SADDLE RIVER – Every early season victory by Saddle River Day becomes that much sweeter when compared with last season’s loss-filled start.
The Rebels’ record of 9-1 makes them one of the biggest surprises in North Jersey boys basketball, a dramatic improvement over last season’s team that needed six games and 21 days to secure their first win.
“We laid the foundation at the beginning of the year,” said Rebels senior forward Miles Lewis, “and we’re just moving on off of that.”
Saddle River Day remained in first place in the NJIC Patriot Division – and moved within one win of securing an automatic bid to the Bergen Jamboree – with a demonstrative 66-38 victory Tuesday night over Midland Park.
The Rebels share the ball as well, and pass the ball as quickly, as any team among the 36 in the small-school NJIC, and that was the key to preventing Midland Park (5-4) from threatening.
NJIC MAY START ITS OWN LEAGUE TOURNEY
Lewis led Saddle River Day with 14 points, including 12 in the first half to help build a 36-16 halftime lead. A dozen Rebels scored, with senior guard Dylan Musial scoring 10, including a three-pointer at the halftime buzzer. Connor Cyran scored nine, senior forward Kevin Gibbs eight, while passing well out of the low post, and senior center Trevor Hansen scored seven.
“We don’t worry about points,” said Lewis. “We don’t worry about our individual performances. What we worry about is our team performance.”
“They move the ball and they’re very unselfish,” said Anthony Gallo, in his second season as Rebels coach. “I have a great group of guys in terms of scoring. No one is really in love with shooting four million shots. We move the ball and they get the best shot available, and I think that’s why we’ve had so much success throughout the year.”
Midland Park is markedly better than last season, but Saddle River Day was bigger and faster. Forward Sean Fitzpatrick and sophomore guard Dave Kruis scored 10 points apiece, with Kruis hitting a pair of first-quarter three-pointers to keep the Panthers in it early.
“It was a little bit of a lot of things,” Midland Park coach Mike Kilgallen said. “It was certainly not us at our best, and I think we saw a very good team that’s well-coached and playing very well. It’s always going to be tough when you play a very good team that’s playing very well that night, and I think that’s what we saw.”
What fans are seeing from Saddle River Day is a group capable of winning the NJIC Patriot title. The Rebels have enough size, speed – and best of all unselfishness – to fend off teams such as Bogota, Cresskill and Emerson.
“There’s Cresskill, Bogota looks great right now, and Emerson is up there,” Gallo said. “There’s a lot of good teams, but that’s been one of our goals, to win the league this year. And not only win it, but win it with some distinction.”
-Greg Mattrua – Record Sports
