SOUTH RIVER, NJ–On Friday night, GMC Hoops made its first trip to South River High School for a boys basketball game for the first time since the 2004-05 season. The last time the site saw the Rams at home was in a resounding loss to Cardinal McCarrick (74-30) on January 10, 2005. The Rams had entered that game on an eight game winning streak to start the season, and were never really the same after that defeat despite reaching the semifinals of the Central Jersey Group I bracket that year.
There’s definitely a lot of enthusiasm growing in Rams Country again. Tonight’s crowd was one of the biggest they had all season. Only the far section of the court in back of and opposite of the New Egypt bench had space available. The parking lot was full. Couldn’t find a spot anywhere, and had to actually park on a side street a few blocks from the school. As a result, I missed the first few minutes of the game. Although, there was a young kids recreation basketball game going on at halftime, there was some excitement about the Rams again. Although South River had entered the game with a 1-8 record in the GMC Blue, the team had already surpassed its win total of the past two years combined.
The success has been thanks in large part to the Rams ability to win games outside of their division especially against teams that they should beat. For example, South River has defeated Piscataway Tech, Perth Amboy Tech, and East Brunswick Tech in GMC crossovers while handling the likes of Keansburg and Henry Hudson in non-conference affairs over the holidays. Prior to Friday’s game with New Egypt, South River had ran up a 7-1 mark outside of Blue Division play with its lone loss coming early in the season to Jonathan Dayton Regional of Springfield. Some people forget, but the Rams began the year 0-2 before winning 8 of the next 15 to be at 8-9 prior to playing the Warriors on Friday night.
The Warriors were a tall order for the Rams both figuratively and literally. Figuratively in the sense that New Egypt is one of the top teams in Group I. Reaching the Championship Game of the Central Jersey Group I bracket before losing in the finals to Asbury Park last year, New Egypt moved over to South Jersey Group I this year. Literally, New Egypt has a lot of size, mostly coming in the form of junior 6’9″ forward, Desmond Hubert, who has already garnered interest from several Division I schools including: Rutgers, Maryland, Villanova, and St. John’s. Hubert blocked 13 shots, and altered many others. He had fans in the stands calling for goaltends while players, coaches, and officials debated whether or not he blocked the shot as it was coming down or not.
However, to the team’s credit, South River didn’t give up. After losing last season at New Egypt (73-40), the Rams fell behind 25-6 late in the first half only to fight back with a 23-13 showing over nearly a quarter to pull within single digits late in the third (38-29). Brandon Walsh provided a spark with an unconventional four point play at the 1:11 mark of the second quarter, and scored 11 points in the loss. Gavin Campbell benefited from some play making by Xavier Foster for a three pointer, and then drove past Hubert for a layup for all five of his points in a 5-0 run that brought the once huge deficit down to single digits.
Unfortunately, the Rams gave up a quick basket on defense moments later, which deflated the team’s spirit. From there, New Egypt outscored the home team by a margin of 20-12, and won 60-41. South River is still making progress as a program. Rome wasn’t built in a day, but it’s still been quite a day this year for the Rams. Eight wins, a holiday tournament championship, and a possible state tourney berth. On top of that, South River is just two victories short of ten wins. Speaking of that, do you know that with J.F. Kennedy’s victory over Timothy Christian on Friday night that five teams in the GMC Blue have ten wins or more already this season? It’s true. Quite a year for the Rams, and quite a year for the Blue.