METUCHEN, NJ–For the fourth straight year and the fifth in the past six, GMC Hoops traveled over to the Bird Cage at St. Joseph’s High School in Metuchen to watch the home team Falcons host Elizabeth of the Watchung Conference in a scrimmage. Since taking over two years ago, Dave Turco has compiled a record of 41-15 overall including a 23-5 mark in the rough and tumble GMC Red Division. Turco’s teams have overachieved, particularly last year’s squad. After an 0-3 start that included an ugly 35-33 loss on the road at Edison, the Falcons turned things around winning 20 of their last 26, and reached the semifinals of the Non-Public A South State Tournament for the second straight year. The turnaround by St. Joe’s gave Turco a second place vote for 2007 GMC Hoops Coach of the Year behind Piscataway’s Guy Jensen.
However, coming into this season, St. Joseph’s lost three key players to graduation including Darrell Carroll, who is now playing Division II ball at Stonehill along with other former GMC greats Nick Smith, A.J. Rudowitz, and Vince Rosario, Lamar Fisher, who is now playing at Division III Cabrini College, and Kyan Hines, who is playing Division II hoops down in North Carolina. In addition, fine and smart reserves such as Andrew Sheehy and Kyle Elwood have also moved on while other talented players such as David McDaniel transferred to Rutgers Prep. The bright side is that there’s still plenty of talent for the Falcons. Not just talent…good, young talent. In 2006-07, the St. Joseph’s White Freshmen team won its first ever Perth Amboy/GMC Freshmen Tournament by defeating Perth Amboy in the Championship. In addition, the Junior Varsity squad led by coach, Pete Mercatili, won the 2007 East Brunswick/GMC JV Tournament by defeating Bishop Ahr in the final. Over the summer, the budding sophomore class at St. Joe’s had two teams reach the Final Four of the 2007 Colonia JV Summer League Tournament with one of the teams winning it all. On top of that, the Falcons already had one proven sophomore in 2007 GMC Hoops Freshmen of the Year, Steve Rennard, who after some struggles early on into the season took off, and the rest of the Falcons fell into place.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth is coming off a season where it contended in the always tough Watchung Conference with the likes of Linden, Irvington, Shabazz, and Scotch Plains. Last year, the Minutemen knocked off then undefeated South Brunswick at the 2007 Coalition for the Homeless Classic at the Dunn Center in Elizabeth on January 20th, and then several days later upset another solid Central Jersey team in Immaculata. Later on in the season, Elizabeth scored upsets over Somerset County Champion, Bridgewater in the Quarterfinals and then fellow Watchung rival, Plainfield in the Semifinals of the North Jersey Section 2 Group IV State Tournament before falling to Group IV Champion, Linden in the title game. With a young team, there seemed to be a promising future ahead, especially with Linden losing so much to graduation. However, in the spring, head coach, Donald Stewart, a key help to GMC Hoops in coverage of the Elizabeth Summer League over the years, was let go, and former South Brunswick coach, Chris Balent, who guided the school to its first sectional title in 33 years, and its first state title game since 1968, took over in June. So, the matchup featured the two previous coaches at South Brunswick with Dave Turco coaching at the school for three seasons, and Balent residing at SBHS in the last two.
Got to this scrimmage late. I was busy updating the site with summaries on recent scrimmages involving Monroe, J.P. Stevens, Edison, and Dunellen on Monday. When I got to the school, I had a bit of a tough time getting in since the doors to the front of the gym were locked, and there was nobody in the lobby. Nevertheless, I did eventually find a way to get in. Arriving at the beginning of the third quarter, I sat down to see Elizabeth ahead by four, 24-20 with 6:14 left in the third. From that point until the fifth period, St. Joseph’s, which lost the first two periods, outscored the visitors from Union County by a 22-16 margin. The Falcons won the third and fourth periods, but in the fifth, Elizabeth steamrolled the Falcons with a 19-2 run after scoring the final points of the fourth quarter for a 21-2 surge, and a 59-44 lead with about two minutes to go. St. Joseph’s fought back with an 18-10 run over the final ten or eleven minutes, but the fifth proved to be decisive in this scrimmage as the Minutemen won overall, 69-62. Both teams won three quarters apiece with five of the six frames decided by four points or less including three that were decided by one. For the 30:14 that was covered by the web site, Elizabeth was 18 of 39 from the floor overall for 46.2 percent while St. Joseph’s was close behind with a 17 of 38 showing for 44.7 percent. Beyond the arc, the Falcons shot 2 of 9 for 22.2 percent while the Minutemen were 1 of 4 for 25 percent. St. Joe’s was the better of the the two teams at the line going a perfect 6 of 6, but Elizabeth wasn’t too shabby either by going 8 of 10 for 80 percent.
The home team held statistical edges in the rebounding and assists department, but the visitors had more steals, offensive rebounds, blocks, charges, and slightly fewer turnovers. While the difference in all the statistical departments were small except for assists, offensive rebounds, and blocks, Elizabeth took advantage of the edges it had in turnovers and offensive boards by scoring 20 points off Falcon turnovers including 10 points on the break while also scoring six second chance points. St. Joseph’s did managed to collect 13 points off 20 Elizabeth turnovers, and registered five second chance points. Standing out with a fine performance for the Falcons in the time I watched was Nikko Vastola, who made 8 of 13 overall from the floor including a three pointer on top of a perfect 3 of 3 at the line for 20 points. The junior guard, who was selected on the 2007 GMC Hoops All JV Team, also collected 3 assists, 3 steals, and a rebound. Fellow junior, Gerard Lewis chipped in with 6 points, 6 rebounds, an assist, and a charge while freshman Robbie Ashamole showed flashes of potential with 5 points, and Steve Rennard added 5 points while handing out three assists. Eric Peterson, a member of last year’s fine St. Joseph’s-White squad, added four points and four assists while Paul Konopacki rounded out the Falcon scoring with two points.
Not surprisingly, the Falcons were very competitive in this scrimmage. The thing I like about the young players on St. Joseph’s is that they all play hard, and have no fear. Even Ashamole showed some poise out there although Elizabeth’s veterans gave him a tough time, particularly in that rough fifth period. Even some of the varsity reserves from last year like Vastola and Lewis play hard, and go all out. Vastola was superb. He demonstrated that his potential is ultimately going to be reality. With Rennard’s court vision as well as the way Vastola and the athletic Konopacki run the floor, the Falcons will be tough on the break. In addition, Rennard is much improved on the perimeter, and coupled with Vastola’s ability, makes them a tough backcourt combination. I also like Brandenberg. The senior is a veteran that has hovered around the varsity roster for the past several years, and it is because he plays hard, and does a lot of the little things. With the surplus of young talent, St. Joseph’s is very deep. The inexperience may hurt them a bit early on in the season, but the way they played against Elizabeth not only today, and in the TBSA Fall League, they’re going to be awfully tough. Let’s not forget the Falcons handed Trenton its only loss of the fall at TBSA on September 30th, and finished third at TBSA in the summer. The key with this Falcon team will be not only how they start the season, but how they deal with early success or failure. Veterans such as Konopacki, Rennard, Lewis, and Vastola will need to continue to show the youngsters the way.