St. Joseph’s Senior Guard Scores 18 Against P-Way to Reach Milestone
METUCHEN, NJ—This past Thursday night, St. Joseph’s senior guard, Tyree Ford became the first player to reach 1,000 career points in the 2019-20 season, and the 17th player all time at St. Joseph’s.
Needing 8 points coming into the GMC Red Division clash versus Piscataway at Maglio Gymnasium, Ford scored 11 in the first half to go over the mark, and then finished with 18 points to increase his career total to 1,010 points.
The four year starter for the Falcons, and MVP of the 2019 GMCT, is also the 118th GMC boys player to score 1,000 points in his career since the launching of GMC Hoops in December 2000.
Ford, who also has starred on the gridiron for the Falcons the past two seasons, and along with fellow teammate, K-Shawn Schulters (Villanova), guided St. Joseph’s to a No. 2 final ranking in the 2019 GMC Gridiron Top 10, turned in a superb performance with a team high 18 points in the 70-65 upset of top ranked St. Thomas Aquinas on Sunday.
With an 8-2 record, St. Joseph’s football had wins over North Brunswick, Piscataway, Linden, and Rahway, and a big factor in all of those wins was the play of Ford, who took the winning culture from boys basketball taught to him by the likes of former teammates Letrell West, and brought it to the football field.
West, who was teammates with Ford on the 2016-17 St. Joseph’s team that defeated Sayreville in the 2017 GMCT Final, was the last Falcons player to score 1,000 points in his career before Ford did on Thursday night. Ford was one of three freshmen in the rotation on that championship team along with Richie Greaves (now at Roselle Catholic) and Zach Martini (now at Gill St. Bernard’s).
Ford along with the likes of Schulters, Demarcus Shepard, Adam Slawinski, and Andrew Olden, have endured three different head coaches in their four years at the school, and the graduations of three starters and a couple key reserves from a year ago, but they’ve continued to keep winning nonetheless.
After not scoring in the season opener against arch rival, East Brunswick, Ford has scored in double figures in four of his last six games according to nj.com, and is now averaging nearly 9 points per game as of the end of play on Tuesday night.
Coming into the season, Ford had unofficially tallied 935 points in 84 games for a career average of 11.1 points per game. He has scored in double figures in 53 of those games including 7 contests where he scored 20 points or more. Through his first three years, Ford made 232 field goals, 120 three pointers, and 111 free throws.
Ford registered a career high 27 points early on during his sophomore campaign in the 2017-18 season against Asbury Park in the opening round of the 2017 Score at the Shore Holiday Tournament run at Southern Regional on December 26th. In that game, which was covered by GMC Hoops, Ford connected on 7 field goals, 3 treys, and 4 from the foul line in an 81-63 victory.
During his career at St. Joseph’s, the Falcons have won 3 GMCT titles, 2 GMC Red titles, reached a Non-Public A South Championship Game in 2018, and the Non-Public A South Semis in 2017. Ford also helped his team win two holiday tournaments: 2016 Neptune Holiday Jubilee and 2017 Score at the Shore.
The Falcons have garnered an overall record of 72-19 including a GMC Red Division mark of 39-6 in the three plus years that Ford has played varsity basketball at St. Joseph’s. After knocking off St. Thomas Aquinas on Sunday, St. Joe’s, which was ranked 2nd in the GMC Hoops Pre-Season Top 10, now sits atop the poll this week.