RIVER GROVE — Ridgewood senior Dino DeVivo wasn’t shy about taking three-pointers in Wednesday night’s Metro Suburban East boys basketball game at Guerin.
The 6-2 guard launched 17 threes, connecting on seven of them for a game-high 21 points to lead the Rebels to a 51-44 victory.
“My game plan every game is to find the open man, but if I’m open I’m going to shoot,” DeVivo said. “Coach [Chris Mroz] is always telling me to be ‘shooter ready’ and the number of threes doesn’t really matter. I just try to make the best decisions when I’m out there.”
“He’s a three-point shooter and we tell him if he’s open, get it up there,” Mroz said. “It’s great that he made some. I’ve seen him grow up a lot over the years and to see him score 21 points in a varsity game is a great thing.”
DeVivo missed his first two shots of the night and Guerin (6-10, 1-4) raced out to a 19-10 lead over Ridgewood (8-7, 4-1) early in the second quarter. But DeVivo didn’t go into a shell. He just kept firing and he knocked down three shots from behind the arc over a three-minute stretch in the second quarter as the Rebels rallied to take a 26-25 advantage into halftime.
“I started a little slow,” DeVivo said. “But I got a sense of [a big night] when I hit a couple in a row. My whole game gets going and it helps pump me up.”
DeVivo knocked down two more threes in the third quarter as Ridgewood started to take control. The Rebels led 39-29 to start the fourth. Guerin pulled within four a couple times in the fourth, but Ridgewood hit its free throws down the stretch to seal the win.
“Conference games are so important for us because we’re striving to win a conference championship,” DeVivo said. “We’re out here trying to win every conference game we can.”
Mroz is hoping that DeVivo, who is averaging low double digits in points this season, can use his big night against Guerin as a major building block for the rest of the season.
“I think his confidence is through the roof and hopefully he keeps building on it,” Mroz said. “I want him to keep going with it, keep getting those shots up.”
“I think this game is going to get me going,” DeVivo said.
Game notes
• Guerin was led by Patrick Coleman (13 points) and Adam Castro (12 points). Zac Rzewnicki added 14 points for the Rebels.
• The Gators shot 15-for-31 while Ridgewood was 15-for-43, including 12-for-33 from three.
“We pretty much expected them to [shoot threes],” Guerin coach Tim Bowen said. “I thought we did a pretty good job of covering them. If we would have just finished around the basket it would have been a closer game.”