Scrimmage Notebook–South Plainfield @ Dunellen–December 9, 2011

Tigers And Destroyers Face Different Obstacles

DUNELLEN, NJ–Rome wasn’t built in the day.  It will be a cliché often heard around South Plainfield boys basketball this winter.  However, it is one that has often littered the history of Tiger hoops through the years.  Anthony Cotoia faced the same difficulties when he arrived in town back in the latter portion of the 1950s to find that there weren’t a lot of basketball courts in town.  Jeff Lubreski encountered it right away in his first season at the helm of SPHS back in 1986-87 when the Tigers began the season with 14 straight losses.  New head coach, Justin Chiera will encounter similar road blocks in year one as well.

In four of the past five years, South Plainfield had losing seasons with a combined record of 26-64.  The one season that SPHS had a winning season, the Tigers reached the GMCT Final Four, and gave eventual champion Piscataway all it could handle before falling.  Hope is on the horizon though with a talented sophomore class.  This group of youngsters did take a bit of a hit when Jordan Lackey transferred to Piscataway Tech.  However, there are still some good players coming up from the freshmen squad that reached the Perth Amboy/GMC Freshmen Tournament Championship Game before losing to St. Joseph’s-Green.

Meanwhile, Dunellen has a veteran squad returning from last year’s team.  With the likes of Dylan Hoski and Deon Brown leading the way, the Destroyers are looking to contend for the GMC Gold once again.  After winning the Gold five out of the previous six years, DHS finished tied for second with South River in an expanded Gold behind Piscataway Tech, which won its first division title since 2004.  While they are mostly short on physical stature and school size, head coach, Bernie Buniak has refused to make that an excuse.  Since taking over the program in the 2005-06 season, Buniak has done a great job scheduling up by playing many of the bigger schools in the GMC along with tougher non-conference opponents.

This year’s Destroyers are a team that likes to play a bit up-tempo.  Hoski is a scrappy player down low that doesn’t back down to any of his foes even though he gives up considerable size to them.  Brown isn’t shy about going to the basket.  Tony McGuane, the tallest player on the squad has the ability to handle the ball a bit, and shoot the three.  On the other side of the ledger, the Tigers have Justin Glover, who can be fearless going to the basket, and has a scorer’s mentality.  Claude Payne looks physically stronger than he did last season while Joe Skwiat and Ryan Marcoux play hard, scrappy, and smart.  Both teams played with a lot of energy and enthusiasm at the outset, but Dunellen was able to channel that energy better, and the result was a dominant first half where the Destroyers won both periods, and garnered a 25-10 edge.

South Plainfield seemed to be more overanxious on offense, and that led to a number of turnovers as well as rushed shots.  The Tigers also failed to do the little things such as stepping in to draw a charge.  If there is anything that the Tigers need to accomplish this year, it is the ability to play tough defense, rebound well, hustle, and draw charges.  In the second half, SPHS began to do these things well, and the result was a complete turnaround in the final two quarters of the scrimmage.  The Tigers outscored Dunellen by an 18-9 margin over the final two periods including a 17-3 edge over the final 16:02 of the scrimmage.  Marcoux and Skwiat served as catalysts during this stretch by hustling, diving for loose balls, and making plays.  Sophomore Chris Mathis provided a spark off the bench in the third with four points including the go ahead score in that period.  Meanwhile, Ray Perez scored 7 of the 9 Tiger points in the fourth quarter.

Hoski scored 8 points in the first half including 6 in the first quarter.  The junior forward, who has been in the starting lineup from his freshman year, is beginning to develop a scoring ability from the perimeter.  McGuane opened the second period with five points including a three pointer while Brown ended the first half with the last four points.  Payne scored 6 of South Plainfeld’s 10 first half points.  South Plainfield did a much better job of getting back on defense, and making Dunellen work for scores.  Hoski only had three points in the second half, and ended up with 11 points for the scrimmage.  Marcoux ended up with 6 points, 4 assists, a steal, charge, and offensive rebound while Skwiat ended up with 4 points.

When Dunellen was able to create havoc on defense with turnovers, it was able to generate and convert transition opportunities.  The Destroyers will need to do that a lot this year since they are not a really big team.  South Plainfield’s strong point was when it put in a solid effort on defense, and force Dunellen to run its halfcourt offense.  Couple that with settling down on offense, and the Tigers were able to play good basketball in the second half.  If SPHS can bottle that for 32 minutes, it can be competitive with its foes in the GMC White.  However, it won’t be easy.  With North Brunswick only losing Tait Pirkle while McCarrick added David Rodriguez, who transferred from Perth Amboy, Woodbridge returning all of its starting lineup from last year, and New Brunswick getting the likes of Shammad Thomas, the Tigers will have a tough time getting to the top of the White Division.

Despite having more experience, stability, and a winning environment already in place, the Destroyers still face a tough challenge in the GMC Gold.  Piscataway Tech has its entire starting lineup returning from last year while adding several new faces.  Meanwhile Amboy Tech still has the tandem of 1,000 point scorers in Rashad Adams and Malcolm Batts along with junior Kelvin Perez while Timothy Christian still has Dan Decker and Kristian Svendsden to contend with.  Dunellen still looks like a team that should finish somewhere in the top four of the division.