Good morning. Just got up a little while ago, and was looking at the newspaper. As I mentioned yesterday, and last night, I was at Perth Amboy High School to see the hometown Panthers take on sixth ranked Piscataway. It was quite a thriller that went to overtime before it was decided. The Chiefs controlled the game for about the first 21 minutes or so, and then Perth Amboy made it a game with an 11-2 run to close out the third, and take its first lead of the game at 34-33 heading into the fourth.
Over the next 12 minutes including four minutes of overtime, the two teams exchanged leads on 9 occasions and tied once before Kearny Canela’s three pointer at the 3:30 mark put Amboy ahead for good. Chabel Hernandez and Victor Verdecia sealed the 59-53 win with free throws at the 1:51 mark, 0:55 mark, and 0:36 mark. Piscataway’s inexperience for the most part did them in. The Panthers forced 24 turnovers in the contest including 15 in the second half and the overtime. Besides Newsome, nobody except sophomore Vik Singh wanted to take a shot in the extra session with the Chiefs needing a three pointer to either tie the game, or get back in.
There are some around the county, and perhaps the state that are surprised this morning about last night’s outcome. However, I’m not. During the course of the pre-season, I had Amboy ranked tenth as you saw in the first fans poll of the season. In my rough draft of predictions, I moved Amboy out in favor of New Brunswick since I saw the Zebras more, and liked their defense. However, I still had Amboy in my top 15 at number 11. The Panthers have a solid junior class including the likes of Verdecia, Hernandez, Canela, and Yoelbin Sanchez.
In addition, Amboy has a fine freshman class that includes Hamilton Capellan, who saw minutes in both the JV and varsity games, and made contributions. Piscataway will take some hits early on due to its inexperience outside of Newsome, but they still showed that they’ll be very competitive, especially as the youngsters get more playing time. P-Way has a solid sophomore class led by the likes of Singh, Tajae Sharpe, Tyjohn Young, and David White. As freshmen, this group went 18-1 and won the 2009 Perth Amboy/GMC Freshmen Tournament.
Bottom line, Amboy basketball is back, and with its long history and tradition in Middlesex County, that is a great thing for the Greater Middlesex Conference.