Section I, Group III, Quarterfinals: Old Tappan 56, Wayne Valley 38
Wayne Valley's basketball season ended with a Section I, Group III quarterfinal loss to top-seeded Old Tappan (23-4), 56-38. After Nick Agelis answered Doug Parker's field goal to tie the score at 2-2, it all went Old Tappan's way. The home team went on a 16-1 run fueled by four three pointers. The Indians could never quite recover.
Agelis had 16 points for Valley (No. 9, 18-10). Charlie Rigoglioso added nine points. The Golden Knights, meanwhile, hit for ten threes. Doug Parker had five and Charlie Weinfeld had four. Parker dropped in a game-high 17 points.
It was Valley's third straight trip to the quarterfinals. Each time, they lost the top-seed.
For Agelis, the game marked the end of his basketball career. The quarterback/defensive back on the Valley football team recently committed to play football for LaSalle next season.
"They (Old Tappan) are all seniors and they played like it," he said afterwards. "They hit their shots and we didn't. Parker and Weinfeld are pretty tall, so even when we were on them they'd still get off their shots.
"We knew they were a tough team because of the way they had beaten Paramus Catholic (in the Bergen County Jamboree). They're an explosive team. They'd be in the top three in our conference."
Added head coach Joe Leicht, "We showed up ready to play. We just couldn't get a shot to go down. Our only regret is that we gave a couple of their guys a little too much room and they made us pay for that."
"We had a wonderful season," Leicht concluded. "We won a Christmas tournament and finished with 18 wins. We got stuck a bit in the middle of the season.
"Our biggest disappointment was losing to Hawthorne Christian (in the Passaic County Tournament) because we didn't play well against a very good team. We were 10-8 at that point and then won eight of nine coming into this tournament. I told the kids that in another couple of days, they'll remember the great season. That's what's important."
2/28/06: Section I, Group III, First Round: Wayne Valley 72, Northern Highlands 41: Nick Agelis registered a career high 29 points as Wayne Valley (No. 9, 18-9) walloped Northern Highlands (No. 8, 12-11). Drazen Res added 16 points. Charlie Rigoglioso, Valley's leading scorer, was held to six points.
"They were keying on Charlie," Agelis said. "Everyone does. He's been hot all year. They left me alone for a while. That's how I found my groove."
Agelis also finished with five rebounds, five assists and four steals. Valley will play top-seeded Old Tappan in the semi-finals Thursday. Highlands and Old Tappan play in the NBIL and meet twice a year. Mike Stone, the Highlander coach, anticipates a "great game."
"Valley has the guards to match up with Old Tappan," he said. "And they have a great defense. It should be a war."
2/24/06: Wayne Valley 71, Bloomfield 67: Charlie Rigoglioso had 24 points and Nick Agelis had 19 to power Wayne Valley (16-9) past Bloomfield (10-13). Jim Monahan chipped in with 10 points.
2/22/06: Wayne Valley 47, West Orange 32: Charlie Rigoglioso had 16 points and Nick Agelis and Remo Fioranelli had nine apiece as Wayne Valley (15-9) cruised to victory. The Indians have now exceeded last year's win total.
2/17/06: Wayne Valley 53, Hunterdon Central 41: Drazen Res scored 20 points to lead Wayne Valley (14-8). The Indians have prevailed in four straight games. Charlie Rigoglioso chipped in with 15 points. Remo Fioranelli added 10 points.
2/15/06: Wayne Valley 65, Lakeland 37: Charlie Rigoglioso led Wayne Valley (13-8) past Lakeland (11-12) with 26 points. Nick Agelis added 13 points, five boards and six assists. Ryan Schounnot and Mike Gibbons paced the Lancers with nine and eight points respectively.
2/12/06: Wayne Valley 72, Glen Rock 42: Charlie Rigoglioso struck for a game-high 16 points for Wayne Valley (12-8). Remo Fioranelli (14 points), Nick Agelis (11 points) and Jimmy Monahan (10 points) also reached double figures.
2/10/06: Wayne Valley 62, Orange 50: Wayne Valley (11-8) avenged an early-season loss by beating Orange (14-6). Charlie Rigolioso pumped in 28 points. Drazen Res added 13.
Passaic County Tournament, First Round, Hawthorne Christian 57, Valley 52
By Skiffo Drake, 2/6/06
Wayne - The Wayne Valley boy's basketball team was arguably the hottest team entering the Passaic County Tournament. The Indians entered the round-robin having triumphed six times in their last seven outings. The team's lone-blemish came on a last second buzzer-beater by Newark Westside.
Wayne's scorching run prompted head coach Joe Leicht to express hopefulness regarding his team's prospects.
"We started playing with some semblance of consistency," he said early last week. "That wasn't the case earlier in the year. We'd play well one night and then not so well the next.
For whatever reason, we started to click. You just hope it continues into the postseason."
Valley was clearly "clicking." Few could argue otherwise.
Its list of wins included an impressive 76-57 triumph over powerful West Milford. Valley had also recorded convincing wins over Passaic Valley, Passaic Tech and Ferris-Jersey City.
Unfortunately, Valley's winning-ways ended with a resounding thud. The Indians suffered a shocking Passaic County opening round loss to Hawthorne Christian, 57-52.
Hawthorne Christian was founded in 1981, but did not field a varsity team until 1989. For most of those years, the team was not exactly regarded as a hot-bed for basketball talent.
Its teams were, for the most part, mediocre.
In recent years, however, the school's basketball team bettered greatly. Despite its marked improvement, most of Passaic County failed to notice. The tournament seeding bared that out.
HCA's 2006 14-2 record was the best in the county. Still, the Defenders had to settle for a No. 10 seed. That meant an away game against seventh-seeded Wayne Valley (10-8).
The Indians found out the hard way that the Defenders are for real. Justin Arthur pumped in 22 points as HCA recorded its first win in ever in tournament history. Jordan Minnema tallied 16 points.
"We're not supposed to win anything," Arthur said. "We're certainly not supposed to beat great teams like Wayne Valley."
"It's a huge feat," Minnema added. "We had to play as a unit to beat a talented team like Wayne Valley. We had to play good defense and patient offense to win."
Charlie Rigoglioso paced the Indians with 15 points, but it was not enough. Nick Agelis and Arber Zuberi added 10 and 9 points respectively.
The Indians will now have to put this set back behind them as they prepare take part in their third straight Section I, Group III playoff.
2/4/06: Wayne Valley 76, West Milford 57: Nick Agelis scored a career-high 27 points to lead Wayne Valley (10-7) past West Milford (8-9). The senior also grabbed nine rebounds and dished off five assists. Charlie Rigoglioso contributed 17 points, nine assists, six rebounds and four steals. Drazen Res Wayne Valley chipped in with 15 points, including three 3-pointers. West Milford was led by Marc Asmus, who scored 14 points.
2/1/06: Newark Westside 60, Wayne Valley 59: Derrick Ross buried a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to lift West Side (13-4) over Wayne Valley. All nine of his points came on 3-point jumpers. Valley (9-7) rallied from an 18 point deficit, but could not hold on. Charlie Rigoglioso had 24 points, seven assists and four steals for the Indians. Remo Fioranelli added 10 points for Wayne.
Wayne Valley Hammers Ferris
By Skiffo Drake, 1/29/06
Wayne - Every post game speech seemed similar. Win or lose, Wayne Valley's Joe Leicht would talk to his team about trying to find some semblance of consistency.
Most of those post game discussions, fortunately for the Indians, followed victories. Even though Valley has rolled to a 9-6 record, Leicht had reasons for concern.
"We just weren't playing with consistency," the coach said. "We'd play well one night and then not so well the next. That doesn't cut it late in the season."
Suddenly, things began to click on a steady basis. With the post season fast-approaching, the Indians ripped off four straight wins.
"Right now, we're playing our best basketball," Leicht said. "Hopefully, that'll continue.
There's still a lot of basketball to play. We've got a big week before the counties even
start.
"Newark Westside (Tuesday) and West Milford (Thursday) are two of the best teams in our conference. We need to be on a roll before we play them."
Ferris-Jersey City can certainly attest Valley's new found momentum. Wayne was scheduled to host Hillsborough on Saturday. The Somerset County school was forced to bail out when they instead were scheduled to take part in that County's play-in round. Valley had two days to fill the vacancy.
"We were very grateful that Ferris agreed to come here and play us," Leicht said. "They had a game the night before, so it wasn't easy for them.
"From our stand point, you don't want to schedule a team like Ferris at the last minute.
Jersey City teams are always strong, aggressive and talented. They're a good team, but they just happened to get us on the wrong night."
The Indians cruised to an 87-51 victory. Nick Agelis scored 20 points, 15 of which came in the first quarter. Charlie Rigoglioso had 17 points, six rebounds and six assists. Matt Tahan chipped in with 11 points. Scott Pantale, Josh Romero and Remo Fioranelli all had 9 points. Drazen Res had 8.
"That's the type of game you want to play at this point," Leicht said. "We have a well-balanced team. Everybody got to play quality minutes today. That'll help us as we move forward."
The Passaic County Tournament's first round will tip off Saturday when Valley (No. 7) hosts Hawthorne Christian (No. 10). If the Indians prevail, they will likely face Passaic (No. 2) in the second round at Paterson-Kennedy. Passaic hosts Manchester (No. 15) in the first round Saturday.
Passaic, the defending county champion, beat Wayne Valley in the first round last year.
1/27/06: Wayne Valley 58, Passaic Tech 40: Charlie Rigoglioso and Drazen Res had 19 and 17 points respectively as Wayne Valley (8-6) dumped Passaic Tech (1-12). Richard Kirkland scored 17 points for the Bulldogs. Saquan Gary added 10 points.
1/25/06: Wayne Valley 59, Passaic Valley 38: Charlie Rigoglioso had 24 points and Drazen Res had 19 as Wayne Valley (8-6) toppled Passaic Valley (7-6). Joey Castro had 17 points for PV.
1/21/06: West Orange 46, Wayne Valley 41: Valley (6-6) led 30-27 going into the fourth period, but could not hold. Charlie Rigoglioso and Jimmy Monahan had 16 and 14 points respectively.
1/18/06: Wayne Valley 48, Caldwell 40: The Indians (6-5) got 22 points from Charlie Rigoglioso in their win over the Chiefs.
1/15/06: Clifton 72, Wayne Valley 55: Charlie Rigoglioso poured in 31 points, but Wayne Valley (5-5) still lost to Clifton (6-4). In five losses, the Indians have allowed 69 or more more points.
"That did happen once in the previous two years," head coach Joe Leicht said. "Obviously, we're not playing strong defense consistently."
1/13/06: Wayne Valley 53, Lakeland 43: Charlie Rigoglioso had 18 points, five assists and three steals as Valley (5-4) bested Lakeland (3-5). Nick Agelis had 13 and Jimmy Monahan had 10. Dan Kusnic led the Lancers with 18 points.
1/10/06: Orange 72, Wayne Valley 61: Four players reached double figures, but Wayne Valley (4-4) still lost its third straight game. Nick Agelis led with 16 points. Charlie Rigolioso and Remo Fioranelli had 14 apiece. Drazen Res chipped in 10.
1/6/06: Millburn 60, Wayne Valley 49: Valley (4-3) dropped its second straight game when they fell to unbeaten Millburn (6-0). Nick Agelis led Wayne with 14 points. Charlie Rigoglioso added nine points. Scott Silverstein and Remo Fioranelli had eight points each.
1/4/05: West Milford 77, Wayne Valley 53: Justin Sofman hit for a season high 30 points, including 7 three pointers to lead the Highlanders to victory. Marc Asmus, Jesse Reinle, and Jahmel Donald scored 17, 16 and 10 points respectively. Sofman and Bryan McCourt had 7 rebounds each. Donald and Sofman dished out six assists apiece. Drazen Res had 12 points for Wayne.
12/29/05: Northern Highlands Christmas Tournament Championship: Wayne Valley 45, Paramus 28: Wayne Valley (4-1) defeated Fair Lawn (2-2) to win the Northern Highlands Christmas Tournament for the second straight year. Charlie Rigoglioso led the Indians with 17 points. Nick Agelis scored 11 points. Drazen Res and Remo Fioranelli had five apiece.
12/28/05: Northern Highlands Christmas Tournament: Wayne Valley 50, Paramus 31: Nick Agelis scored 19 points to lead Wayne Valley past Northern Highlands. Charlie Rigoglioso and Drazen Res had 14 and 10 points respectively. Valley will take on Fair Lawn in the championship game tonight. The Cutters defeated Northern Highlands in overtime, 59-54.
12/23/05: Newark Westside 67, Wayne Valley 44: Newark Westside (2-1) handed Wayne Valley (2-1) its first loss of the season. Charlie Rigoglioso led the Indians with 15 points. Jim Monahan and Remo Fioranelli had six apiece.
12/21/05: Wayne Valley 41, Passaic Tech 34: Nick Agelis had 11 points and Arber Zuberi had 10 as Wayne Valley (2-0) tripped up PCT. Charlie Rigoglioso added eight points. Suquan Gary led PCT (0-2) with 16 points.
Wayne Valley 63, Passaic Valley 44
By Skiffo Drake
12/16/05: The Wayne Valley boy's basketball team has had a year to dwell on last season's 0-3 start. The Indians rebounded to finish 14-10. That start, however, was largely seen as the reason the team suffered early-elimination losses in the County and State tournaments.
Valley lost in the first round of the Passaic County Tournament to Passaic, the eventual champion. Valley beat Bergenfield in the first round of the State Sectional Tournament, but lost to top-seeded Demarest in the second round.
"We bounced back pretty well from that start," Wayne coach Joe Leicht said. "We could never dig our way out of the hole, though. We found that out at the end of the season. We were peaking at the right time, but we still lost.
"That was because we had to play on the road and against very good teams. The 0-3 start hurt our seeding. We didn't want to go through that again."
The Indians proved that with an opening day trouncing of Passaic Valley, 63-44.
Junior Charlie Rigoglioso poured in 19 points to lead the Indians. Arber Zuberi had 11 points. Nick Agelis chipped in 10 points.
Jimmy Monahan and Remo Fioranelli added eight and seven respectively. Drazen Res had six points. Agelis, Rigoglioso and Fioranelli had four rebounds apiece.
Zuberi and Monahan, both juniors, were playing for the first time as varsity regulars. Leicht was impressed with the way they contributed.
"We know what the other guys can do," the coach said. "Charlie and Nick hit some big outside shots. Remo was strong for inside again. But what Arber and Jimmy did is real encouraging. We're going to need some of the new guys to step up for us. They came in and made valuable contributions."
"We've got some new guys at forward and center," Agelis added. "They've been doing well for us in practice. It was good to see them come in and play well in our first game."
Tyler Nash led PV with 11 points. Matt Coral had nine points. Jon Coral and Chuck Richmond scored eight points each. Joe Castro had six points. After a close first quarter, WV pulled away with a 15-2 second quarter. PV pulled within 38-32 in the third, but could get no closer.
"Passaic Valley's a good team," Leicht said. "Don't be fooled by what happened tonight. They have almost everyone back from last year. Beating them, says a lot for our team at this point. They made a strong run at us, but our defense stepped up. It's nice to get off to a strong start against a good team."
"We forced them to call a timeout in the third quarter," Rob Carcich said. "I was proud by the way we fought back. But when you fall behind by 17, there's only so much you can do. With the exception of that run (in the third quarter), we couldn't put the ball into the basket. Hopefully, it was an aberration, a bad night. "
Preview
Wayne - At many high schools, struggles between the football and basketball teams are commonplace. If a school is successful in football, the season will run into late November and sometimes even early December. This overlaps with basketball practice, which always kicks off on Thanksgiving weekend. This sometimes puts the two teams at odds.
Not so at Wayne Valley. Joe Leicht, the Indian basketball coach, considers himself one of the football team's fans.
Five of Leicht's players – Remo Fioranelli, Nick Agelis, Charlie Rigoglioso, Jimmy Monahan and Chris Pantale - were on the Valley football team.
Like most Wayne fans, Leicht was happy to see the gridders end its five-year playoff drought. He wanted to see them advance to the final game, though. Unfortunately for the Valley true, the Indians lost to Parsippany Hills in the semi-finals.
"I'm like every other basketball coach in that I want to see the kids in on time, if possible," the coach said. "But I've also been on the other side. I was a football coach and a basketball coach at Indian Hills for a number (21) of years.
"It's hard not to root for these guys. They're good kids and they're hard workers. They put everything they had into the football season. I would have liked to see them get a chance to play at the Meadowlands."
When it didn't happen, it made for a gloomy week in the Ken Sinofsky Gymnasium.
"I was so sad for them," Leicht said. "They had a great year, but that doesn't matter much (immediately) after the loss. They lost that game and then had to come here and start a new season from scratch. That wasn't easy for them. They have a lot of character, though.
After a few days, they put it into the back of their minds."
Fioranelli, a defensive linemen, will draw the most difficult assignment on the hardwood. He'll be called on to take over at center for the 6-foot-8 Billy Moakely. In just two years as a starter, Moakely scored over 1,000 points and collected over 500 rebounds.
"You never want to see a 6-foot-8 guy graduate," Leicht said. "It'll be an adjustment for Remo (6-foot-4), but he's ready. He's not as tall as Billy, but he's very strong and very powerful. He's also very quick, which is rare for someone his size.
"He'll be a match up nightmare. If the other team wants to put a big guy on him, he'll have a quickness advantage. If they put a quick guy against him, he'll have a strength advantage. He's sometimes able to fly under the radar because people underestimate his quickness. He's big and powerful, but he runs the floor like a guard."
Nick Agelis, the starting quarterback, and Charlie Rigoglioso, the backup quarterback, will man Leicht's back court.
"I've never had two quarterbacks in the same backcourt.," the coach said. "And I don't know of any one else that has. That'll give us an advantage as well. They're obviously good decision makers and good leaders."
Agelis (6-foot-2), a senior, averaged 12 points per game last season. Rigoglioso (6-foot-1), a junior, started the season on the junior varsity before gaining a promotion to the varsity. He averaged nine points per game.
At forward, Leicht will have plethora of talent at his disposal. Junior Drazen Res (6-foot-4) can play inside or outside. Juniors Arber Zuberi (6-foot-5) and Brett Silverstein (6-foot-3) and sophomore Pantale (6-foot-4) will team with Fioranelli underneath.
Monahan (6-foot-2) and Josh Romero (6-foot-2) will contribute mostly from the wing. Senior Eric Knittel and juniors Mitch Gelkopf and Matt Tahan will help out at guard.
"We're losing a 6-foot-8 guy, but we're actually bigger overall," Leicht said. "Only one of our players is under 6-feet. That's rare at this level."
The team's primary focus at this point is last year's slow start. The Indians started the season 0-3 before rebounding to finish 14-10. Despite the turnaround, Leicht says that his team never truly recovered from its start.
"We bounced back nicely," he said. "We could never dig out of that hole, though.
Because of that losing streak, we were seeded fairly low in the (Passaic) County Tournament and State Tournament.
"We played very well against Passaic in the County Tournament (first round), but still lost. They wound up winning it all. In the state tournament we had to play Demarest, the top seed. If we avoid the slow start this year, we should get a home game in both tournaments."
In his three years at Wayne Valley, Leicht has never been more optimistic. He says that this could be "the best offensive team" he's ever coached.
"The key to the last two year has been defensive rebounding. If we take care of that again, we'll be in good shape because these guys can score. It won't be one or two guys doing it all. We're going to be very deep. I expect the team to have balanced scoring. It should be an exciting year."
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