EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ–On Tuesday night, GMC Hoops rambled over to East Brunswick High School to take in some of the games from the second night of action in the 2009 E.B. Team Camp. After taking in some games from the opening night of action in the 2009 Middlesex County College Summer League, the site managed to get in the final three games of the evening at EBHS.
There were three games that the site covered. All three involved teams from the GMC while one consisted of teams outside the conference. Over on Main Court A, Highland Park was taking on Bound Brook in a battle for River Road bragging rights. Nearby, on Main Court B, Sayreville and South Brunswick, got off to a late start thanks to the close game played between East Brunswick and Freehold Boro, which the Colonials won 47-43. Finally, in the Lower Gym, Perth Amboy was facing off against Edison in a game between two GMC Red opponents.
Bound Brook Edges Highland Park In A Battle Of Group I Rivals, 51-45
Tuesday night was the site’s first opportunity to look at Highland Park in quite some time. It was the first chance to see how good a player Nate Smith is on the basketball court. Last fall, GMC Hoops managed to take in some action with the Highland Park football team, and Smith stood out in a victory over Middlesex at J.P. Stevens High School on Halloween night. This past basketball season, Smith, a junior, scored 231 points, or about an average of 10.5 points per game. The Owls continued to make some improvements with a 6-17 overall record this past season including wins over Woodbridge and Timothy Christian. The Owls also swept the season series with South River while winning five of their last 11 games after losing their first eight to start the season.
Highland Park will be losing four seniors from its roster to graduation including standout, Justin Brown, who is going to attend college at Division II Virginia Intermont College this coming fall. This past season, Brown led the team in scoring with 16.7 points per game while he also collected 3.7 assists per game, 3.4 rebounds per game, and 1.7 steals per game. Opposing the Owls on this night was a Raritan River rival from Somerset County in Bound Brook. The Crusaders were coming off a 51-33 defeat at the hands of Freehold Boro on Monday night.
GMC Hoops arrived just as the game was starting, and it saw Bound Brook go on top early with a layup at the 18:30 mark for a 2-0 lead. Highland Park came right back with a layup at the 18:07 mark to tie the matchup at 2-2. Seven seconds later, Bound Brook prevented the Owls from taking the lead by drawing a charge on Smith with 18:00 to go in the first half. Nearly two minutes later, the Crusaders went back out in front on a three pointer from the top of the key for a 5-2 lead at the 16:10 mark. Bound Brook then went up by five a short time later when it swiped a steal, and converted it into a layup to make the score, 7-2 at the 15:50 mark. Highland Park turned it over again at the 15:30 mark, but Bound Brook failed to take advantage. The Owls eventually got back on the board with a layup and foul at the 13:50 mark, but couldn’t make the bonus free throw for the conventional three point play, and the score remained, 7-4 in favor of Bound Brook.
The Owl basket did fire up a 6-2 run that closed the gap to 9-8 before Bound Brook scored at the 12:30 mark to put itself head by three, 11-8. The Crusaders then came up with a block of a Smith shot on the defensive end, and then made one of two free throws at the other end for a 12-8 lead with 11:33 remaining in the first half. Over the next three minutes, Bound Brook outscored Highland Park by a margin of 4-2 to go ahead, 16-10 with 8:33 to go in the first half. Bound Brook then followed that up by scoring three of the next five including one of two at the line with 6:33 to go in the half for a 19-12 lead. Smith helped the Owls get their final points of the period with an assist on a layup that closed the gap to 19-14, but the Crusaders shut down Highland Park the rest of the half with a 6-0 run for a 25-14 lead at the intermission.
The second half started out positively for Smith and the Owls as the junior made one of two from the foul line to help out in a 3-0 run that put Highland Park back within striking distance at 25-17 with just a minute and a half gone by in the new period. However, a minute and a half later, the Crusaders went back up by double digits on a three pointer from the left side for a 28-17 lead at the 17:00 mark. Bound Brook then scored four of the next six points before Smith scored a layup on a scoop shot for a 32-21 Crusader lead with 14:19 remaining. Bound Brook went back up by thirteen though thanks to a jumper from the left side that made the score, 34-21 at the 13:45 mark. Scoring six of the next ten points after that, the Crusaders had gradually built up a 40-25 lead with 10:45 remaining in the game. However, the Owls fought back with a 19-9 run over a span of nearly ten minutes to close within five with under a minute to go at 49-44. Highlighting the run were two free throws at the 4:51 mark that made the score 45-37.
Unfortunately for Owl fans, Highland Park couldn’t get any closer than that in a 51-45 Bound Brook victory. Both teams were back playing on Wednesday night with the Crusaders taking on an old Mountain Valley Conference rival in Immaculata while Highland Park battled Monroe.
| Team | 1 | 2 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bound Brook | 25 | 26 | 51 |
| Highland Park | 14 | 31 | 45 |
Perth Amboy Outscores Edison By Two To One Margin In Second Half To Break Away For 40-27 Win
Once again for a half, Edison was competitive with its Red Division rival. This time, the Eagles fought Perth Amboy in the Lower Gym while Bound Brook played Highland Park and Sayreville took on South Brunswick in the Main Gym upstairs. Over the first 15:15 of the contest, Edison managed to go ahead of the Panthers, 10-8 when the site came down for a peek at the game. The Eagles then followed that up with a layup underneath for a 12-8 advantage at the 4:25 mark. Following a Perth Amboy timeout with 4:17 to play in the half, the Panthers finally got rolling. Kearny Canela sparked the Panthers with a three pointer from the left wing for a 12-11 Edison lead with 3:35 to go in the half.
Ariel Hilton then followed up with a layup for a 13-12 lead at the 56.0 second mark after both teams were scoreless for 2:39. Hilton then added a layup while being fouled with 21.8 seconds to go in the half for 15-12 lead. The Eagles battled back though. Trailing by three, Edison got a three pointer from the right wing to knot the game at 15-15 with 8.3 seconds to go. The Panthers still had a shot though, and Canela went in for the go ahead score, but missed the layup as time expired in the first half with the score still tied at 15-15. In the second half though, Perth Amboy surged with a 25-12 showing to come away with the victory. After watching the two games in the main gym upstairs, the site returned to see Perth Amboy leading by seven at 29-22 with 4:29 remaining. In a span of nearly 20 minutes, the Panthers had outscored the Eagles by a 21-10 margin to take the seven point lead.
Amboy wasn’t finished yet either. The Panthers scored again while being fouled, but missed the chance at the traditional three point play when it missed the bonus free throw. Yoelbin Sanchez got into the act with an offensive rebound and follow off a Canela miss for a 33-22 lead at the 2:18 mark. Perth Amboy then closed out the win with a 7-5 showing to round out the 40-27 final score. Both teams were in action again on Wednesday night as the Panthers took on East Brunswick at 7:00 PM while Edison faced a Route 1 rival in North Brunswick at 8:00 PM. Both games were played on the Main Gym A.
| Team | 1 | 2 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Perth Amboy | 15 | 25 | 40 |
| Edison | 15 | 12 | 27 |
Bombers Overcome Slow Start To Defeat Vikings, 32-25
Due to the late finish of the Freehold Boro and East Brunswick game that the Colonials won by four, 47-43, this game didn’t get started until well after 8:30 PM. Another thing that slowed the game down, and caused it to end nearly at 10:00 PM was the physical play, and constant fouling. Nevertheless, the Bombers prevailed in this one after trailing early. South Brunswick jumped out to a 10-1 lead in the game’s first 6:10, but Sayreville then outscored the Vikings by a 31-15 margin the rest of the way for the 32-25 win. The surge included a 13-2 rally over the final 8:57 of the half to go up by two at the break.
Following a South Brunswick field goal with just under nine minutes to play before halftime, Sayreville began to get itself going with two offensive rebounds and a follow by Darryl Stephenson to close the gap to 12-5 at the 7:45 mark. The Vikings then came right back down for a score on a layup from the right side to go back up by nine, 14-5 at the 7:35 mark. Dave Milewski got himself going with a layup in the right low block to cut the deficit in half at 14-7 with 6:20 to go in the first half. The Bombers, which were in the midst of an 11-0 run continued to put on the pressure with three more points over the next 3:27 to close the gap to four at 14-10 with 2:53 to play in the half. Sayreville added two free throws at the 1:25 mark for a 14-12 South Brunswick lead, and then Milewski tied it when he converted a Bomber steal into a layup in the left low block to make the score, 14-14 with 53.6 seconds to go in the first half.
The Vikings had a chance to seize the lead back, but turned the ball over at the 37.8 second mark. Then, Sayreville took the lead for good with a field goal at the 16.5 second mark. With the ball again in the waning moments of the half, South Brunswick failed to score as it turned it over again by throwing the ball out of bounds with four seconds remaining before the intermission as Sayreville went into the brief break holding a two point, 16-14 lead. In the second half, the Bombers continued to tighten the screws defensively by holding the Vikes to just 11 points in the final 20 minutes of play. The Bombers started things off with a 10-7 run over the first 8:55 to go ahead by five at 26-21 with 11:05 to go. South Brunswick, which lost to Bombers this past season in the Ryan Walp Shootout at Monroe, then got two free throws to get back to within three at 26-23 with 10:17 remaining.
Over the next 3:48, Sayreville padded its lead by scoring the next three points including one of two from the foul line for a 29-23 lead at the 6:29 mark. On a subsequent Viking possession, South Brunswick was called for traveling, but Sayreville failed to take advantage. SBHS then called for a timeout at the 4:18 mark. The Viking defense then came up with a nice defensive play by blocking a Milewski shot at the 3:45 mark, but the Bombers retained possession, and called for time. Following Sayreville’s timeout, the Bombers appeared to have gone ahead by eight with a jumper from the left side, but it was negated by the officials because the player stepped out of bounds with 3:31 to play. Nevertheless, Sayreville would prevail though thanks to solid defense, which limited South Brunswick to just two points over the final 10:17 of play.
Meanwhile, Darryl Stephenson, a sophomore forward, continued to work hard underneath with an offensive rebound and putback attempt that drew a foul, and resulted in one of two foul shots for a 30-23 lead with 2:08 remaining. South Brunswick finally got on the board with its first field goal in eight and a half minutes when a player connected on a jumper from the right wing that received a kind bounce to close the gap to five at 30-25 with 1:45 left as the Vikes called for time. However, after the timeout, the Vikings were unable to get closer as Sayreville sealed the 32-25 victory with two free throws at the 30 second mark. Both teams were in action again on Wednesday night with the Vikings taking on Freehold Boro at 7:30 PM on the Main Gym B floor while Sayreville battled Piscataway in the lower gym at 8:30 PM.
| Team | 1 | 2 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sayreville | 16 | 16 | 32 |
| South Brunswick | 14 | 11 | 25 |
GMC Hoops was out for more action on Wednesday night, and will return on Thursday for the final evening of games.