Hawks Getting Better With Young Talent And Tough Defense
NORTH EDISON, NJ–On Saturday, GMC Hoops caught a glimpse of the J.P. Stevens Hawks for the first time this season against South River in the GMCT Play-In Round. JPS fell behind early, and could never really catch up in a 49-31 loss. Since then, Stevens has gone on to knock off South Plainfield last night with a 46-44 victory in regular season play.
With the win over the Tigers, the Hawks improved to 4-18 on the season, which doesn’t look like much at first glance, but compared to last season’s 1-21 record including a 1-15 mark in the then nine team Red Division, it is a significant improvement. Stevens was 2-12 in divisional play this year with both victories coming over Old Bridge. JPS also has an overtime victory over Wardlaw earlier this season (54-50).
Looking more closely though at Stevens, you find some positive things though. The team is one of ten teams in the Greater Middlesex Conference that has given up fewer than 50 points per game through play on Wednesday. The Hawks are actually eighth in the conference in scoring defense. The problem with the Hawks has been its offense, which has averaged just under 33.5 points per game. The Hawks lost seven games this season by 10 points or less including three close ones to GMC Hoops Top Ten team, Perth Amboy.
The Hawks have a good nucleus returning with the likes of juniors Marvin Crawford and Brandon Ahmed along with sophomores Sahej Chowdhary and John Maxham, and freshman Sky Harris. They do lose key leaders such as Mike Reuben, Mike Le, Pete Prontinicki, and Victor Quan, but Crawford and Ahmed have two years of varsity experience under their belt so both are ready to take over the leadership reins. Back during the summer, Stevens second year head coach, Bob Jones said his team would be better this year. He was right.