Hawks Senior Standout and GMCBCA Senior All-Star Game MVP to Play for Lions Next Year
J.P. Stevens standout, Naysean Burch follows through on a three point attempt in the first half of the Hawks 58-26 victory over Perth Amboy Tech in the Championship Game of the 2018 Anthony Cotoia Tourney in South Plainfield back in September. Burch recently announced that he will be playing college hoops at TCNJ next year.
NORTH EDISON, NJ—Earlier this April, GMC Hoops learned that J.P. Stevens senior shooting guard, Naysean Burch will be attending The College of New Jersey in Ewing, where he will be playing basketball in the NJAC. Burch has had quite a month, which included an MVP performance in the GMCBCA Senior All-Star Game at Middlesex County College, and the recent announcement of his college plans.
Burch showed a lot of potential as a sophomore when he helped lead the J.P. Stevens Junior Varsity Hawks to the semifinals of the 2017 East Brunswick/GMC JV Boys Basketball Tournament before losing to eventual champion, Piscataway. A year ago, Burch was a contributor off the bench to a Hawks squad that managed to compete very well in the GMC Red despite only going 4-10 in divisional play.
The Hawks did show how strong they were in 2017-18 by downing Edison (47-33) in the 2018 CIty of Light Classic and a 28 point thrashing of GMC White Division champion, Sayreville (71-43) en route to a 12-13 record that also included wins over Cranford (63-49), a 2018 GMCT Elite Eight team in Perth Amboy (50-38), and a 55-38 victory over New Brunswick in the 2018 GMCT Preliminary Round in North Edison.
Depending on what poll you looked at towards the end of the 2017-18 season, J.P. Stevens was ranked anywhere from 9th to 11th in the GMC. During the off-season, the Hawks went an undefeated 13-0 en route to capturing the 2018 Rahway Summer League, and Burch played a huge role with standout performances including a few dunks against Scotch Plains in the semifinals and Rahway in the Championship Game.
Ranked 8th in the GMC Hoops Pre-Season Top 10, J.P. Stevens got off to an historic start by winning its first seven games of the season including upsets over eventual 2019 GMCT champion, St. Joseph’s (49-42) in overtime on January 3rd, and Bishop Ahr (59-47), which was pre-season ranked fourth in the GMC and finished 6th in the final GMC Hoops Top Ten of 2019, in a contest played on December 22nd. Stevens had its best start since the 2007-08 season when it won its first six straight games.
Unfortunately, the Hawks were unable to sustain the solid start, and lost 13 of its last 19 games. JPS was able to rebound somewhat toward the end of the season with victories over Sayreville, Perth Amboy, Piscataway Tech, South River, and Dunellen as well as a couple hard fought losses to eventual finalist, Piscataway before losing a heartbreaking opening round contest at Union (47-45) in the North Jersey Section 2 Group 4 State Tournament on February 25th to finish the season at 13-13.
Over the past two seasons, Stevens went 25-26 overall including a 10-18 mark in the rugged Red Division of the Greater Middlesex Conference. Appearing in one varsity game as a sophomore, Burch finished his career at J.P. Stevens with 44 games played, 100 field goals, 46 three pointers, and 57 free throws for a total of 381 points according to NJ.com. Of those 381 points, 303 of them were scored this past season for an average of 12.6 points per game.
Playing in 24 of the Hawks 26 games in 2018-19, Burch collected 80 field goals, 34 threes, and 43 foul shots. He scored in all 24 of the games he played in including 16 where he notched double figures. Of those sixteen games in double figures, Burch scored at least 15 points six times, and finished the season by scoring double figures in 7 of his last 8 games, averaging 15 points per game during that stretch. Burch scored a career high 25 points in a 55-35 opening round victory over defending champion, Scotch Plains in the 2018 Anthony Cotoia Tourney in South Plainfield.
In the GMCBCA Senior Boys All-Star Game on March 27th, Burch stood tall with an impressive athletic display that included numerous dunks. His best highlight of the night was a tremendous jam towards the end of the first half. In spite of that though, his team, the Visiting All-Stars (White Uniforms) trailed 71-55 at the intermission. Burch helped lead a tremendous comeback in the second half as the Visiting Team surged back out in front with a 50-21 rally to take a 105-92 lead with under eight minutes remaining. The Visiting All-Stars then closed out the game by scoring 9 of the last 11 points including a ferocious one handed slam by Burch to seal the 127-122 win.
Burch has a great combination of solid perimeter skills and guard play as well as tremendous athleticism. Burch stands only 6’0” tall and weighs about 160, but has great potential to take over games offensively. Burch is the first GMC player to attend TCNJ in a while. The school has had a number of former GMC players including former Piscataway standouts, Tyrone Brewer, Dewey Ferguson, and Delvon McMillan. Brewer was a contributor to the 1989 TCNJ squad, then called Trenton State College that went all the way to the NCAA Division 3 Championship before losing to University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (94-86).
Greg Grant, who went on to play briefly in the NBA for the Phoenix Suns, and recently served as head coach for Trenton Central High School, was on that 1988-89 Trenton State team with Brewer, and was selected that year’s NCAA Division 3 Men’s Basketball Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. More recently former GMC standouts, Corey Gilmore (South Plainfield), D.J. Griffin (player and head coach at Bishop Ahr), and Billy Lester (Middlesex) played at TCNJ. Gilmore was the point guard and top defensive player on the 2003-04 South Plainfield High School team, which won its first ever GMCT in 2004 and reached the North Jersey Section 2 Group 3 Championship before losing to Raritan for its only loss in a 27-1 season.
This past season, TCNJ went 13-13 overall including a 9-9 mark in the NJAC. The Lions began the season in promising fashion with 11 wins in their first 17 games. Over the past five seasons, the Lions have won at least 13 games each year including a 15-11 mark in 2014-15, a 16-12 record three years ago, an 18-8 overall mark two seasons ago, and a 19-7 mark last year. Congratulations Naysean on getting to the next level, and the best of luck going forward.