GMC Blue Division Performs Well in Holiday Tourneys

Carteret, Middlesex, South Plainfield, and Spotswood Finish 2nd in Christmas Tourneys While Aquinas Wins Title

SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ—There were only four holiday tournament winners from the Greater Middlesex Conference in 2019, but the GMC Blue Division did manage to perform well with one of its teams among the tourney champions while four others finished 2nd.

St. Thomas Aquinas got through a very competitive field at the 2019 Albert E. Martin Buc Classic to win the title. The Trojans fought through 7 other teams including two from the GMC White as well as host school, Red Bank, defending TOC Boys Champion, Ranney, and a solid Burlington Township team.

On top of that, Carteret, Middlesex, South Plainfield, and Spotswood all reached their respective holiday tourney finals. Playing in a tough field at the Matawan Huskies Holiday Classic, Carteret, which already took Union County power, Plainfield to overtime on December 21st, beat Holmdel and Manalapan of the Shore Conference before losing to another solid Union County program, Union Township in double overtime (64-60).

Middlesex, which has dominated the Shello-Santy Tournament over much of the last 15 years, returned to the Championship Game of the annual Dunellen holiday hoops tourney before losing to Dunellen (49-38) to finish 2nd there. The Destroyers, which reached last year’s final after defeating Middlesex in the opening round, won the tourney for the first time since 2011.

South Plainfield, which has lost a couple tough games early on this season, managed to get to the final of its holiday tournament, the Anthony J. Cotoia Tourney before losing to Scotch Plains-Fanwood (56-49). The Raiders, which defeated the Tigers in last year’s consolation game (45-34), have won the Cotoia tourney three times over the last four years.

Spotswood returned to the Championship Game of the Crusader Classic in Bound Brook before finishing second to the hometown Crusaders. George Guyette and Jack Welsh were selected to the all tournament team as the Chargers nearly came all the way back from a 19 point second half deficit before dropping the 54-52 decision to Bound Brook.

In addition, South River, which lost 12 players from last year’s team, and have a new head coach, managed to finish third at the GMC-Shore Challenge in Keansburg by defeating a South Amboy team that started the season at 2-0. The Rams, which also defeated Calvary Christian (67-59) on December 23rd, and nearly came back from an 18 point deficit in a 70-69 loss to Timothy Christian this past Saturday, has hung tough despite to early blowout losses to Aquinas (81-26) and Sayreville (61-42).