Dunn gets his 500th as Old Tappan improves to 5-0

OLD TAPPAN – Brian Dunn’s first job in education came with a head coaching position at Pascack Hills High School. When he moved over to Northern Valley/Old Tappan a year later he thought his days as a girls basketball coach had already come and gone.

“After that year I switched to teaching at Old Tappan and I thought I was done with girls hoops,” said Dunn. “I moved over here and wanted to continue coaching, but I thought it was going to be in football in baseball.”

He was half-right. Dunn has gone on to become one of the most successful football coaches in the history of Bergen County public school football, but he has also become inseparable from local girls basketball. After Old Tappan beat Ridgewood, 47-31, on Thursday afternoon, Dunn was holding up a banner prepared by his players in honor of his 500th victory in a career that includes two outright Group 3 state championships (2016 & 2018).

“After a year away [from girls basketball] when I got here I came back and coach the freshmen squad for Marty Doherty,” said Dunn. “Then Marty retired, they asked me to take the job. I did and here we are.”

Grayson Housley and the Giordano twins, Maya and Layla, have been through this drill before. The three seniors were all on the floor when Old Tappan volleyball coach Melissa Landeck recorded her 500th career victory in the fall and all three were instrumental in Thursday’s win.

Housley led a smothering defensive effort with six steals as Old Tappan held Ridgewood to just 11 made field goals in the game. Representing the 07647, Maya Giordano scored four straight points late in the second quarter as the Knights started to pull away and Layla finished with a game-high 20 points, 15 of them in the second half in which Old Tappan maintained a double-digit cushion for the final 10:13

“It is crazy that Landeck got it and that Dunn got it in the same year and we were here for both. Next has to be P[eter] Dunn in track. We have to see how many wins he has,” said Maya Giordano, who, like her sister, is a three-sport standout. “We have known [Brian] Dunn for so long. We were at the game when he won his 400th, so to be out there playing for him when he won his 500th game is a real honor.”

Dunn entered the season with 495 wins and it has been an all-out sprint to .500. The season started on December 14 and on December 21 the Golden Knights improved to 5-0 heading into a brief holiday break before they play in the Joe Poli Tournament at Pascack Valley next week.

“It’s been hectic and a little crazy, but today was very exciting,” said Housely, “To think that Coach Dunn has been doing this for more than 25 years and that he has now won 500 games, it is so well-deserved. He is a really good coach, he has taught us so much and I am really happy for him.”

Up against a daunting early schedule and with three sophomores in the starting lineup, Ridgewood (1-3) is off to a bumpy start that got a bit rougher when Catie Klemm rolled an ankle early in the opening quarter. The Maroons hung in there, however, and scored the final six points of the opening stanza, the last three on Quinn Duffy’s 3-pointer from the corner that left her team trailing by just two points, 11-9, heading into the second quarter.

There was a further opening when Layla Giordano picked up an offensive foul, her second personal, 1:18 into the second quarter and went to the bench for the rest of the half, but instead the Knights extended their advantage. After two missed Ridgewood free throws that could have tied the game, Sienna Drullinsky cut to the basket and scored off an assist from Maya Giordano (6 points) to kick off a 9-2 run that pushed the OT lead to 20-11.

Emily Bussanich scored the final two points of the first half and the first two of the third quarter to get Ridgewood to within 20-15, but Maya Giordano answered with a bucket on the block to reestablish the Knights’ offense and they outscored the Maroons 15-8 in the period to take a 35-21 advantage into the final quarter.

The Giordanos, the only two seniors in the starting lineup that also included three sophomores combined to score more than half of the Knights’ points, but others took turns in support. Mia Derrico added 9 points and was 3-for-4 from the free throw line where OT went 8 for 14 as a team. Alivia Badurina scored 7 points to lead the second unit, Housley and Drullinsky each made a field goal and Sadie Murphy’s fourth quarter free throw rounded out the scoring for the Knights.

“We have a really young team, so me and Maya really have to communicate on the floor and try to guide all of the sophomores that are starting with us,” said Layla Giordano, who plays a lot as a point-forward and also a slasher from the wings. “I think it helps a lot that we have experience, we both have played since our freshman year, and we can help them with their journey on the court.”

Bussanich led Ridgewood with 7 points, Duffy added 6, Morino and Alysha Arora each added 5. Taylor Douma, Kelsey Shafer and Lucy Bjerke all added field goals for the Maroons, who were just 7 of 22 combined from the line and just 2 for 12 in the third quarter when the game slipped out of reach.