Second Seeded South Brunswick Looks to Repeat Against Top Seeded North Brunswick
SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ–On Friday evening, GMC Hoops will travel down to East Brunswick High School to taken in both the Girls and Boys Championship Games in the 2016 East Brunswick/GMC JV Tournament. This year’s boys final features top seeded North Brunswick against second seeded and defending champion, South Brunswick. In the semifinals, JV Raiders of NBTHS defeated 5th seeded Monroe (62-54) while the Junior Vikings rolled to victory over 6th seeded St. Joseph’s (55-40) behind a strong second half.
In the first semifinal, South Brunswick led 20-19 at the half, but then put together a 33-9 surge over the first 12 minutes of the second half to take a 53-28 lead and cruised from there to a 55-40 victory over St. Joseph’s. Tavian Alford led the Junior Vikes with a game high 19 points while Kunal Thakral added 12 and Vic Heutz chipped in with 11.
Then, in the second semifinal, North Brunswick took a strong challenge from Monroe for the better part of the game before coming away with a 62-54 victory. Four different players scored in double figures for NBTHS including Avery Clagget (17 points), Jhonell Brown (15 pts), and Adryan Salazar and Jordan Salisbury with 13. This is the fourth time this season that GMC Hoops is seeing North Brunswick’s JV and the second time we’re seeing South Brunswick’s JV.
The Junior Raiders have won all three previous games covered by the site including a 55-53 win at East Brunswick on opening night, a 64-46 win over Spotswood in the EB/GMC JV Tourney’s round of 16, and Monday night’s semifinal win over Monroe. The JV Vikings won their only game covered by the site over St. Joe’s on Monday night. These two teams are much different in their composition.
South Brunswick, which defeated St. Joseph’s for the title last year as the 2nd seed, comes in as the defending champion, and with much more experience with juniors such as Tavian Alford, Vic Huetz, and Shawn Bautista contributing to that squad a year ago. On the other hand, North Brunswick has only three juniors on its rosters, but it has a plethora of talented sophomores that were members of the NBTHS freshmen team that won the Perth Amboy/GMC Freshmen Tournament a year ago.
How Did They Get Here?
No. 2 South Brunswick (17-2)
- Round of 16: Defeated 18th seeded New Brunswick
- Quarterfinals: Defeated 7th seeded Woodbridge
- Semifinals: Defeated 6th seeded St. Joseph’s, 55-40
No. 1 North Brunswick (17-2)
- Round of 16: Defeated 16th seeded Spotswood, 64-46
- Quarterfinals: Defeated 8th seeded Perth Amboy
- Semifinals: Defeated 5th seeded Monroe, 62-54
Team Rosters
No. 2 South Brunswick (17-2)
Head Coach: Justin McCuen
- #3 Shawn Bautista
- #4 Brendan Scarlett
- #5 Rohan S
- #10 Morgan Jones
- #12 Matt Crowley
- #13 Tavian Alford
- #15 Anthony Blakey
- #20 Dylan Inguardi
- #22 Vic Huetz
- #24 Abhishek Tilwe
- #25 Kunal Thakral
- #31 Jadon Porch
- #41 Chris James
- #50 Devin Williams
DID YOU KNOW? South Brunswick won the East Brunswick/GMC JV Tournament last year by defeating top seeded St. Joseph’s (57-56) in the Championship. Last year’s Junior Vikings also defeated third seeded East Brunswick (42-38) in the semifinals. SBHS also downed 15th seeded South Plainfield in the Round of 16, and 7th seeded Ridge in the quarterfinals. Tavian Alford was selected by GMC Hoops as Tourney MVP while Chris James was selected to the All Tournament Team. Anthony Blakey played varsity at New Brunswick last year, and was on the South Brunswick football team this past fall. JV head coach, Justin McCuen has been on the SBHS staff since the 2005-06 season, and has been JV coach for the past 9 seasons.
No. 1 North Brunswick (17-2)
Head Coach: Mark Zielinski
- #1 Qadir Butler
- #2 Mwanzaa Fitzpatrick
- #4 Ardjun Varadhan
- #10 Thaimu Kargbo
- #12 Josh Vick
- #14 Jhonell Brown
- #15 Adryan Salazar
- #20 Dan Reardon
- #22 Chernoh Barrie
- #23 Jordan Salisbury
- #31 Dhruv Mendiratta
- #34 Avery Claggett
- #40 A.J. Hoo
- #44 Jason Williams
DID YOU KNOW? JV head coach, Mark Zielinski was the longtime football coach at North Brunswick before stepping down last spring. He also coached the North Brunswick freshmen basketball program a while back, and actually guided one of those frosh teams to the 2006 Perth Amboy/GMC Freshmen Tournament Final Four, where the Freshmen Raiders, led by the likes of Mike Cole and Ricky Harris, lost to Bishop Ahr (48-40) in the semifinals, and then defeated Colonia in the 3rd place consolation game.
Sophomores led by the likes of Jordan Salisbury, Mwanzaa Fitzpatrick, and Avery Claggett, won the 2015 Perth Amboy/GMC Freshmen Tournament as the 6th seed last year by defeating St. Joseph’s-Green (52-25) in the Round of 16, Monroe (54-47) in the Quarterfinals, Colonia (53-51 OT) in the semifinals, and East Brunswick (54-37) in the Championship. Jason Williams is the younger brother of 2015 NBTHS graduate, L.J. Williams and son of New Brunswick HS legend Lorenzo Williams.
OUTLOOK: Look for this final to be another great one. Not only do we have the top two seeds playing again for the championship, but these two schools played each other twice during the regular season. Both games were very close as North Brunswick won by single digits both times. The first time at SBHS by four, and then the second time at NBTHS by one.
Prior to last year’s final, South Brunswick’s JV had split with St. Joseph’s as the Junior Vikings lost to the Junior Falcons on opening night, and then avenged that loss in mid-season before winning the rubber match in a classic final a year ago. South Brunswick and North Brunswick have been long time neighborhood arch rivals, which adds local bragging rights to this year’s crown.
Both teams have players that can hit the three with North Brunswick’s Avery Clagget and Jhonell Brown and South Brunswick’s, Tavian Alford, Shawn Bautista, Vic Huetz, and Kunal Thakral. The team that perfoms better from beyond the arc will have a big advantage. South Brunswick will have to find a way to stop Avery Clagget, who has been huge in the tourney with a 25 point, five three pointer performance in the Round of 16 win over Spotswood and another five treys en route to 17 points in the semifinal victory over Monroe.
Jhonell Brown has also played well in the tourney with 10 points in the win over Spotswood and 15 more in the semis against Monroe. North Brunswick will have their hands full with last year’s tourney MVP, Tavian Alford, who scored 19 in the win over Joes in the semis while Kunal Thakral added 12 and Vic Huetz chipped in with 11. South Brunswick’s age and experience, especially in this big game, gives the Junior Vikings a slight edge.
PREDICTION: South Brunswick wins, 54-52.