Sayreville’s Van Note, Timothy Christian, North Brunswick, And McCarrick Earn Week Five Honors

Sayreville Guard Has Huge Week To Earn Player Of The Week Honors

SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ–The Sayreville Bombers have had their share of struggles this season.  Much like last year, the Bombers got off to a tough start with four straight losses to end 2011 following an opening night victory over South Plainfield, and their first win of the new year didn’t come until the first Saturday of 2012 when they traveled to Dunellen and won at The Faber.

Sayreville entered the contest against Monroe with just a 2-7 record while the Falcons were still ranked in the Top Ten despite hitting a rocky road with three losses in their previous four games.  The Purple Birds held an 11 point lead after three periods, but gave way to a Bomber surge in the fourth  as Sayreville came away with the 80-73 upset.

Playing a huge role in the victory was junior guard, Cody Van Note, who scored 35 points in the victory.  He then followed that up with a 19 point effort in a win over South Plainfield two nights later.  He averaged 27 points per game during week five with nine field goals, 11 three pointers, and 3 foul shots in the two games Sayreville played during the week.  For his efforts, Van Note has been recognized by GMC Hoops as the Player of the Week in week five.

Through  play on Tuesday night, Van Note is averaging 12.5 points per game, and has an even distribution of two point field goals and three point field goals with 29 each.  He scored 18 points in the victory over Dunellen and another 14 over Highland Park at the end of week six.  Of those 14 points against the Owls, nine of them came during a 20-3 outburst in the final 3:31 of the first half when Sayreville turned a tenuous 14-12 lead into a 34-15 halftime advantage.

Congratulations Cody on a job well done, and best of luck the rest of this season.  Meanwhile, our team of the week for week five is Timothy Christian.  The Tigers continued to roll in week five not only at the varsity level, but at the JV level as well.  TCS rolled through week five with victories over Perth Amboy Tech and South River to increase their winning streak to nine straight.  The victories improved Timothy Christian’s record to 12-1 heading into a very big week.

The Junior Tigers were also doing well with an 11-1 mark including a 47-19 win over Amboy Tech.  TCS’s JV also defeated Dunellen in another GMC Gold Clash the week before.  The two boys teams had a combined record of  23-2 by the end of week five.  In the varsity’s victory over Perth Amboy Tech, senior forward Kristian Svendsen scored 23 points while senior guard Dan Decker added 22 in a 62-39 victory.  After what had been a seesaw first half that saw the Tigers take a 22-18 lead, TCS pulled away with a 40-21 showing in the final 16 minutes of play.

The duo then helped lead Timothy Christian to one of its biggest wins in school history with an upset of Piscataway Tech on the road in week six.  The victory coupled with wins over Highland Park and East Brunswick Tech gave the school twelve straight wins, and a 15-1 record.  Svendsen recently moved over 1,200 points while Decker just moved over the 1,000 point plateau in a game against Wardlaw.  Not to be forgotten on the Tigers are the efforts of the likes of Brandon Summers, Jeff Parker, Devon Johnson, and Zach Csorny, who also made key contributions during this recent stretch.  

Parker scored 9 points in the win over Amboy Tech, and Summers scored a career high 18 points in the win over P-Way Tech followed by a 14 point performance over E.B. Tech.  Coach Chris Hobbs is doing it all for the Tigers.  Besides being the school’s athletic director, Hobbs is holding down the fort as the JV coach while awaiting the arrival of an assistant coach later this year.  For our game of the week, it was a tough vote, but Cardinal McCarrick @ North Brunswick won out with the second ranked Raiders defeating the fifth ranked Eagles by the score of 69-65.

Dion Rogers and Iverson Fleming scored 71 percent of North Brunswick’s 69 points in the win including all 18 in the fourth period when the Raiders had a 7-1 run to take a 65-57 lead with two minutes to go.  Marques Townes led the Eagles with 21 points and 7 rebounds while Jumanne McDaniel added 13 points in the loss.  North Brunswick led by as many as 12 points on several occasions in the second half, but McCarrick battled back to pull within two with 10 seconds left.