Vikings Claim First Ever GMC Hoops Trophy With Tremendous Post-Season Run
SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ—For the first time since the 2012-13 GMC boys basketball season, and only the second time since 2010, a team other than St. Joseph’s won the GMC Hoops Trophy.
With a record of 10-3 including a mark of 7-1 from February 8th until the end of the season in games covered by GMC Hoops, the South Brunswick Vikings tallied 17 points to claim their first ever GMC Hoops Trophy. The only loss the Vikes suffered during their last 9 games under the bright lights of GMC Hoops, was the defeat to top ranked St. Thomas Aquinas in the 2020 Greater Middlesex Conference Boys Tournament Championship.
Including two GMC Hoops Game of the Week contests courtesy of RD Plex, the Vikings were covered a total of 13 times including all three games against St. Joseph’s, each of the last three rounds of the GMCT, and every Central Jersey Group 4 playoff game. Even the 2006-07 South Brunswick Team, which reached the Group 4 State Championship Game versus Linden, never won the GMC Hoops Trophy. Colonia won the trophy honors that season.
South Brunswick is the 9th different Greater Middlesex Conference boys basketball team to win the GMC Hoops Trophy. The Vikings are the first team other than St. Joseph’s to win the trophy since 2013 when East Brunswick won it. The Falcons of St. Joseph’s had won 9 of the last 10 GMC Hoops Trophies. Other teams that have won the trophy more than once: Cardinal McCarrick (twice), Colonia (twice), and Piscataway (twice).
St. Joseph’s is the only GMC school to win the GMC Hoops Trophy more than twice. Colonia won the trophy in 2001 and 2007, Cardinal McCarrick won it in 2003 and 2005, and Piscataway won it in 2008 and 2009 while Carteret (2002), East Brunswick (2013), Metuchen (2006), and South Plainfield (2004) are the other GMC schools to win the trophy.
Breaking the GMC Hoops Trophy winners down by division: Red Division (13 times—consecutive from 2008 to present), Blue Division (4 times), and White Division (3 times). Over the first 8 seasons of the GMC Hoops Trophy, six different teams: Cardinal McCarrick, Carteret, Colonia, Metuchen, Piscataway, and South Plainfield all won. Over the last 12 seasons only four different teams have won, and all of those winners were from the Red.
South Brunswick, which finished ranked 2nd in the final 2019-20 GMC Hoops Top Ten, and completed its season at 25-5, finished 2nd in the GMC Red, defeated St. Joseph’s in 2 of 3 meetings including the GMC Hoops Game of the Year in the 2020 GMCT Semifinals (88-77). After falling to St. Thomas Aquinas (63-52) in the GMCT Championship, the Vikings then defeated Jackson Memorial (82-61), Hightstown (84-41), Middletown South (66-55), and Marlboro (72-71) to win its first sectional championship since 2007.
New Brunswick and St. Joseph’s were a distant second in the GMC Hoops with 11 points each although the Zebras had a better winning percentage. Dunellen finished fourth with 10 points while St. Thomas Aquinas and Colonia ended up tied for 5th with 9 points, and Edison finished 7th with 8 points.