Viking Standout Joins J.P. Stevens’ Burch and NJAC Champion Lions Squad
MONMOUTH JUNCTION, NJ—It has been a memorable two and a half months for Justin Carbone and the rest of the South Brunswick Vikings. Although the coronavirus outbreak put a damper on the Vikes state tourney run, they still managed to not only reach the Greater Middlesex Conference Boys Tournament Championship Game for the first time since 2016, and won the Central Jersey Group 4 sectional title for the first time since 2007.
Carbone, a senior forward, played a significant role in the Vikings county and state playoff runs en route to earning the 2020 GMC Hoops Post-Season Player of the Year. The accolades and accomplishments continued into April as GMC Hoops recently learned that he will be attending The College of New Jersey this coming fall. TCNJ just finished a memorable season with its men’s basketball team going 20-9 and winning the NJAC Tournament Championship before losing in the second round of the NCAA D3 Tournament.
This past season, Carbone played in all 30 of South Brunswick’s games, and made 149 field goals, 65 three pointers, and 80 free throws for a total of 597 points, or an average of 19.9 points per game. Devin Strickland was the only South Brunswick player to score more points with 603, or an average of about 20.1 per game. Carbone scored in double figures in 29 of those games including 17 contests where he tallied 20 points or more.
Ten of those 20 point plus scoring performances came from February 4th until the end of the season including a career high 30 points in South Brunswick’s dramatic 72-71 victory over Marlboro to win the Central Jersey Group 4 Championship on March 10th. During his three year career at SBHS, Carbone scored a total of 921 career points on 200 field goals, 123 three pointers, and 128 free throws in 68 games for an average of 13.5 points per game according to stats compiled at NJ.com.
Over the course of his three varsity seasons at South Brunswick, Carbone scored in double figures 41 times including 19 games of 20 points or more. In that three year span, the Vikings went from a team that finished 1-18 in 2017-18 to a squad that won 2 of 3 games and dethroned the defending GMCT Champions (St. Joseph’s), was runner-up in the 2020 GMCT, and won its first sectional championship in 13 years. The Vikes were 25-5 this past season, and 37-18 over the past two seasons.
Playing AAU basketball with the NJ Panthers, Carbone drew interest from a number of NCAA D2 and D3 schools. The College of New Jersey, located in Ewing Township, and formerly known as Trenton State College, had a resurgent year in men’s basketball in 2019-20. Led by the likes of former Somerville High School standout, Randy Walko, the Lions finished 20-9 overall on the season including a 14-4 mark in the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC).
TCNJ, which also had the likes of former Marlboro standout, P.J. Ringel, Verona standout, Travis Jocelyn, and Notre Dame standout, Mike Walley, then went on to defeat Rutgers-Newark in the semifinals of the NJAC Tourney (65-48), and knocked off perennial conference power, Stockton University (75-60) for the championship. The Lions went on to defeat Marietta College (89-73) in the opening round of the NCAA D3 Tournament before falling to 3rd seeded and host Randolph-Macon College (85-71) in the 2nd round. Another former GMC player on the roster is Naysean Burch of J.P. Stevens.
Other players that GMC Hoops has covered over the years that are also on the TCNJ men’s basketball team include: Sterling White (Bridgewater-Raritan), Jim Clemente (Koinonia Academy), and Jason Larranaga (Bergen Catholic). Walley also played on the 2015-16 Notre Dame team coached by current St. Thomas Aquinas head coach, Bob Turco, which lost to St. Joseph’s in the 2016 NJSIAA Non-Public A Semifinals. A number of former GMC standouts have also played at TCNJ including Billy Lester (Middlesex), D.J. Griffin (St. Thomas Aquinas), Delvon McMillan, Dewey Ferguson, and Tyrone Brewer (Piscataway).
Brewer, who played at Piscataway before the Chiefs joined the GMC in 1988, was a member of the 1988-89 Trenton State College men’s basketball team that was led by former Trenton High School head coach, Greg Grant, and reached the 1989 NCAA D3 Final Four before losing to University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in the Championship Game (94-86) in Springfield, Ohio. Grant was voted the tourney’s Most Outstanding Player. The Lions finished 30-2 that season.
South Brunswick assistant coach, Bobby Henning, who was a standout player at East Brunswick, son of legendary EB head coach, Bo Henning, and also played in the first ever game covered by GMC Hoops in December 2000, also played and coached at TCNJ. Henning came over to SBHS along with former Vikings head coach, Chris Balent, who had served on the coaching staff at TCNJ before leading the Vikings to the 2007 NJSIAA Group 4 State Championship Game (lost to Linden, 63-54).
Congratulations Justin on your college selection, and best wishes for future success.