Second Monroe Standout Earns Player Of Week Honors While Bulldogs Recognized
SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ–For the second time this season, a member of the Monroe Falcons has earned GMC Hoops Player of the Week Honors. With his 28 points per game average including a 34 point performance in a 68-54 victory over Woodbridge, senior guard, Ryan Genevieve was given accolades by the site. Meanwhile, the Metuchen Bulldogs have earned our Team of the Week honor with four victories this season despite having a mostly young and inexperienced roster, and South Brunswick and East Brunswick earned Game of the Week honors with a double overtime thriller.
Genevieve has been solid all season for the Monroe Falcons. Through the first 9 games of the season, the senior guard has averaged 23.8 points, 2.6 rebounds, 1.6 assists, and 1.4 steals per game. He has connected on 36 two point field goals, 28 three pointers, and 58 free throws so far this season. Genevieve has scored at least 22 points in seven of Monroe’s nine contests. In week three though, he put up stratospheric numbers for the Falcons with 22 points in a 70-56 victory at South Plainfield, 34 points in the win at Woodbridge, and 28 points in a non-conference loss at Randolph.
For the week, Genevieve tallied up 23 field goals including 14 from beyond the arc while making 24 free throws. Thanks in part to his efforts, the Purple Birds have already won 78 percent of the games it won last year. Monroe also equaled the best start ever at the school that the 2005-06 MTHS team had before losing to Randolph this past Saturday. The 2005-06 Falcons were the first of several Monroe squads to reach the GMCT Final Four, and featured the school’s current all time leading scorer in A.J. Rudowitz.
Genevieve plays the game hard, and will score in a variety of ways including driving to the basket, dialing long distance, or getting to the line. As a matter of fact, he does a great job of trying to draw contact, and get a foul call on three point attempts. He managed to do it twice in the final 10:30 of Monroe’s game against Cardinal McCarrick on Tuesday night. Genevieve along with Victor Sorrento bring some valuable experience to the Falcons since they both were key reserves for Bob Turco during the Purple Birds run to its only MCT/GMCT Finals appearance back in the 2009-10 season. Congratulations, Ryan on a job well done, and best of luck the rest of the season.
Meanwhile, the relatively young squad at Metuchen wasn’t expected to do much this season so when the third week of the 2011-12 campaign ended with the Bulldogs standing at 4-4 including a 2-1 mark in Blue Division play, it was a pleasant surprise. Under first year head coach, Jon Korellis, the Bulldogs have won their two GMC Blue contests by an average of 17 points including a 42-22 victory over Middlesex on January 4th. While it is true that the season is young, and MHS has still taken its share of lumps including three double digit loses, there are signs of promise and even flashes of brilliance.
The Bulldogs showed some of those flashes in a 54-38 loss to Bernards in the consolation game of the Joe Pepe Tournament at Jonathan Dayton Regional in Springfield over the holidays. Trailing 45-15 midway through the third period, Metuchen finished the game strong with a 23-9 surge as sophomore Brian Eustace led the charge with 8 of his team high 12 points during the run while freshmen Tom Chalker and Artie Flaherty connected on threes. Chalker, who has the potential to be quite a playmaker, also had two assists including a nifty behind the back flip to Eustace for a short jumper with 30 seconds left. Described as a puppy dog by some, the younger Flaherty plays more like a pit bull on the basketball court.
The veteran glue to this team are three players: Tim Redshaw, a senior forward, who scored a game high 14 points in the win over Middlesex, Kauri Qualls, who chipped in with 9 points in the victory over the Blue Jays, and junior guard, Ryan O’Neill, who scored a game high 18 points in the 38-24 win at Highland Park on opening night. O’Neill and Redshaw set the tone in the win over Middlesex with 6 and 5 points respectively during a 15-0 run to open the game. Redshaw plays the game hard, and sets an example for the others to follow by doing such things as getting on the floor for loose balls. He was sorely missed during the later portion of last season when the Bulldogs struggled.
Finally, in our game of the week, South Brunswick and East Brunswick earned the honor with a double overtime classic that saw the Bears fall behind 15-4 midway through the first period only to come back to tie the game at 36-36 with a 17-5 spurt that included two long distance bombs by Joey Ross in the third. From there, it was a nip and tuck game that saw East Brunswick appear to take control in the first overtime with a 54-50 and 57-53 leads. However, the Bears couldn’t hang on to those leads as Sean Keenan hit two threes for the Vikings and Mike Green made one of two free throws to force a second extra session. In the second overtime, EB broke away from a 60-59 lead with an 6-1 run over the final 1:13 as Mike Summerer scored on a layup with 46.3 seconds to go, and Rob Ukawuba and Ross made pairs of free throws at the 19.1 and 11 second marks for the 66-60 victory.