Boys GMCT Has Seven Play-In Round Games Set For Saturday
SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ–The seeding of both the boys and girls GMCTs have been done, and now it is time to start playing. On Saturday, both tournaments will get underway with play-in round games at the higher seeded team. The boys tourney will have seven play-in games while the girls will have six. The reason for that is because the boys bracket has 31 teams while the girls bracket only has 30. Woodbridge Academy and East Brunswick Tech elected not to play in the Girls GMCT this year.
With all that out of the way, we will take a look at the matchups:
#25 South River at #24 South Amboy–This will be the fourth time this season that the Guvs and Rams will be squaring off. In addition to playing their two usual division games, these two schools met in the Championship Game of the South River Christmas Tournament over the holidays. The first two times these two GMC Gold Division rivals met, South Amboy won. South River won the most recent matchup on January 29th. In that most recent contest, Matt Martinez recorded a triple double of 36 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists to lead the Rams while Connor Devich added 20 points and 15 points and Sean Darrar chipped in with 13. Joe Fruncillo had a team high 19 for South Amboy including 15 in the second half while Steve Herdman added 17 points. After losing a 1,000 point scorer from last year’s team in Tyler Harris as well as another standout in Tim Darrar, South River exceeded expectations with an 8-3 record in divisional play. Meanwhile, South Amboy has lost four of its five games by single digits.
#26 Dunellen at #23 Cardinal McCarrick–This game is a reunion of sorts for these two schools, which were regular opponents when McCarrick was in the Gold Division until the end of the 2001-02 season. These two teams also met each other last season at the Bernoskie Games at Rahway HS. The Eagles of McCarrick are led by 1,000 point scorer Sky Harris as well as senior guard, Aaron Lewis. McCarrick also has a solid crop of freshman including Pop Brown, Dan Carty, and Ryan O’Leary. Dunellen had a rebuilding year of sorts, but you wouldn’t really tell by the way they’ve competed against teams in their division and in the conference. DHS head coach, Bernie Buniak always seems to get the most out of whatever he has. Dunellen actually started the season with only 8 players on the roster. Junior David Johnson has been the standout player for the Destroyers. Coming off a 29 point performance against Ridgefield Park in last year’s North Jersey Section 2 Group I playoffs, Johnson has played with tremendous confidence, and has become the go-to guy for the Destroyers. Nick Petrozelli has done a solid job at the point, and Dunellen’s zone defenses can frustrate opponents. Both teams have played and defeated South Amboy this season. As a matter of fact, the Destroyers and Eagles defeated the Guvs within 24 hours of each other on opening weekend. Dunellen won on opening night, 50-49 on a last second shot by David Johnson while Cardinal McCarrick defeated South Amboy in overtime, 74-70 the next night. Since then, Dunellen lost to the Guvs at South Amboy on February 8th (61-47).
#27 Perth Amboy Tech at #22 South Plainfield–After losing their final Blue Division game of the season against Carteret (71-59) on Friday night, South Plainfield will look to rebound against an Amboy Tech team that boasts one of the top big men in the GMC. Jordan Little, a 6’7″ junior forward is a double-double machine that can put up big numbers. The scary thing is that, there will be stretches in games, where the Patriots don’t get Little the ball. Noel Garay is another scoring threat for the Pats while Kyrie Byers runs the show at point. Meanwhile, the Tigers counter with a smaller, but very athletic lineup led by seniors Chris Mathis and Malik Cisson. Mathis scored 21 points including three treys against Carteret on Friday night while Cisson chipped in with 8. Football standout, Roemello Monroe, who scored 10 points vs. Carteret, is a rugged guard, who can handle the ball, got to the basket, and hit the jumper. Brandon Bernard has put up consistent numbers down low for the Tigers while Jordan Hankerson has shown flashes of brilliance this year as well for SPHS.
#29 New Brunswick at #20 Metuchen–Despite coming up with wins against two of the top ten seeds in #8 Timothy Christian (63-47) and #10 Spotswood (44-43), the Metuchen Bulldogs were handed the 20th seed thanks to two head to head losses to Middlesex. Meanwhile, New Brunswick is still searching for its first win. The Zebras looked as though they might get that on on Monday night at home against Edison. In that game, New Brunswick hit six threes in the first half including five in the first period to take a 35-25 lead at the break. However, Edison roared back with a 44-18 surge in the second half for the 69-53 victory. Nadir Whitten and Trevon Blakey led the Zebras with 17 points in the loss. Both will be keys along with Samad Davila if NBHS is to pull off the upset. Metuchen has a solid nucleus that has played together for the past couple seasons. Evan Collier and Artie Flaherty Jr. lead the charge for the Bulldogs. Both can hit the three as well as take the ball to the basket. Tom Chalker has matured into the solid point guard that he showed flashes of being as a freshman. Hunter Clarke is a big man that can also shoot and pass the ball well out of the post.
#28 Wardlaw at #21 Piscataway Tech–Briefly, these two teams were foes in the GMC Gold before Piscataway Tech moved up to the Blue Division last year. The Rams pulled off a shocker against the Raiders late in the regular season a year or two ago as well. Both teams have had their share of struggles this year with Wardlaw only at 4-18 while P-Way Tech is at 5-11. However, the Raiders have lost a ton of close games including a one point loss at Kennedy and two one point losses in the past week at home to Spotswood and Metuchen. Jordan Lackey leads the Raiders while Aziz Austin and Kyle Wider are solid at the guard spots. Wardlaw took a bit of a hit when junior Mike Newman went down with an ankle injury in Wednesday’s win over East Brunswick Tech, but still have John Pohopin, Ish Menns, Nick Palko, and Shareef Ibrahim to try and make the Rams competitive.
#30 Highland Park at #19 Middlesex–This will be the third time this season that the Blue Jays and Owls will be facing off against each other. The previous two times, Middlesex has won handily. The Blue Jays have played competitively against some of the top tier teams in the GMC Blue including Carteret (two losses by five points or less) and they have also beaten Metuchen twice including a 55-54 win at home several weeks ago. Highland Park is still searching for its first win. MHS is led by Jarret Bogus and Emilio Gonzalez DeOlio. Point guard, Stew Lester runs the show pretty well for the Jays while Kayshawn Wilson provides athletic ability and Sean Sarnoski has a knack of hitting threes. Freshman Vince Chiera provides some youthful exuberance as well. Will Jacob-Perez has been putting up big numbers recently in the low blocks for Highland Park, which have seniors Harry Landis, Travis Leseur, and Andy Powell as well.
#31 East Brunswick Tech at #18 Piscataway–The Chiefs will play a matinee on Saturday a little more than 12 hours after pulling off a shocker by rallying from behind to beat second ranked and second seeded East Brunswick at home on Friday night (45-40). It was the second upset of the week for the Chiefs, which upended South Brunswick on the road on Tuesday night (62-60). The Vikings soundly defeated P-Way at PHS earlier in the season (57-36). Piscataway also has a double digit win over 12th seeded Carteret in the MLK Jamboree at New Brunswick back in mid January to brag about as well. The Chiefs could be dangerous here with a matchup against 15th seeded Perth Amboy in the Preliminary round on Tuesday as a reward for a win today. Then, they could rematch EB on Thursday if they can get past Amboy, which is not out of the realm of possibility. Joe Hines led the Chiefs with 11 points in the win over EB on Friday night while Rachid Schimou chipped in with 10 and Elijah Murray-Tucker added 8. Piscataway has a lot of athletic ability, some size, and talent with the likes of Marinus Tavernier, Plainfield transfer Najee Lucky, and Immaculata transfer, Asiah Avent. East Brunswick Tech is led by prolific scorer, Mark Alston, who ranks among the tops in scoring in the GMC this year. In the two games he played that were covered by GMC Hoops, he averaged 28.5 points per game.
GMC Hoops plans to see a bit of McCarrick’s game against Dunellen on Saturday afternoon.