MONMOUTH JUNCTION, NJ–Last Friday, GMC Hoops made its first visit to South Brunswick High School for a regular season game in over two years. It also was seeing the East Brunswick Bears for the first time since the holidays when it saw them twice in the Brunswick Classic holiday tournament at EBHS. Despite stumbling against Bishop Ahr on the road in North Edison back on January 18th, EB has done very well this season with a very deep team that has a good blend of veteran and young talent.
South Brunswick took it to the Bears, which defeated them by a score of 62-26 back on January 14th. However, the depth of the Bears proved to be too much for the young Vikings to handle. Although the Vikes outscored EB in three of the four periods, the Bears still came away with the victory thanks to a 16-5 third quarter showing that included an 11-0 spurt to open the second half. Twelve players played for EB versus nine for SBHS. Of those twelve Bears players, nine of them got into the scoring column while six scored for the Vikings. Joe Ross, a sophomore guard, led the way for the Bears with 10 points while junior guard, Anthony Guisti went 3 of 5 from long distance for 9 points in a 45-37 victory.
Once again, the Vikings were led by sophomore Jevon Tyree, who made 5 of 12 shots from the floor, and a perfect 5 of 5 from the line for 15 points. Fellow sophomore, Michael Green chipped in with 9 points while also collecting 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 steals. Forward, Nick Muha contributed with 10 rebounds in the loss. Tyree, who had a game high 21 points in the loss at Old Bridge the Saturday before (January 30th), continues to mature, and develop into a solid player for South Brunswick. He has done his best to fill the void left by the injured Kory Sanders. Green has also done his share as well.
The Vikings, which were 7-3 in the GMC Red at one point, have since fallen on hard times with five division losses in a row coming into the GMCT seeding meeting. However, some have been close losses including this one and a three overtime defeat at the hands of Perth Amboy, which has been hot as of late. This team is still growing, and there’s a lot of potential for greater success down the road. Third year head coach, Joe Hoehman has done a solid job coaching this team this year. The Bears, meanwhile, enter the seeding meeting with six straight wins, and a 15-3 mark in conference play.
This year’s success could only be the beginning for EB too. It’s amazing that the Bears were 4-18 just two seasons ago. However, after a 14-11 campaign last season, and a 17-3 mark so far this year, East Brunswick still has a large group of youngsters coming up. Led by a solid junior class, which reached the championship of the 2008 Perth Amboy/GMC Tournament two years ago as frosh, the Bears have a roster with ten underclassmen including three sophomores and a freshman.
Both South Brunswick and East Brunswick as well as Piscataway are going to be heard from in the years ahead.