Eight More Games On Tap In Boys GMCT On Thursday
SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ–On Thursday night, play resumes in the 2014 Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament with Round of 16 action at the higher seeded teams. A couple of games could have historic implications if either 24th seeded South Amboy or 18th seeded Piscataway win. A win by the Guvs or Chiefs would mean the lowest seed in GMCT history will have reached Super Sunday at Middlesex County College.
There are six other games though on tap including games involving the top eight seeds as they join the action with their first appearances in this years tourney. Four of them are rematches between division foes while the other four are intriguing contests involving Blue Division teams trying to all reach Middlesex County College on Sunday. GMC Hoops plans to be at Timothy Christian to see if the 8th seeded Tigers can punch a ticket to MCC for the first time ever, or if 24th seeded South Amboy will reached the GMCT Elite Eight for the first time since 2008, and be the lowest seeded team ever to reach the quarterfinals.
Here is a breakdown of tonight’s games:
#17 Old Bridge at #1 St. Joseph’s–After avenging a recent loss to 16th seeded J.P. Stevens in the preliminary round on Tuesday night (49-37), the Knights of OBHS are given the very difficult task of taking on top seeded St. Joe’s at the Bird Cage in Metuchen. The Knights can rely on their most recent and most competitive performance against the Falcons in several years to give them hope in this match-up. In that game, which was played on Friday night, and won by Joes (76-67), Old Bridge connected on 12 three pointers, and got 25 points including four threes from senior and all time leading scorer, Tyler Drews. OB will need that type of performance again from Drews as well as hot shooting from sophomore Stephen Strom, junior Sean Olsen, Bayonne transfer Luis Cruz, and Kasaun Figueroa to have a chance. St. Joseph’s has not played since Sunday when they lost to national powerhouse, Montverde Academy in the Metro Classic at Kean University. In that game, four players scored in double figures including Karl Towns (22 points) and Breein Tyree (17 points).
#24 South Amboy at #8 Timothy Christian–For the third time this season, the Governors of South Amboy and the Tigers of Timothy Christian will be meeting. The previous two times, TCS won by four including a 49-45 decision at home on January 13th, and a 50-46 victory in South Amboy on January 24th. Since that time though, South Amboy has been a much different team with only one loss, a defeat at South River. The Guvs have lost four of their games by four points or less including a one point, last second loss at Dunellen on opening night, and a four point defeat at the hands of McCarrick some 24 hours later on opening weekend. Timothy Christian lost four of their games within the first couple weeks of the season, but then went undefeated for the entire month of January, and didn’t lose again until falling at Dunellen on the final day of the regular season. The Tigers also lost to Bridgewater-Raritan (63-52) on Monday before rebounding to knock off J.F. Kennedy on the road on Tuesday (52-39). South Amboy is led by 1,100 point scorer, Steve Herdman and 950 point scorer Joe Fruncillo. However, junior Tim Kales has been playing very well as of late, and Dan Murphy has stepped up his production this season. The Guvs pulled the biggest shocker by far in the tournament with a 45-41 win at 9th seeded Monroe on Tuesday night. TCS, meanwhile, is a true team in every sense of the word. The Tigers all play within themselves, and embrace the team concept. Seniors Brandon Summers and Zach Coyle have each put up solid numbers as of late.
#12 Carteret at #5 Colonia–Unlike our previous match-up, the teams in this contest have had a storied history in the GMCT. Carteret has actually won two GMCTs in 1986 and 2002 while Colonia has won the GMCT twice as well in 2001 and 2006. Carteret is looking to return to Middlesex County College this year after falling to Woodbridge in the quarterfinals last season. Colonia is looking to make its first trip to MCC since 2009 when it lost to Monroe in the GMCT Elite Eight. Colonia has reached the GMCT Elite Eight 15 times including 11 straight appearances from 1999 through 2009. Carteret has reached the quarterfinals 9 times including five straight years from 1998 to 2002. The Patriots have enjoyed their best season since joining the GMC Red. Colonia got off to a good start, and has gone 5-0 in crossover games this season. The Pats tailed off a bit towards the end with losses to South Brunswick and Old Bridge, but they gave EB a battle at Colonia before the Bears pulled away in the fourth for a 58-46 victory on Feburary 7th. The Ramblers looked as if they were going to win the Blue going away, but stumbled down the stretch with losses to Bishop Ahr, JFK, and Spotswood. Juniors Jaquan Robertson and Brandon Gilder lead Carteret while Branden Benjamin and Anthony Spinelli have made quality contributions this season. Meanwhile, Colonia is led by Chase Barneys. Brandon Haines, Dez Jackson, and J.J. Corbett also have performed well.
#13 Bishop Ahr at #4 North Brunswick–These two teams played with roles reversed back in the 2010 GMCT Round of 16, and North Brunswick came into Bishop Ahr and won before losing to Sayreville in the GMCT Quarterfinals. The following year, NBTHS lost a first round game to JFK at home. In 2012, Bishop Ahr was upset at home again in the Round of 16 when 10th seeded New Brunswick upended the then 7th seeded Trojans. To make a long story short, both of these schools have had a recent history of getting upset in this particular round of the GMCT. The Raiders have put together a good season despite the losses from graduation the previous two years. The overtime loss to Sayreville the first time they met the Bombers on January 14th was a tough blow for the Raiders. North Brunswick has played well as of late with only twice since losing at J.P. Stevens on January 16th. Meanwhile, BGA has picked things up a notch since having a difficult shooting night against JFK in a game broadcasted on WCTC several weeks ago. After losing that game to Kennedy, Ahr has won five in a row to improve to 13-6. Eric Slade, Kishan Patel, and Pranay Bhandare lead NBTHS while forward Joe Castellanos has put up good numbers inside for the Raiders and Francis Omowole has provided a spark since moving up from the JV. Bishop Ahr is led by senior Owen McLeod and junior Tom Weiler, but have also been boosted by the play of junior Harry Gelpke. Corey Webster, Kevin Krolick, Pat Astarita, and Anthony Abano have also been good contributors for the BGA.
#18 Piscataway at #2 East Brunswick–These two teams will be playing for the third time in just the past 12 days thanks to the crazy winter we’ve had. In the first meeting on February 8th, East Brunswick won easily at EBHS by the score of 75-48. Then, after the seeds for this year’s GMCT came out, Piscataway stunned the Bears with a come from behind, 45-40 victory at PWay last Friday night. Since the loss to EB just under two weeks ago, the Chiefs have won more games than they had all season to that point with four straight victories including a 65-56 victory over Perth Amboy in the preliminary round on Tuesday night. In that game, Plainfield transfer, Najee Lucky scored 17 points while Joe Hines chipped in with 15 including three key putbacks that helped P-Way eventually take the lead for good down the stretch. Elijah Murray-Tucker, Rachid Shimou, Marinus Tavernier, Asiah Avent, D’Ondre Dent, and Donzell Cunnigham lead a team that has begun to play its best basketball at the right time. Meanwhile, East Brunswick is looking to return to Middlesex County College for the fifth straight year, and ultimately get back to the RAC, where they lost to four time defending champion, St. Joseph’s in a classic double-overtime, GMCT a year ago. Princeton bound Amir Bell leads the way, but the key may be senior guard, Garry Baumer, who put on a show with 33 points including 10 three pointers for the Bears in an overtime loss to St. Anthony’s on Monday evening. EB also has a tremendous supporting cast led by Carl Taylor, Matt Ross, Addis Ralph, Alex Fitzgerald, Owen Summerer, and John McHenry.
#10 Spotswood at #7 South Brunswick–This is an interesting matchup pitting one of the smaller GMC schools against one of the larger ones as Blue Division contender, Spotswood travels down to South Brunswick to take on the Vikings from the Red Division. The Chargers tumbled out of the gate with a loss to South Plainfield on opening night (50-45), and then fell to Somerville in overtime in the Championship Game of the 2014 Bound Brook Crusader Classic over the holidays to end 2013 at 2-2, but since then, the Chargers have been a much different team with 14 wins in their last 16 games. The only two defeats Spotswood has suffered in 2014 is a one point loss at home to Blue Division rival, Metuchen, and a five point loss on the road to fourth seeded North Brunswick. The Chargers also blew out 6th seeded JFK in early January. Meanwhile, South Brunswick has had an up and down year. The Vikings have split with Colonia, Perth Amboy, and Piscataway while sweeping Old Bridge, and then being swept themselves by EB and Joes. SBHS does have a solid group of guards led by Jack Engel, Corey Lumpkin, and Sayreville transfer, Jason Saldiveri. However, the Vikes will have their hands full with 1,400 point scorer, Jake Dadika, and friends including Marlon Hart, Kevin Fox, and Eric Dadika, who can all hit the three while freshman big man, Matt Ciaccio has put up double-double numbers inside. SBHS must also brace itself for the SAC Psycho Squad, Spotswood’s student section, which does travel well.
#11 Woodbridge at #6 J.F. Kennedy–These two teams met earlier in the year at Woodbridge with the Barrons coming away with the win. At that time, the Mustangs were going through some difficulty putting the ball in the basket, but since Jayson Graham, a transfer from Bergen Catholic became available, Kennedy has been a much better team. Meanwhile, WHS has had some ups and downs, but has managed to string some wins together recently. Both teams did suffer setbacks in tune-up games in the past week. First, Woodbridge lost on the road at Perth Amboy (52-49) on February 15th while Kennedy slipped at home to Gold Division champ, Timothy Christian (52-39). Kennedy has gone 12-3 in the GMC Blue, but is only 1-3 outside its division. Woodbridge, finished fourth in the GMC White, but still managed to go 3-3 outside the division including wins over Carteret, Kennedy, and South Plainfield in the preliminary round. In addition to Graham, the Mustangs have solid scorers in Stepp Ozigebe and Joe Duffy while Kyle Alvarez mans the point and Andrew Allen plays tough defense and can knock down some threes. Pete Fiore provides some length on the perimeter while Mike Weinstein can run the floor very well. JFK also has a very solid sophomore class led by Nick Keane, Kush Patel, and Graham. Woodbridge, which is looking to make its second straight GMCT Elite Eight appearance, counters with a talented junior class led by Zahneer Shuler and Zaire Robinson while freshman Quassim Glover has come into his own, and can get to the line and make those foul shots. Mike Cordero and Vince Porcelli do the grunt work on the interior while Josh Oloweekere provides a scoring punch from the bench. Kennedy is looking to make its second GMCT appearance in the last four years.
#14 Edison at #3 Sayreville–For the third time this season, Edison, which finished fifth in the GMC White, will take on division champ, Sayreville, a team that has won 17 straight games since losing to Ridge in the Len Sepanak Tournament over the holidays. The last time these two teams met though, the Eagles gave the Bombers a bit of a scare. Trailing 50-36 entering the fourth and final period, EHS scored 17 of the first 21 points of the frame over the first 6:39 to pull within a point at 54-53, but Sayreville was able to hang on thanks to free throws from Brian Gay and Corey Taite in the last 24 seconds. Taite also scored his 1,000th point in this contest. Sayreville had similar difficulties in the fourth against North Brunswick at home exactly a week later, but then turned on the gas in the last three minutes of regulation for the 72-55 victory, and their first ever GMC division title in boys basketball. The Eagles have had their moments this year with wins over Perth Amboy and Woodbridge, and then losses to Bishop Ahr and Kennedy as well as close calls against South River (69-66 victory) and 19th seeded Middlesex (53-48) in the preliminary round on Tuesday night. New Brunswick also gave EHS some trouble for two and a half quarters before the Eagles surged to a 69-53 victory. Edison does have some talent with the likes of Trayvon Washington and Raekwon Ross. Both love to rip the ball right away from you, and go in for the easy layup. Devon Johnson battles on the inside, and also shoots well from the line. Hakim White and Dennis Amuzu also provide some solid guard play. Sayreville has a solid starting five led by Gay and Taite as well as Rob Seraji, big man Jehvye Floyd, who is shooting much better at the line, and football standouts Malik Pressley and Myles Hartsfield. Sayreville is looking to return to MCC for the first time since reaching the semifinals in 2010 while Edison hasn’t been to the GMCT quarters since 1995.