eight rebounds in defeat.
Rahim Douelfakar had a dominant game on the glass for Harrison, pulling down 21 rebounds and scoring 10 points. Passos added eight points in the victory.
Zac Schlemm scored 20 points in the first half for Secaucus.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harrison Blue Tide (6-4) | 11 |
11 |
9 |
20 |
51 |
| Secaucus Patriots (2-7) | 17 |
11 |
12 |
10 |
50 |
| Harrison | Secaucus | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Harrison: Douelfakar 21 rebounds; Sessoms 9 rebouds; Jiron 6 rebounds; Ugarte 5 rebounds; Touzet 4 rebounds. Secaucus:Schlemm 10 rebounds; Patel 9 assists, 4 rebounds; Impreveduto 8 rebounds; Delgado 6 rebounds; Ojeda 4 rebounds. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||