By Dave Stewart
MaxPreps.com
GREENWICH, Conn. - It’s not surprising that the Greenwich Cardinals were a bit overlooked in this winter’s preseason predictions for boys basketball.
Despite going 17-7 during a stellar campaign last year, the Cardinals had to contend with a number of huge losses. Gone were last season’s top scorer, Russ Rosenband, who racked up 408 points and was deadly from 3-point territory with 62 treys.
The team’s leading rebounder and second leading scorer, Chris Valentine, also graduated in the spring, and Greenwich also lost Sean Massi, who was third on the team in scoring.
With all that firepower gone, the Cardinals weren’t seen as a threat in the FCIAC.
But the Cardinals have come out of the gates with guns blazing. Following a 58-56 win over rival New Canaan in the LaVista Tournament championship game last Monday, Greenwich owned a pristine record of 5-0 as the calendar turned to 2009.
Not bad a bad beginning for a so-called rebuilding year.
“It’s a good start,” head coach Bill Brehm said after the Cards beat the New Canaan Rams. “I’ll take it any day of the week. It was an ugly game against Darien in the first round but today (against New Canaan) we played better, so that’s a positive.”
One of the biggest positives this season has been the play of senior tri-captain Jonathan Herzog (6-0). A three-year varsity starter, Herzog has assumed Rosenband’s role as the team’s top scorer with a 19.8 points per game average. Herzog, who will play at Middlebury next year, is 21-of-22 from the free throw line, and has 22 rebounds.
Senior Demetrius Ferguson (5-9) is a three-year starter at point guard. Ferguson is averaging 10.3 points per game and has 12 steals.
Adam Franchella (5-10), a senior guard who saw some playing time at the varsity level last winter, is a tri-captain and is second in scoring with 13 points per game and leads in steals with 13.
The Cardinals have also gotten a big impact from their two big men — 6-6 junior tri-captain Clay Graham and 6-10 sophomore Al Azulphar.
Graham leads Greenwich on the boards with 40 rebounds, and also has seven blocks and a 5.5 points per game average.
Azulphar has 23 rebounds, seven blocks and an 8.3 points per game average.
“Clay was here last year and he’s coming along with his rebounding a little better than he did last year,” Brehm said. “He’s not getting pushed around as much. And Al is 100 percent better than last year. Last year he played freshman and JV, so he didn’t even get into a varsity game. He just wasn’t there yet, but he worked during then offseason, improved his skills and his fitness a little bit so he’s able to be in there. He still has a way to go because he just turned 15.”
Greenwich’s early season play has resulted in a 15.6 margin of victory through five games. After beating the Westhill Vikings 66-48 on opening night, the Cards blasted a strong Danbury team, 68-45.
The Danbury Hatters (2-2) led that contest, 26-19 midway through the second quarter, but Greenwich scored the final nine points of the half to take the lead. The Cardinals then opened the second half with a 15-3 run to go ahead 43-29.
The captains did much of the damage as Herzog led the attack with 26 points, Franchella scored 16 and Graham pulled down 10 rebounds. Azulphar collected 11 points and 10 rebounds.
Following that victory, Greenwich topped the 3-2 Trumbull Eagles, 59-35, before beating the Darien Blue Wave, 50-29, in the opening round of the LaVista tournament.
That win showcased the diversity of Greenwich’s offense, as Herzog and Franchella were kept in single digits, but the Cards still won by 21 points. Ferguson was the game’s high scorer with 16 points, while Graham added 11.
Greenwich matched up with host New Canaan in the tournament final and those teams have become extremely familiar over the past year.
Last winter, the Cards and Rams met three times, with the Rams winning twice during the regular season, including in the 2007 LaVista tournament. Greenwich avenged those losses with a victory in the FCIAC quarterfinals.
“New Canaan and us — all we do is play tight games,” Brehm said. “I think we’ve played New Canaan more than any other team in the state. We’ve played four times in the last calendar year and we play close games every single time.”
Greenwich was also facing a New Canaan squad which had just gotten senior co-captain Jamie Pares back from an MCL injury. Pares led the Rams with 17 points as they defeated Wilton, 70-47, in the first round.
Greenwich and New Canaan volleyed the lead back and forth throughout the first half, with the Cards eventually gaining a slim edge of 28-25 at halftime. Greenwich still led by three, 44-41, after three quarters, and Franchella opened the fourth with a trey to make it a 47-41 game.
The Rams responded with a 5-0 run. New Canaan’s 6-10 center Joe Sindelar, a senior co-captain, started the rally with a bucket and Ian Knechtle hit the first end of a 1-and-1 to make it 47-44. Sindelar grabbed an offensive rebound when Knechtle’s second shot missed, and the Rams’ big man scored on a put-back to cut the deficit to 47-46.
After Herzog hit a jump shot, Sindelar scored again off a nice bounce pass from Pares to make it 49-48. The teams traded baskets over the next couple of minutes and when Pares scored off a steal and breakaway lay-up, New Canaan trailed by just one at 53-52 with 1:25 remaining.
Herzog responded with a mid-range jump shot and Franchella hit a free throw to give Greenwich a 56-52 edge with 28.6 seconds to play.
Sindelar scored again on an offensive rebound and put-back with 8.4 seconds remaining to cut the deficit to two points, but Azulphar sank two free throws with 7.4 to play to put the game out of reach at 58-54. Pares scored the final two points on a lay-up with less than a second remaining.
Greenwich had a lot of success working with Azulphar and Graham on the floor, as New Canaan’s big man Sindelar could only cover one.
“We tried to get the mismatches with having Al as well as Clay in there at the same time because they don’t have a 6-9, 6-7 who can guard them,” Brehm said. “They’ve got Sindelar, but if we have both of our big guys in there, somebody’s getting mismatched. So that’s what we were trying to expose and I think it worked.”
Brehm also said the Cardinals tried to push the pace a little more, but that ploy didn’t work as well.
“We’re trying to pick up the pace and trying to get them to run a little bit, but for whatever reason, probably because New Canaan plays great defense and is a good team, we couldn’t get up on the score,” Brehm said. “We wanted to get up 10 or 12 points by pushing the tempo but it didn’t work because New Canaan capitalized on our mistakes.”
New Canaan won’t have long to wait for a rematch with Greenwich. Both teams have home games this week with Greenwich hosting Bassick on Wednesday and New Canaan hosting Fairfield-Ludlowe on Tuesday. After that, the Cardinals visit the Rams on Friday, Jan. 9, at 7 p.m.
“I’m sure it’s going to be the same type of game,” Brehm said. “There’s no doubt in my mind. There’s not too many adjustments either one of us can make. We know each other better than any other team, so it’ll be another good game.”
Dave Stewart, the Sports Editor of the New Canaan (Conn.) Advertiser, is a MaxPreps.com writer and photographer. He may be reached at 203-966-9541 or at sports@ncadvertiser.com