Freeney Fires Chiefs Past Patriots For Allen’s 1st Win At P-Way
PISCATAWAY, NJ–A new era began in Piscataway Hoops over the past week. Antoine Allen, who recently coached at New Brunswick for five seasons after serving as an assistant to Jason Murdock (head coach at Pingry) the previous season, takes over for Guy Jensen after the former St. Joe’s assistant coach made a name for himself in P-Way lore with three GMCT finals and two sectional final appearances over the past six seasons. Jensen won two conference and one sectional title during that span as he brought the Chiefs back to prominence.
In addition to the departure of Jensen, the Chiefs lost 10 players from last year’s squad including Vik Singh (Rutgers-Newark), Tajae Sharpe (UMass for football), Greg Davis (South Kent Prep), Thaddeus Dalton (Raritan Valley Community College), and David White (Raritan Valley Community College). Several of those players including Sharpe and Davis were on the last Chiefs team to reach the GMCT final back in 2011. P-Way has a lot of new faces including Elijah Murray-Tucker, a transfer from Union Catholic, and Justin Leak, a transfer from Immaculata along with a number of players from a JV squad that lost to North Brunswick in the quarterfinals of the East Brunswick/GMC JV Tourney last year.
There is one familiar face though, and a very important one for the Chiefs chances this year. Marcus Freeney returns for his senior year, and is expected to shoulder the load scoring wise. Freeney is the younger brother of two 1,000 point scorers at P-Way in Robert Freeney Jr. (2001), who went on to play at New Jersey City University, and Rodney Freeney (2006), the all time leading scorer at the school, who also scored 1,000 points in his career at Middlesex County College before moving on to Montclair State University. The trios father, Robert Freeney Sr., was a member of the back to back MCT champion Piscataway Chiefs teams of 1976 and 1977 coached by Windy McGriff, and is seen at many P-Way games as well as officiating other high school and college games.
Freeney turned in a solid performance against Colonia as the Chiefs overcame an early deficit to win going away by the score of 67-51 in the team’s home opener. It was the first win at the school for Allen, who opened the season with a loss at St. Joe’s after having a bye on opening day last Friday. Trailing 10-3 early on after Colonia got a pair of threes by Woodbridge transfer Ray Boone and a jumper from sophomore James Corbett, the Chiefs got going with a 17-4 tear over a span of just 3:48 as Freeney, who netted four threes in the first half, and six for the game en route to a game high 28 points, connected from beyond the arc on a couple of occasions, and Murray-Tucker hit a trey himself before swiping a steal seconds later for a dunk.
Speaking of dunks, Piscataway had three in the game. After Murray-Tucker’s slam in the first period, football standout, David Claybrook swiped a steal and slammed one home midway through the fourth, and Jo Jo Hoover did the same with about 1:45 remaining in the contest. P-Way has a very athletic team around Freeney with the likes of not only Murray-Tucker, Claybrook, and Hoover, but also sophomore big man, Marinus Tavernier, who looks to be much improved this season. Tavernier, who was on the varsity roster last season, but spent most of his time playing JV, blocked numerous shots on defense while also going aggressively to the basket, and hitting a few short jumpers including one off a nice pivot in the paint and another that banked in from the left side in the fourth quarter. Another player up from the JV, Clarence Morris had a three pointer from the right wing in the third, and dished out an assist on a Freeney layup prior to Claybrook converting a traditional three point play at the 3:01 mark of the third for a 44-29 lead.
Colonia hung tough and tried to stay within striking distance, but eventually couldn’t keep pace with the Chiefs. The Patriots got a solid performance from senior forward, Bleriot Thompson, who scored 19 points for team high. Boone ended up with three treys and 13 points. P-Way did a good job keeping senior guard, Trent Barneys quiet. The CHS football standout was limited to just three points, all of which came from the foul line. Piscataway, which led 23-18 at the end of one quarter, increased its lead to eight at the half, and 15 midway through the third. In the fourth, Colonia got no closer than 14 points while the Chiefs led by 18 on a couple of occasions late before winning by 16. With the win, Piscataway improved to 1-1 overall and in divisional play while Colonia, which went on the road to defeat Carteret on Tuesday for its first win of the season, fell to 1-2 including 0-2 in the GMC Red.