GMC Hoops Blogosphere

Photo Slideshow–GMCT Final Four–February 24, 2010

Here is a photo slideshow of the two games from the 2010 GMCT Final Four that was held at South Brunswick High School on Wednesday. In the first game, Sayreville rallied from an 18 point third quarter deficit to force overtime, but ran out of gas as Monroe advanced to its first ever GMCT Final (74-67). Then, in the nightcap, Spotswood led 38-37 with 6:47 to play, but top seeded St. Joseph’s closed the game with an 11-0 run for a 48-38 victory. Property and All Rights Reserved/belongs to GMC Hoops (and Marlo Williamson). Enjoy the photos.

Photo Slideshow–GMCT Elite Eight–February 21, 2010

Here is a photo slideshow of some of the action from the 2010 GMCT Elite Eight, which was held on Sunday at Middlesex County College. In the first game, sixth seeded Sayreville advanced to its first semifinals since 2000 with a 59-42 victory over 14th seeded North Brunswick. The Bombers advanced to play second seeded Monroe, which rolled past seventh seeded New Brunswick, 65-46 in the second quarterfinal game. In the third quarterfinal, fifth seeded Spotswood pulled off the shocker of the day by knocking off fourth seeded East Brunswick (53-47), and then in the finale, top seeded St. Joseph’s fell behind early, but came back to defeat ninth seeded Cardinal McCarrick (59-49). Property and All Rights Reserved/belongs to GMC Hoops (and Marlo Williamson). Enjoy the photos.

Yet Another Major Winter Storm Wreaks Havoc With Schedule

SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ–For the third time this month, a powerful winter storm pummeled the East Coast of the United States including New Jersey. This latest one may have been the worst of them all, especially for Middlesex County. The storm, which was as powerful as a Category Two Hurricane at its peak, plagued the area for the past couple days, and is expected to linger into Saturday.

Snowfall amounts ranged from around a foot here in Northwestern Middlesex County to about nearly three feet in upstate New Jersey. The storm had a wide variety of weather including 50 mile per hour winds, heavy rains (Islip on Long Island in New York received 2.1 inches of rain before it changed over to snow), and blizzard conditions. Pressure in this storm was as low as 28.89 inches of Mercury, or 978 millibars, which ranks it up there with Superstorm ‘93, the Blizzard of ‘96, and the Blizzard of ‘78.

The big story was the fact that this storm forced many schools across the Garden State to close, or in the case on Thursday, have early dismissal. The result was major changes to the boys and girls basketball schedules. First, and foremost, the GMCT Girls and Boys finals, which were scheduled for 6:00 PM and 8:00 PM at Rutgers on Friday night, have been postponed until Sunday. Both games have also been moved to Woodbridge High School. The Girls GMCT Championship will take place at 12:00 PM on Sunday while the Boys GMCT Final will be played at 4:00 PM at WHS.

In addition, the Perth Amboy/GMC Boys Freshmen Tournament, which was supposed to have its consolation and championship on Thursday, has rescheduled both games for Monday, March 1st. The third place game will be played at 3:45 PM followed by the championship at 5:15 PM. Meanwhile, the schedule for the East Brunswick/GMC JV Tournament is still a bit unsettled as of now, but it appears that they semifinals will be played on Monday, March 1st as well with the first one starting at 5:30 PM followed by the nightcap at 7:00 PM. The Championship is tentatively set for Wednesday, March 3rd.

Another Pace Approaching 1,000 Point Plateau

MONROE, NJ–With his 23 points in the 69-47 Monroe victory over Spotswood on Monday night, and 24 points in the 78-49 win over Franklin on Tuesday night, Monroe senior forward, Ken Pace now has 923 points on his career. The Purple Birds play tonight in the Round of 16 in the GMCT against White Division rival Carteret. The last time the Falcons played the Ramblers, Pace scored 24 points including ten from the foul line in a 56-45 victory.

Barring injury and quick exits from both the GMCT and the Central Jersey Group IV Tournaments, Pace should become the GMC’s next 1,000 point scorer this season. He would join his cousin, Cody Pace of Spotswood along with South Amboy’s Joe Charmello in accomplishing the milestone this season. Steve Rennard of St. Joseph’s got his 1,000th point last season in the semifinals of the GMCT against Cardinal McCarrick. JFK’s Joe Marciano also has 923 points, but has been injured, and may be out for the rest of the season. Marciano, who didn’t play against North Brunswick on Tuesday night in the Preliminary Round of the GMCT, suffered an injury in a recent crossover game against South Amboy.

GMC Hoops To Cover All Four GMCT Boys Quarterfinals On Sunday

SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ–On Wednesday, GMC Hoops got approval to take the day off from work on Sunday. So that means that the site will be able to cover all four quarterfinal games of the 2010 Boys GMCT on Sunday. It will be the first time in two years that the site will be covering the event. Last year, the site wasn’t at the GMCT Elite Eight.

GMCT Super Saturday And Sunday Schedules

Both Girls And Boys Quarterfinals Will Be Played At Middlesex County College

EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ–On Wednesday, GMC Hoops learned of some changes to the schedule for the Quarterfinal round of the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament. Both the Girls and Boys Tournaments will have their games played at Middlesex County College. The Girls GMCT Quarterfinals will take place on Saturday, February 20th while the Boys GMCT Quarterfinals will take place on Sunday, February 21st. Here are the complete schedules for both the Girls and Boys Quarterfinals:

2010 GMCT–Girls Elite Eight Round–February 20th

• #6 Spotswood vs. #3 Woodbridge at 12:00 PM
• #10 Old Bridge vs. #2 Cardinal McCarrick at 1:30 PM
• #12 East Brunswick vs. #4 Bishop Ahr at 4:00 PM
• ##9 South Brunswick vs. #1 Piscataway at 5:30 PM

2010 GMCT–Boys Elite Eight Round–February 21st

• #14 North Brunswick-#3 Bishop Ahr winner vs. #11 Metuchen-#6 Sayreville winner
• #15 Carteret-#2 Monroe winner vs. #10 Middlesex-#7 New Brunswick winner
• #13 Colonia-#4 East Brunswick winner vs. #12 Piscataway-#5 Spotswood winner
• #9 Cardinal McCarrick-#8 Dunellen winner vs. #16 Old Bridge-#1 St. Joseph’s winner

Note: The times for the 1:30 PM and 5:30 PM games in both brackets are listed as 2:00 PM and 6:00 PM in bracketmaker due to a glitch in bracketmaker.com. I’ve sent an e-mail to the folks at bracketmaker.com to see if there’s a fix for this.

EB/GMC JV Tourney Brackets–Special Thanks

SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ–GMC Hoops would like to take the time to thank the following JV coaches for their help in getting us the brackets for this year’s EB/GMC JV Tournament.

• Jeff Adkins–Piscataway
• Brian O’Lone–Colonia
• Justin McCuen–South Brunswick
• Louis Horowitz–Perth Amboy
• Matt Gigliello–Monroe
• Bob Conway–South Plainfield
• Matt Connell–South Plainfield

Going to have the full brackets up shortly.

2010 East Brunswick/GMC JV Boys Tournament–Seeds

EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ–On Tuesday afternoon, GMC Hoops received the seeds for the 2010 East Brunswick/GMC JV Tournament Seeds thanks to the help of several JV coaches in the conference. So, withouth further ado, here they are:

1. Piscataway
2. Hillsborough
3. St. Joseph’s
4. Spotswood
5. Bishop Ahr
6. Cardinal McCarrick
7. Monroe
8. East Brunswick
9. Immaculata
10. Colonia
11. Perth Amboy
12. Carteret
13. South Brunswick
14. New Brunswick
15. South River
16. Sayreville
17. Woodbridge
18. North Brunswick
19. J.P. Stevens
20. South Amboy
21. Old Bridge
22. J.F. Kennedy
23. Kearny
24. Edison

I will have the brackets up shortly.

State Tournaments–Opening Round Pairings Involving GMC Teams

SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ–With the brackets and the GMC teams in the various state tournaments posted, GMC Hoops has compiled all the pairings that involve teams from the Greater Middlesex Conference. Seeds are in parenthesis. GMC Teams listed in bold.

North Jersey Section 2 Group III

• Colonia (16) at Mendham (1)
• J.F. Kennedy (9) at Morristown (8)
• Carteret (14) at Somerville (3)
• Rahway (11) at New Brunswick (6)

North Jersey Section 2 Group IV

• Piscataway (9) at Columbia (8)
• Perth Amboy (14) at Linden (3)
• Edison (15) at Hillsborough (2)

Central Jersey Group I

• South Amboy (9) at Dunellen (8)
• Perth Amboy Tech (13) at Metuchen (4)
• South River (11) at East Brunswick Tech (6)
• Highland Park (15) at Academy Charter (2)

Central Jersey Group II

• Hillside (13) at Middlesex (4)
• Roselle (15) at Spotswood (2)

Central Jersey Group IV

• West Windsor-Plainsboro South (16) at Monroe (1)
• Old Bridge (12) at Rancocas Valley (5)
• South Brunswick (14) at East Brunswick (3)
• North Brunswick (11) at Jackson Memorial (6)
• Marlboro (10) at Sayreville (7)

Non-Public A South

• (12) Red Bank Catholic vs. (5) CBA winner at St. Joseph’s (4)
• (11) Notre Dame vs. (6) Bishop Eustace winner at Bishop Ahr (3)

Non-Public B South

• (11) Sacred Heart vs. (6) Wildwood Catholic winner at Cardinal McCarrick (3)

GMC Teams In The 2010 State Tournaments

SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ–With the brackets posted for this year’s state tournaments, GMC Hoops took a look to see how many teams qualified from the Greater Middlesex Conference. In total, 25 of the 29 teams in the GMC qualified for the state tournament under the new rules. To review, in order to qualify, your team had to have placed in the top 16 in their section. GMC Teams that did not make it this year were: J.P. Stevens, Piscataway Tech, South Plainfield, and Woodbridge.

By division, there were seven teams from the GMC Red, seven teams from the GMC White, all seven teams from the GMC Blue, and four of the five teams from the GMC Gold. Due to the new rules, the GMC had the most teams ever to qualify for state tourney play. Here is the breakdown by section with seeds in parenthesis.

North Jersey Section 2 Group III–Four GMC Teams Qualified

• New Brunswick (6)
• J.F. Kennedy (9)
• Carteret (14)
• Colonia (16)

North Jersey Section 2 Group IV–Three GMC Teams Qualified

• Piscataway (9)
• Perth Amboy (14)
• Edison (15)

Central Jersey Group I–Seven GMC Teams Qualified

• Metuchen (4)
• East Brunswick Tech (6)
• Dunellen (8)
• South Amboy (9)
• South River (11)
• Perth Amboy Tech (13)
• Highland Park (15)

Central Jersey Group II–Two GMC Teams Qualified

• Spotswood (2)
• Middlesex (4)

Central Jersey Group IV–Six GMC Teams Qualified

• Monroe (1)
• East Brunswick (3)
• Sayreville (7)
• North Brunswick (11)
• Old Bridge (12)
• South Brunswick (14)

Non-Public A South–Two GMC Teams Qualified

• Bishop Ahr (3)
• St. Joseph’s (4)

Non-Public B South–One GMC Team Qualified

• Cardinal McCarrick (3)

Opening round pairings with GMC teams will be posted shortly.