Cowboys don’t stress in win over Cresskill by Darren Cooper of The Record
CRESSKILL – Pascack Hills senior Michael Walsh plays every minute on the basketball court like it’s his last, because he knows it might be.
Having missed much of the last three seasons with stress fractures in his right leg, Walsh is “instant energy” off the bench for the Cowboys, according to coach Kevin Kirkby. Tuesday night, the Cowboys fed off of that momentum and Nick Guillemain’s 23 points to blow past Cresskill, 64-45, in the first round of the All Groups Tournament.
Pascack Hills (4-0) will face Ridgewood in Thursday night’s championship game. Ridgewood downed NV/Demarest 53-29 in the night’s first contest.
Walsh’s story sounds almost impossible to believe. Freshman year, he was playing football when he got crunched by a tackle and felt a pain shoot up his leg. As a sophomore, he tried to play through it, but eventually had to stop. Junior year he was running sprints at basketball practice on the first day after the tryout period when he felt the same thing.
“They say it’s bad luck,” said Walsh. “So I don’t know how bad my luck is.”
Each time it’s been the same spot, same leg. Two hairline fractures in his tibia, one in his right fibula. He’s tried all different kinds of remedies. This year his strategy is to try to go easy on it in practice, plus ice baths before and after games.
“I love the game. I can’t stop playing and I love being with my friends,” said Walsh. “I’m just grateful that I have a chance to play as a senior.”
“For him to get back and healthy has been huge for us,” said Guillemain. “He does everything for us. He has tons of post moves. He’s great on defense. He’s very aggressive.”
In truth, its hard to differentiate one Pascack Hills player from another. They all seem to be around 6-foot-1, they can all shoot, and most of them have close-cropped facial hair.
But when they get going, they can really put on a show. Kirkby has always stressed ball movement, open shots and defensive intensity, and he has a team that knows how to implement the plan.
“We have kids that live and die basketball so that makes my life easier,” said Kirkby, who brought back three starters from last year’s 23-3 squad. “They want what’s best for the team. The returning kids help with the younger kids, without me there in the off-season. They want to play basketball, and they want to do everything they can to win.”
The final score is not truly indicative of the game play, but it does show that the Cowboys possess a gear not many can match. After trailing by eight points early in the third quarter, Cresskill rallied to take a 36-35 lead on a lay-up by Jack Maltby.
But then it was all trademark Cowboys basketball. Kevin Michael got things started with a basket in the lane, then Jason Shill had a three-point play and Guillemain scored on a fast break.
“I’ll be honest, I was a little nervous at halftime,” said Kirkby. “We didn’t play well in the first half. We shot terrible, and we were lucky to be up three. We made one little adjustment defensively, we went a little bigger, and we had some mismatches on offense and we got out in transition. These kids have been playing since they were sophomores, so they have been in big games before, so it kind of showed today.”
The fourth quarter was more of the same as the lead grew to 23 points. Shill finished with 13 points. Murphy finished with nine, seven coming in the second half.
“It just all clicked,” said Walsh. “And I think that’s how we should be playing. That was us against Ramsey and Westwood and River Dell, it took us about three quarters unfortunately, but we finally got going.”
Kirkby said his team is experienced and motivated.
“I think I’ve learned that we can match up with different lineups with our personnel,” he said. “Our biggest kid is six-two-and-a-half, but Murphy is 6-1-and-a-half, Walsh is 6-foot, but plays bigger, Shill is very long for a guard, so we have a bit of length, so it we get mismatches we can win in the post, and for the most part, the guys have bought in that we have to play hard on defense.”
Ridgewood’s victory echoed the same theme as Pascack Hills, as the Maroons blew open an eight-point lead at halftime to win going away. Junior forward Michael Schretter had a game-high 13 points for the Maroons.