Amboy Plays Well While Timothy Christian Holds Its Own In Tri-Scrimmage
PISCATAWAY, NJ–On Wednesday afternoon, GMC Hoops returned to its scrimmage coverage after a one year absence by taking a trip over to the Timothy Christian School to see the tri-scrimmage involving the Tigers, Perth Amboy, and J.P. Stevens. Even though it is one of the smaller schools in the conference playing without its top player in Brandon Summers, TCS held its own against two of the larger schools in the GMC while Perth Amboy performed well.
Three scrimmages of two quarters each were played for a total of six quarters. Timothy Christian split its two quarters with J.P. Stevens while winning both by a slim margin over Perth Amboy. The Tigers won overall over Stevens by a score of 17-15 while they also edged Perth Amboy by a 23-20 margin. Both scrimmages had their fare share of lead changes and ties. Over the final 9:46 of the scrimmage between TCS and JPS, there were three lead changes and a tie with neither team leading by more than 6 points. In the scrimmage between Timothy Christian and Amboy, there were five lead changes and a tie while neither team had a lead bigger than five points.
The Panthers of Perth Amboy showed more firepower in its two scrimmages than Timothy Christian did. Amboy outscored their foes by a combined margin of 51-37 including a 31-14 showing against J.P. Stevens. The Panthers jumped out to a 9-2 lead in the first period of its scrimmage against the Hawks, and then began the second period by scoring the first eight points en route to taking a 17-4 lead, and winning the frame, 22-8 in the most lopsided period of the exhibition. The other five periods were decided by no more than three points. The one bright spot that Stevens had today was a 10-9 edge in the first quarter of its scrimmage with Timothy Christian.
Playing without Summers, the Tigers had to turn to other veteran players for more offense. Jarret Locke did more than fill the void by scoring 4 of the final 6 points in the second period of the scrimmage with Stevens, and making a pair of free throws to tie the score at 10-10 with 38.9 seconds left in the second period of the scrimmage with Amboy. Zach Coyle gave the Tigers the edge in the final period against Perth Amboy with a steal that he took in for a score with 2.9 seconds left. Marquis Irizarry and Auggie Enriquez had scores that helped the Panthers rally from an 8-4 deficit to take a 10-8 lead late in the second frame.
Nathan Melendez along with Enriquez provide a lot of size for the Panthers down low, and that combined with the play of Irizarry and a pressure defense, helped Perth Amboy have a good day at the scrimmage. Even though they split their four quarters and two scrimmages with TCS and JPS, the Panthers still scored the most points of all three teams involved in the scrimmage. Competing in the Red Division this year, and losing the likes of recent graduates David Rogers, Cairo Henry, and Carlos Morales, the Panthers will have to get solid play from their inside men as well as Irizarry. Meanwhile, Timothy Christian, which overachieved last season despite losing two 1,000 point scorers from the year before in Dan Decker (Baptist Bible College) and Kristian Svendsen (Raritan Valley Community College) should contend again in the GMC Gold this season despite losing Jeff Parker to graduation.
J.P. Stevens lost three of the four periods it played in today’s tri-scrimmage. The Hawks did win the opening quarter of its matchup with TCS, but then lost the second as well as both of its periods played versus Perth Amboy. The Hawks were outscored by a 48-29 margin in their exhibitions. Stevens did get some good play from Veer Patel, who had a go ahead score in the first period against Timothy Christian. Football standout, Chiekuba “Chewie” Chukwuneke is coming over to the basketball court this season for JPS, and should provide some additional quickness and athleticism to the lineup. Francois Ballou, who played last season and also stood out on the gridiron at Stevens, returns, and will be a key down low for the Hawks, which will be looking to improve upon its 4-20 overall record and 2-12 mark in the GMC White last year. The Hawks will also need others to help step up and fill the void left behind by recent graduates Sajeh Chowdhary, John Maxham, and Jalen Sorrell.