Sideline Chatter brings you the latest behind the scenes with The Buzz

the latest regional New Jersey high school sports news

Bloomfield Tech head coach Pete Vasil directed his 12th-seeded Spartans to a big 41-38 upset win at fifth-seeded Newark East Side in Saturday's first round of the 66th Essex County Boys Basketball Tournament. (photo by corbosport)

Yasim Simmons helped the BT Spartans control the boards against East Side as the visitors won huge road game. (Dominick Paoli Photography)

Bloomfield Tech Turns Up 'D'
In ECT Upset Win At East Side
By Steve Tober
For sidelinechatter.com

Great memories of six years ago at Newark East Side still lingered for Pete Vasil, 12 th-seeded Bloomfield Tech’s head coach as he began a drive up to New England for a family event following Saturday’s impressive 41-38 Essex County Tournament first round upset of the fifth-seeded Red Raiders.

After all, back in February of 2006, as the coach at Plainfield, Vasil’s Queen City crew went into East Side and clinched his first Watchung Conference title with a big win in the intense setting that is the Red Raiders’ gymnasium.

But, after Saturday’s huge win for the Spartans of BT (12-7), the always-enthusiastic Vasil was emphasizing the latest triumph over an East Side team that was even more red-hot than his own squad coming in.

“When I saw they beat Shabazz, 72-42, the other night (Thursday) I thought, ‘wow,’” said the BT head mentor. “But, we’ve been playing great ball of late, and my kids have really turned it up defensively, which certainly helped us at East Side on Saturday.

“We played an extended 3-2 zone in some key spots and slowed them down, and my guys were aggressive defensively along with being warriors on the boards.

“It’s a great win for Bloomfield Tech basketball, and we’re very excited about taking on Columbia in the quarterfinals.”

Following Saturday’s first round results, the quarterfinals are set for Saturday, Feb. 11, when it will be ninth-seeded Newark Vocational at top-seeded Seton Hall Prep; the 12th seeded-BT Spartans at fourth-seeded Columbia; sixth-seeded Irvington at third-seeded Bloomfield and seventh-seeded University at second-seeded Newark Tech.

The semifinals are set for Saturday afternoon, Feb. 19, at West Orange and the final, Saturday, Feb. 26, at Essex County College in Newark.

On a Saturday when six of the top eight seeds advanced to the quarterfinals, BT’s win at East Side (13-5) was the biggest surprise. The Red Raiders came in having won six in a row and 9 of 10, and while the Spartans were riding their own 5-game win skein, they were coming off a rather tough “Play-In” bracket second round win over Millburn (44-41) this past Thursday in a game where BT trailed the Millers by 10 at the half.

“I had my concerns about playing Millburn twice in three days like we did,” said Vasil. “They are definitely better than their record (3-13), they have a nice big kid in (6-5) Tony Bai who is going to NYU, and their coach, Rodger Blind is one of the best around.

“We had beaten them pretty good (59-31) in our conference game (SEC-Liberty) on Tuesday at their place, and it’s never easy to play a team that well coached in back-to-back contests.

“I thought our kids made some big plays down the stretch and we pulled out the victory, and I like the energy we had going into East Side today.”

BT led, 23-21, at the half, before the Red Raiders outscored the Spartans, 11-8, in the third quarter to take a slim 32-31 lead into the final eight minutes of regulation. However, BT would go on to outscore the home team, 11-6, in the final quarter.

“We were actually down five, but then (senior guard) Ray Blanco hit a big ‘3’ and (forwards) Faraji James, Yasim Simmons and Akef Witt just kept banging the boards,” continued Vasil. “Faraji had a big block on (East Side forward Aaron) Bodie and Blanco made a couple of big late free throws.

“I also have to give a lot of credit to our point guard Mykhal Corbitt, who withstood their ball pressure all game long and did a commendable job running our offense.

“Our bench is thin right now with (6-6 junior forward) Nadir Alston currently sidelined with a broken bone in his foot, and I basically went with the five guys the entire second half.

“I think our conditioning is tremendous and our kids showed great endurance in a tournament setting. We had to dig deep at times, but we pulled it out and it’s a great win, that’s for sure!”

The going doesn’t get any easier for BT this week as Bloomfield comes to the West Caldwell Center on Tuesday afternoon (4 p.m.) and Newark Tech journeys to face the Spartans the next night at 6 p.m., also in West Caldwell.

Then, on Saturday (Feb. 11) it’s over to Maplewood to face a Columbia team that survived against pesky 20 th-seeded Verona in the first round and already owns a 54-40 regular-season SEC-Liberty victory over BT back on Jan. 19.

“Columbia is good, no doubt about and they play a very physical, defensive-oriented style of ball,” said Vasi, whose team breezed past American History, 76-52, in their first ECT 'Play-In' bracket contest before taking on Millburn this past Thursday. “My kids have been battle tested in a number of tough games so far this season and I think we’re improving each week.

“You really want to be peaking about this time of the season as we get closer to state tournament time, and, hopefully, we’ll continue to play with the type of intensity we’ve been displaying, especially with our big win at East Side.”

Saturday, Feb. 4:

Essex County Tournament First Round:

(12) Bloomfield Tech 41 (5) East Side 38

(2) Newark Tech 60 (18) Weequahic 50

(1) Seton Hall Prep 58 (16) East Orange Campus 44

(6) Irvington 72 (11) Central 45

(4) Columbia 64 (20) Verona 57

(3) Bloomfield 73 (14) Orange 61

(9) Newark Vocational 67 (8) Shabazz 66

(7) University 67 (10) Montclair 54

ECT Quarters, Saturday, Feb. 11:

(9) Newark Vocational at (1) Seton Hall Prep