NEPTUNE, NJ–Five weeks have passed already in the Rebounds Fall League as well as the TBSA Fall League, and while GMC Hoops has missed a couple weeks of action at TBSA, it has been able to see every week of contests at Rebounds. There are three teams from the Greater Middlesex Conference that are competing down at Rebounds this fall: East Brunswick, South Brunswick, and Spotswood. EB competes in Division A while Spotswood and SB play in Division B.
So far this fall, our three GMC teams have competed fairly well. East Brunswick has lost two straight, but against quality competition in St. Rose of Belmar and undefeated Middletown South. Before that, the Bears split their first three games including a victory over Egg Harbor Township of Atlantic County on September 29th. Meanwhile, another Red Division squad, South Brunswick started off 0-2 with difficult losses to West Windsor-Plainsboro South (5-0) and Brick Memorial (4-1), which are a combined 9-1 thus far on the season. The second game was the worst loss of the two with Brick Memorial outscoring the Vikes 41-34 in the second half after taking a 29-18 lead at the break for the 70-52 win. Since then though, the Vikings have rebounded with three straight wins including ones over Southern Regional, Spotswood, and Allentown of the Colonial Valley Conference. Spotswood appeared to be the most impressive right out of the gate with two straight wins over quality foes in Asbury Park (49-47) and Marlboro (50-41).
However, Spotswood then lost two straight with defeats at the hands of the Shore Sharks (62-59), and to South Brunswick in overtime (55-51). The loss to the Vikings was extremely difficult considering the Chargers led 16-4 midway through the first half, and 26-11 with 3:58 to go in the first half after a Tyler Osofsky three pointer from the top of the key. South Brunswick then outscored their GMC foe by a 44-25 margin the rest of the way including a 6-2 showing in the extra session for the four point win. A key play down the stretch was a timeout with 1.2 seconds left following a missed front end of a one and one by Spotswood. On the ensuing inbounds, South Brunswick drilled a three pointer from the top of the key to tie the game at 49-49 to force overtime.
Last week, Spotswood again had a big lead against Ocean Township, but then had to hold on for a hard fought, 50-42 win over the Spartans of the Shore Conference. In the first half, the Chargers jumped out to a 29-12 lead behind the hot shooting of Osofsky, who had four three pointers in the opening stanza. Early in the second half, Spotswood went up by 20, 34-14, but then, Ocean roared back with a 22-10 surge over a span of 13:09 to close to within eight at 44-36, but couldn’t get any closer. So, far this fall, the Chargers are an undefeated 3-0 against the Shore, but 0-2 against other opponents. East Brunswick is 1-3 and South Brunswick is 1-1. As a result, the GMC is a combined 5-4 against the Shore Conference at Rebounds this fall in head to head matchups.