Division Race Looks Wide Open At This Point
SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ–We are only a few weeks into the 2013-14 season, and some teams have only played a handful of games, but after watching some of the contests in the GMC Blue so far this season, I’m convinced that the division will be up for grabs with a number of teams contending for the title. At this point of the season, 8 of the 9 teams in the division have been very competitive with J.F. Kennedy, Metuchen, Middlesex, and South Plainfield much improved over last season. In addition, last year’s contenders, Carteret, Spotswood, and Bishop Ahr look as good or even better than last season. Piscataway Tech did take some hits to graduation and players transferring out, but has still played competitively despite not winning yet this year.
Last year, the division went down to the final week with Carteret, Piscataway Tech, and Spotswood battling to the last couple games before the Ramblers emerged as champion for the second year in a row. Bishop Ahr took a bit of a step back by finishing fourth, but that was expected with heavy losses due to graduation from the year before, and new faces such as then St. Joseph’s transfer Owen McLeod coming in. Kennedy, Metuchen, Middlesex, and South Plainfield were all below .500 for the season in 2012-13. Of those four teams, Kennedy looks to be the most improved. I’ve seen Kennedy three times this season as well as during the fall at the Monroe Sports Center Fall League, and there is no surprise to why the Mustangs are off to such a good start.
JFK has veteran players returning such as Kyle Alvarez, Joe Duffy, Mike Weinstein, Omar Reyes, and Stepp Oziegbe. In addition, the Mustangs have a very talented sophomore class that finished third in last season’s Perth Amboy/GMC Freshmen Tournament. On top of all that, J.F. Kennedy has quite a bit of size. The Mustangs have come up with nice wins at home over Edison (61-54) in the Gene Haley Tournament, and then a week later against Bishop Ahr (59-48). The Mustangs then rolled past a South Plainfield (63-44) team on the road that had upset Spotswood, and has played competitively before coming away with a hard fought overtime win over Metuchen. One key sequence in the contest was in the third quarter when JFK scored the last 17 points of the period to turn a 33-20 deficit into a 37-33 lead. Defense keyed the run as the Mustangs got stops and forced turnovers.
Metuchen has taken its lumps for the past several seasons under the direction of head coach Jon Korellis. However, the painful previous seasons under his watch have served as learning lessons for veteran players such as juniors Tom Chalker, Artie Flaherty Jr., sophomore Evan Collier, and seniors Brian Eustace, Hunter Clarke, and Frank McGuire. This nucleus has been together since grammar school and middle school, and also played during the summer months at the Raritan Bay Summer League in South Amboy. The Bulldogs did show some signs last season with an upset victory over Bishop Ahr in overtime. So far this season, Metuchen is only 4-3 including a 1-3 mark in division, but they have had two close losses to both Carteret (57-55 at home on Monday night) and Kennedy (64-61 loss in overtime on the road on Wednesday night). The Bulldogs also won their holiday tournament in impressive fashion with a 53-34 victory over a Bernards program that rolled past them two years earlier in the Pepe Tournament at Jonathan Dayton in Springfield. I’ve already seen Metuchen twice this season, and both times they impressed me with their poise, confidence, and resiliency. The future also looks bright at Metuchen with a freshman class led by Dan Flaherty and Kyle Harry that went undefeated in Middle School last year.
Moving on to Middlesex, the Blue Jays are another team that looks to be on the rise in this early part of the season. With the return of Emilio Gonzalez, who was out all last season with a torn ACL, and the addition of freshman, Vince Chiera on top of a roster with veteran players such as Jarret Bogus, Stew Lester, Marcus Evans-Little, Kayshawn Wilson, Steve Sarnoski, and Adam Wick, Middlesex looks to be in the middle of things in the GMC Blue. The Jays have already made a nice little statement by edging Piscataway Tech on Monday night after defeating Metuchen on opening night. Middlesex also found a way to beat an undermanned Dunellen team that was very patient and disciplined on offense in the Championship Game of the Shello/Santy Tournament over the holidays. Gonzalez played a big part in that win by scoring all 12 of his points in the second half when the Blue Jays turned a three point half time deficit into a double digit lead in the fourth quarter before winning, 38-31.
Meanwhile, at South Plainfield, the Tigers made some positive steps in the off-season with a 6-3 regular season finish at the Bound Brook Summer League before being ousted in the opening round of the playoffs. Despite losing their head coach of the past two seasons in Justin Chiera, and not getting a replacement hired until about a month before the season started, SPHS still managed to pull off the first big shocker of the season against top Blue Division contender, and then seventh ranked Spotswood with a 50-45 win. The Tigers have also been competitive in losses to Union Catholic (77-63), Middletown South (43-41), Monroe (64-57), and Bishop Ahr (52-44). Chris Mathis played a big part in the Tiger upset of Spotswood by scoring 11 of his game high 23 points including 9 of 12 from the foul line in the fourth quarter. He then followed that up with a 21 point effort in the loss at Union Catholic. Other key contributors to South Plainfield’s improvement are Malik Cisson, Brandon Bernard, and Jordan Hankerson.
Piscataway Tech took some hits to graduation with the loss of 1,000 point scorer, Turell McClendon. In addition, the Raiders took another hit with the transfer of Robby Pierre to Union Catholic. Despite that, P-Way Tech has played competitively so far this year. The Raiders, which didn’t play its first game until the opening round of the Hilltopper Holiday Tournament in Summit, has lost two of its five games by 3 points or less with a third loss, a defeat to Carteret on Friday night was close throughout much of the game until the latter stages of the fourth quarter. The Raiders are better than their record indicates and have talent with the likes of seniors Jordan Lackey, Inderpaul Pinghila, and Andrew Franco along with juniors Aziz Austin, Kyle Wider, and Frank Howard. If they can play together like they did against Carteret for a full 32 minutes, the Raiders can start winning.
Bishop Ahr has a very talented junior class led by the likes of Tom Weiler, Pat Astarita, Kevin Krolick, Anthony Abano, and Harry Gelpke. The addition of Owen McLeod last year was a big boost. There were some ups and downs during the course of the season, but the Trojans learned and grew from them, and now they are now in the running for the division once again. Over the holidays, BGA won the Gene Haley Memorial Tournament for the first time since 1996 by handily defeating Edison in the opening round (64-44), and then pulling away from Mater Dei to win 47-38 in the Championship. Ahr hit a bump in the road with a loss at JFK, but got back to their winning ways with victories over Highland Park and South Plainfield. The Trojans also lost to Carteret at home on opening night.
Spotswood, which reached the Central Jersey Group II semifinals as well as the GMCT Elite Eight in 2012-13, lost a bit of firepower to graduation with the departures of the likes of Dalonte Grant, Corey Brown, and Jamal Lewis, but still have Jake Dadika, who recently scored his 1,000th career point. In addition to Dadika is his younger brother Eric, Marlon Hart, Kevin Fox, Nyron Lewis, and freshman big man, Matt Ciaccio, who gives the Chargers a rare inside presence that can also run the floor very well. Spotswood split its first four games with wins over Dunellen in a crossover and Bound Brook in the opening round of the Crusader Classic. Then, after losing to Somerville in overtime in the Crusader Classic Championship, the Chargers have roared back with victories over P-Way Tech and Kennedy by an average margin of 26.5 points.
Finally, we have the defending two time division winner, Carteret, which despite the losses of Andrew Stam, Tyrell Lockley, and Joe McRae to graduation, continue to be amongst the contenders to win the division once more in 2013-14. The junior tandem of football standout, Brandon Gilder and the much improved Jaquan Robertson along with a supporting cast led by Branden Benjamin, Sean Kenney, and Anthony Spinelli make the Ramblers tough to beat once again. There are also talented underclassmen such as junior Amir Alford and freshman Quran Robinson. Carteret started the year on a good note with a win on the road at Bishop Ahr before losing three straight including two losses in the Matawan Huskies Holiday Tournament. The Ramblers got back on the right track with a win over St. John Vianney in the 7th place game, and then followed that up with three straight wins in GMC Blue play over Metuchen, Highland Park, and Piscataway Tech.
We are still pretty much in the early going of the 2013-14 season, but already there are signs that the Blue Division will again be very competitive.