A Little Bit Of Everything To Start The New Hoops Season
SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ–With the first day of the 2012-13 Greater Middlesex Conference Boys Basketball season out of the way, it’s time to look back on some of the contests from Friday afternoon and evening. There was a little bit of everything from the 15 or so contests involving GMC schools. There were some close ones and upsets while other games were blowouts. The Gold Division looks like a pretty tight group from top to bottom while East Brunswick fired off the first salvo in its battles with Red Division rival St. Joseph’s. Spotswood, North Brunswick, South Brunswick, Carteret, Sayreville, and Edison all rolled to double digit wins.
East Brunswick Makes Statement In Jolting St. Joe’s
Prior to the start of the season, the Bears were already considered strong contenders for both the GMC Red Division, and the GMCT. They had competed against tough off-season competition such as the teams in the East Coast Conditioning Fall League, where it won the championship by defeating Rutgers Prep, Linden, and St. Patrick’s. The tandem of NJIT bound Rob Ukawuba (17 points) and Princeton bound, Amir Bell (18 points) proved to be tough to handle for the Falcons with a combined 35 points. EB was able to withstand an early 15-2 storm by St. Joe’s that turned a 4-0 deficit into a 15-6 lead. Karl Towns, who tied Bell for second game high with 18 points, scored 10 of those points in the first quarter. Immaculata transfer Wade Baldwin led all scorers with 24 for St. Joe’s.
Trailing by seven at the end of three quarters, the Bears finished strong with a 22-11 surge in the fourth to come away for the victory. There shouldn’t be any panic in Falcon country though. St. Joseph’s had an early season loss to Teaneck last season in the Hoop Group Tip-Off Classic, but was able to roll to 28 straight wins, its third straight GMCT, and its first ever state title before bowing to Plainfield in the Tournament of Champions semifinals. The Falcons have new personnel, and the chemistry still may not be there yet. Expect these two teams to duel like this in the next regular season matchup at EB, and perhaps a third time in the 2013 GMCT Championship.
Gold Division Parity
We may be just one game into the season, but already there are indications that the Gold could end up being a horse race with a battle from top to bottom. Timothy Christian pulled off a bit of a surprise by edging South River in Piscataway on Friday evening. Despite losing two 1,000 point scorers in Kristian Svendsen and Dan Decker, head coach Chris Hobbs and his Tigers still proved that they are tough to beat. TCS limited a potent South River offense to just 39 points. Meanwhile, our division favorite, Dunellen had to hang on to win by two over South Amboy on the road (53-51) and Perth Amboy Tech knocked off a Warldaw team (35-31) with a number players returning including senior forward, Justen Davis. Kelvin Perez showed he is ready to step up and take on more responsibility with the departure of two 1,000 point scorers in Rashad Adams (playing football at Albright) and Malcolm Batts (Middlesex County College).
Many Double-Digit Wins
While there were signs of parity in the Gold, there wasn’t much in the other three divisions on Friday. Of the 14 games that reported scores, seven of them were won by at least 13 points. Three of those games were seen by GMC Hoops with North Brunswick rolling past New Brunswick (79-49), Spotswood cruising past South Plainfield (74-46), and Old Bridge downing Perth Amboy (55-36).Â
In its win over the Zebras, North Brunswick got a solid effort from senior guard, Iverson Fleming with pumping in 22 including four threes. Dennis Ford chipped in with 17 including the first seven points of the second half to give the Raiders a 49-29 lead. Jordan Gonzalez added 12 points as well while football standout, Jaylen Hobdy scored all 8 of his points in the third. Spotswood got similar efforts from junior guard Jake Dadika (30 points) and senior guard Dalonte Grant (17 points) in its victory over South Plainfield. The Chargers, which took advantage of Tiger fouls on three point attempts in the first half by scoring 10 points including a perfect 7 of 7 at the line, weathered a 19-6 rally by the Tigers from the end of the second period to the end of the third, and withstood a 20 point effort from senior forward, Claude Payne for the win. South Plainfield showed flashes of improvement in the contest, but lacked a perimeter game to complement Payne down low.Â
Over in Perth Amboy, senior forward Sultan Aminu (22 points) and junior guard Tyler Drews (20 points) combined to account for 75 percent of the Knights scoring in the win over the Panthers. Many of those points came in the final 8:41 as the veteran duo combined to score 17 of their team’s 19 points as OBHS pulled away. Another blowout occurred in South Brunswick as the third ranked Vikings rolled to an easy 71-45 victory over Colonia. Senior forward, Chris Bourne led the way with a double-double of 23 points and 14 rebounds for SBHS. With all of these double-digit wins, one has to wonder if there is a great deal of separation between the top teams in the GMC, and the rest of the conference.
Top Players
Players around the Greater Middlesex Conference that submitted their candidacy for GMC Hoops Player of the Week honors for opening weekend with solid performances on Friday included Amir Bell and Rob Ukawuba of East Brunswick, Jake Dadika of Spotswood, Chris Bourne of South Brunswick, Iverson Fleming and Dennis Ford of North Brunswick, Sultan Aminu and Tyler Drews of Old Bridge, Wade Baldwin and Karl Towns of St. Joseph’s, Jaheem Jackson of Woodbridge, Nick Isola of Monroe, Claude Payne of South Plainfield, Steve Herdman of South Amboy, Deon Brown of Dunellen, Darrin Perez of J.F. Kennedy, Jacquante Madden of Cardinal McCarrick, and Tyler Harris of South River.