Stanek & Peterson propel Ramapo College to 9th straight win

Ramapo College senior forward Nick Stanek said on any different night anyone can score, the team feeds off each other and all they care about is coming out with a win. On Thursday night at the Max Stern Athletic Center on the campus of Yeshiva University (5-8), the Roadrunners were locked in a fierce battle against deep into the second half.

The combination of Stanek and sophomore guard Patrick Peterson gave Ramapo the spark needed to keep their winning streak alive and come out victorious for the ninth straight time. Stanek chalked up 14 of his game-high 23 points including converting on a two three-point plays.

Tied at 62-62, Peterson tallied five points in a blinding span of eight seconds, tallying 22 points on the night. The Roadrunners kept the engine running hot going on a 11-0 run holding the Maccabees without a point for almost five minutes pushing the margin to 73-62 and eventually a 90-71 victory.

Shooting under 50% in the first half, Ramapo turned that around in the second, shooting 52.5%. The Roadrunners dominated the points in the paint 50 to 18 while forcing Yeshiva into committing 19 turnovers that led to 24 points for Ramapo. Senior forward Christopher Moseley added 16 points while senior guard Josh Ford chipped in with 10 points.

“Coach (McBreen) says being ranked so high in the country every team is going to give us their best shot,” said Stanek. “Coming into games we know we’re going to be in tight ones and doesn’t matter what a team’s record is and they’re going to play hard and just have to match their energy and effort and we do that have faith we’re going to pull it out. Our defense was lacking but lucky to be hitting our shots and second unit is just as important as our starters and bench came in with great energy tonight.”

Head Coach Chuck McBreen was less than thrilled on the win, “Our second unit gave us a spark tonight, our first team defense came out no defensive intensity and played the first five minutes of the game and second team came in and got us the lead at 28-19 and took them out and first team let up a 10-2 run. Credit them (Yeshiva), they came ready to play and made shots. We have been holding teams to 36% shooting and they shot 46% because they do a good job of running their stuff and we were not guarding.”

“Very disappointing but at the end of the day they did not have enough bodies and got worn down and (Bar) Alluf (19 points) and (Simcha) Halpert (14 points) are really good players and if they had more players we might have been on the wrong end of the scorecard and fortunate to do what we do is wear people down and in the last eight or nine minutes and up with the margin we got. We got out of our three-quarter pressure defense and we more full court and man-to-man and made them work to get open and the change in going from one defense to another very significant.”

Ramapo (9-1) gets to enjoy about a week off for the Christmas holidays before returning to action in the D3Hoops.com Classic tournament at the South Point Arena located at the South Point Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. In the first game, the Roadrunners square off against 14^th ranked and undefeated Ohio Wesleyan (8-0).

“Ohio Wesleyan, 14^th in the country and shoot the three and play healthy bodies and if our defensive effort and intensity and energy is the way it was tonight then we’re losing that game,” McBreen said. “We have to a better job coaching especially defensively.”