PISCATAWAY, NJ–On Friday and Saturday night, GMC Hoops stopped over to the Rutgers Athletic Center and the College Avenue Barn for games in the second Rutgers Team Camp of the summer. There were 20 schools that participated in the game including two originally from the Greater Middlesex Conference: North Brunswick and Piscataway. However, North Brunswick was not at games that GMC Hoops was at on both Friday and Saturday night. Instead, Franklin, which is now being coached by former Bridgewater-Raritan head coach, Tim Ortelli, played in North Brunswick’s spot on Saturday night against Morris Knolls.
Meanwhile, Piscataway had two squads competing including one JV team. The Chiefs were in action on Saturday night against Teaneck from Bergen County in one of the better matchups from the team camp. Once again though, P-Way was without the services of soon to be senior, Wayne Newsome, who has only been seen once with the team by GMC Hoops this summer, and that was on the sidelines on Wednesday against Governor Livingston. Looking at the rest of the teams participating, both Ridge and Immaculata, two of the finalists in this year’s Somerset County Tournament, were well represented with several squads. Ridge has been very active this summer by going to the Scarlet Shootout, Rutgers Team Camp, Hoop Group Elite Camp, and Hoop Group Metro Showcase.
On Friday night, GMC Hoops saw one of the Ridge squads in action. It was a JV squad taking on Hackettstown’s JV. Hackettstown, which is in Warren County, and was a member of the Skyland Conference before requesting to become a member of the new Sussex County Superconference, had a nine point 41-32 lead with minutes remaining before Ridge rallied with the help of the three pointer. The Junior Red Devils outscored their opponent by a 13-4 margin including several from beyond the arc to knot the game at 45-45. Unfortunately for Ridge, the Junior Tigers were able to come away with the 47-45 victory on a last second layup. In other action Pascack Valley’s varsity led by double digits late before Westfield finished strong to make the game closer than it actually was in a 44-39 loss. North Brunswick was scheduled to play Clarkstown-South in the 7:45 PM game, but didn’t show.
Finally, on Saturday night, GMC Hoops headed over to the RAC after work to see both Piscataway and North Brunswick in action. As previously mentioned, Piscataway was taking on Teaneck while North Brunswick was slated to play Morris Knolls. Much to the site’s surprise though, the Franklin Warriors were playing in the place of North Brunswick. Franklin ended the game with a 45-41 victory. Meanwhile, Piscataway and Teaneck are no strangers to one another, they are linked because the Chiefs defeated Teaneck to win its last state championship back in 1994 when the likes of John Celestand, Justin Bailey, and Dewey Ferguson were roaming the halls of the school.
Times have changed since then. Teaneck is now in Group III, and won this year’s North Jersey Section I Group III Tourney before losing to T of C quarterfinalist, Neptune in the state final while Piscataway remains in Group IV, but has moved from the Central Jersey bracket to the North Jersey Section 2 bracket, where it has reached the finals in each of the past two seasons. Nevertheless, the two battled in one of the better matchups of the weekend. Teaneck held the lead late as it led by five with 42 seconds to go as P-Way called for time. The Chiefs then missed a key three point attempt from the right wing with 32 seconds left, and Teaneck got the rebound.
Forced to foul, Piscataway made the Highwaymen go to the line where they made one of two with 30 seconds to go for a 47-41 lead. Teaneck then got the ball back after making a stop, and drew another foul with 26 seconds to go. This time, the Highwaymen were even more successful by making both foul shots for an insurmountable 49-41 lead. The Chiefs would make a three pointer at the 13 second mark to round out the final, 49-44 score.