Zebras Never Give Up Spirit Has Provided Quite A Ride in Boys GMCT

Despite GMCT Elite Eight Controversy, New Brunswick Deserves Credit for its Resiliency


New Brunswick’s Tahjay Moore goes up for a shot against Old Bridge’s Sean Williams in the 2019 GMCT Boys Quarterfinals on Sunday evening at Middlesex County College in Edison. Moore finished with 14 points, 15 rebounds, and 4 blocks and made the game winning shot to lift the 9th seeded Zebras into the GMCT Semifinals for the first time since 2003.

EDISON, NJ—On Sunday night at Middlesex County College, one of the wildest scenarios occurred to produce an historic result in the 2019 GMCT Boys Basketball Quarterfinals. Trailing 49-45 with 5.1 seconds to play, the 9th seeded New Brunswick Zebras, a program that had not won a game during the regular season, and ended up finishing 3-21 after winning two games in the 2016 GMCT, pulled off a dramatic and thrilling comeback as Tahjay Moore converted a jumper off a steal by Ahyan Brown-Miller to stun top seeded Old Bridge in the nightcap of the GMC’s Super Sunday.

While there is controversy on whether Moore got the shot off in time, credit must be given to this New Brunswick team that consists of a starting line-up that are mostly juniors and one freshman as well as third year head coach, Samir Sanu, and his coaching staff. Down 36-25 early in the fourth quarter, the Zebras, which finished second behind Colonia in the GMC White this season, and reached the GMCT Quarterfinals for the first time in 7 years, refused to give up on themselves by outscoring the GMC Red champ, 25-16 in the final period.

The gritty squad fought, scrapped, and battled to get into that position of winning the game whether Moore’s shot was before or after the buzzer. It needs to be respected regardless of what side you were on. New Brunswick went on a 20-5 run over a span of about 6 minutes to put the top seeded Knights on the ropes by taking a 45-41 lead. Old Bridge would respond though with a three pointer by Ryan DeLaCuesta as he was fouled on a jumper from the left corner. Then, Sean Williams put back the missed bonus free throw by DeLaCuesta to put the Knights back in front again with 1:24 left in the fourth. Jared Meyer and Williams added free throws to give Old Bridge a 49-45 lead with 5.1 seconds remaining.

At this point, the unthinkable began to happen. First it started with a well designed play out of the timeout by Sanu, who utilized the football talents of Ny’dir Harmon, the quarterback of the NBHS football team, and his two talented wideouts, Moore and Brown-Miller. The play was first used in practice several days ago. Following a timeout, Harmon threw a strike downcourt from the end line by New Brunswick’s basket to Moore, who pitched to his left to Brown-Miller, who then dribbled, and fired in a perfect three pointer from the right side with less than two seconds to play. At this point, the clock was reset from 1.6 seconds to 2.2 seconds left.

After another timeout, Old Bridge inbounded the ball from the baseline by its basket, and Brown-Miller stole the inbounds pass near the corner not far from New Brunswick’s bench, quickly got the ball to Moore, who put up the jumper as the light on the backboard in Middlesex County College’s gym went on, and the horn went off. While there is much debate over the past 15 hours prior to the writing off this article as to the timing of the ball going out of Moore’s hand, one thing needs to be said, the Zebras did not give up. Furthermore, this has not been the only instance in the 2019 GMCT that New Brunswick has overcome adversity late in games.

In both of their previous round match-ups, New Brunswick trailed at some point in the fourth quarter. On Wednesday night against 24th seeded Metuchen, the Zebras trailed the upstart and improved Bulldog squad, 46-41 with under 20 seconds remaining in regulation. Moments later, Josiah Brown sank a three pointer with 10.7 seconds left to pull New Brunswick within two at 46-44. Following a timeout, the Zebras forced a turnover in Metuchen’s backcourt that Brown-Miller converted with a pull-up jumper in the paint with one second left to tie the game at 46-46. New Brunswick then outscored Metuchen 15-7 in the extra session including two monster dunks by Moore, who battled foul trouble the entire game.

After the win over Metuchen, New Brunswick advanced to the 2019 GMCT First Round or Round of 16 against 8th seeded Dunellen at The Faber in Dunellen. In a game that saw many twists and turns as well, the Destroyers rode the hot hand of sophomore Drew Johnson, who turned in a performance reminiscent of his older brother Dave, the current all time leading scorer at DHS with 1,350 points, who now is in his senior year of playing college hoops at NCAA Division 2 Kutztown University in Pennsylvania. Johnson caught fire from the perimeter, and fed off the emotion of a passionate Dunellen crowd to end up with a game high 30 points including 7 threes to help the Destroyers build a 43-35 advantage heading into the fourth period.

However, New Brunswick would never say die and rallied with a 25-11 surge in the final frame to pull out a hard fought, 60-54 victory. Brown-Miller led the way for the Zebras with 29 points, but it was the defense of Tahjay Moore limiting Dunellen’s top standout, Tyje’ Kelton to just 11 points that turned out to be one of the keys to the victory. Moore, who only had 6 points, but still came up with 12 rebounds and 4 blocked shots, put in a tremendous defensive effort to slow down the prolific scoring Kelton. Thus far in the tournament, Brown-Miller has averaged 22.7 points per game in the 2019 GMCT. Moore has contributed with 9 points, 11.7 rebounds, and 4.3 blocks per contest in the tourney.

New Brunswick, which began the year at 2-2 before winning 14 of its last 18 games, was 8-81 overall including a 5-51 mark in GMC White Division play prior to Sanu taking the helm of the boys basketball program in the Summer of 2016. Sanu was the sixth different coach in 13 seasons since the legendary Odie Page stepped down in 2004. While the rebuilding process has been fairly quick, it has not been easy. In Sanu’s first year, the 2016-17 season, NBHS was only 7-16 including a 2-10 mark in the GMC White. Last season, the Zebras continued to improve, but still finished below .500 at 8-14 including a 4-8 record in White Division play. The Zebras also suffered a very tough loss at the buzzer to an improved J.F. Kennedy squad from Iselin (71-68) on January 17th that also had its share of controversy.

With the win, New Brunswick advances to the GMCT Semifinals for the first time since 2003 when the Zebras lost a heartbreaker to St. Joseph’s (64-62) at the buzzer on a layup by Josh Batts after the Falcons trailed by 13 with under five minutes to play. Although New Brunswick’s boys basketball history is rich with the names of Gary Brokaw, Eric Young, Dave Ricketts, Lunearl Summers, Lorenzo Williams, Sharif Reid, Daishon Taylor, Ishmael Burgess, Jamal James, Allen Byrom, Willie Stewart, Marvin Taylor, and Dwayne Jarrett, the Zebras have never won a MCT or GMCT title. While NBHS reached the MCT Championship in 1970, 1971, and 1985 as well as the inaugural GMCT Boys Championship in 1986, it has no county or conference wide titles in boys basketball.

Nevertheless, this young bunch has given the Hub City plenty to be happy about. The city, which serves as the county seat in Middlesex County, especially the school community has suffered quite a lot over the past six months. Back in October, Tyrone Harrison, Vice Principal at New Brunswick High School, who climbed the ranks in New Brunswick’s public school system after playing high school football at nearby Highland Park and college football at Ohio State University as a fullback, was killed when he was struck by a car involved in a drag race on Stelton Road in Piscataway according to MyCentralJersey.com. Despite last night’s controversial ending, New Brunswick’s resiliency should be recognized as a big reason for why not only was it in position to win last night’s game over top seeded Old Bridge, but also helping to provide a great tourney that has reflected the crazy year it has been in GMC boys basketball.