Bears and Knights Face Each Other Again in a Must Win Game
| East Brunswick’s Mike Vick puts up a jump shot in the third quarter against Old Bridge in the last meeting between the Bears and Knights on January 12th. Vick led the Bears with 15 points in a 67-64 win over the Knights that night, and will need a similar effort on Thursday night. |
EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ–With a little more than a week to go until the seeding meeting for the 2016 GMCT takes place, teams are jockeying for position in the standings, and also trying to pick up important wins to enhance their resumes. Sixth ranked Old Bridge and seventh ranked East Brunswick are two of those teams. EB is currently third in the GMC Red while OB is fourth. Both teams played earlier in the season on January 12th in Old Bridge with EB escaping with a 67-64 victory.
Old Bridge is in need of a signature win, especially against a team currently ahead of it in the GMC Red standings. The Knights have come close several times this season with two near misses against top ranked St. Joseph’s and the three point loss to EB a little less than a month ago. OBHS has two nice crossover wins over fifth ranked Sayreville (59-50) on January 16th and over 8th ranked J.P. Stevens (72-62) last Saturday. East Brunswick, which was GMC Hoops pre-season number two, has struggled in 2016.
Since starting the season at 4-0 with wins over North Brunswick on opening night and Perth Amboy, and then a sweep of the two West Windsor-Plainsboro schools in the Brunswick-Windsor Classic over the holidays, the Bears have gone 5-6 including heartbreaking losses to Woodbridge (49-47), South Brunswick (57-56), and Sayreville (62-59). Currently, EB sits at 6-3 and in third place in the GMC Red while Old Bridge is 4-5 and in fourth. However, an OB win tonight, plus an EB loss to South Brunswick next week gives the Knights a chance to at least tie the Bears for third in the Red going into the seeding.
If a tie for third between OB and EB occurs, Old Bridge could have a good argument to get the higher seed since they defeated Sayreville and EB didn’t. In addition, the Knights are 2-0 against GMC White teams in crossovers while EB is 0-2. OBHS defeated a Stevens team that split with Woodbridge this season, and the Barrons edged EB. Also, the Knights have been much more competitive against top ranked St. Joseph’s losing both games to the Falcons by only an average margin of six points while EB has lost twice to Joes by an average of 19.5 points per game. On top of all that, Old Bridge has played better in the new year by winning 8 of its 12 contests since January 1st.
So, in order to clinch third and lock up a higher seed at the seeding meeting next week, EB must either win tonight or next week at Churchill Middle School against South Brunswick, which has won three straight against the Bears dating back to last season. The last time that these two teams played on January 12th, they combined for an instant classic. Old Bridge rallied from a 22-6 second quarter deficit with a 28-11 surge over the next 12:07 to take a 34-33 lead with 2:38 left in the third period. The Knights, which were limited to only one three in the first half, netted 9 in the second including six in the third alone. Junior Will Osvald provided much of the barrage from the perimeter with four threes in the third while Stephen Strom added two. Connor Romano, who has performed brilliantly under the GMC Hoops spotlight this season, finished with a game high 24 points in defeat.
The key to EB’s success in the win at Old Bridge several weeks back has been a key ingredient to many of its nine wins this season, and that is scoring balance and key contributions from bench players. In the win over the Knights, the Bears had five different players score in double figures including Mike Vick, who led the way with 15 points. However, EB’s bench outscored OB by a 16-0 margin including 11 from sophomore Joe Sampson. The Bears had eight different players get into the scorebook. Starter Mike Brizuela came up with 10 points and Justin Sewnarine came up with a huge three late in the fourth. So, while the Bears big three of Vick, Addis Ralph,and Matt Ross still combined to score 36 of the team’s 67 points in the win, the Bears had more balance. In the losses to St. Joseph’s on January 7th, Woodbridge on January 9th, and more recently against South Brunswick, EB didn’t have that kind of balance.
Old Bridge’s key ingredient even in defeat was hitting the three ball. Against EB, the Knights had a 30-15 edge in points scored from beyond the arc. In the loss to St. Joseph’s last week, OB enjoyed a similar advantage. When the Knights are clicking from the perimeter, they are tough to beat, and Romano is playing on an uber-high level right now. Last week in the loss to St. Joseph’s, the senior guard scored 34, or over half of the Knights points. In the last four games alone, Romano has averaged 26.5 points per game. Stephen Strom had a bit of a mid-season slump, but has averaged 16 ppg over his last two contests, and sank six threes during that span. Just about anyone on the floor for Old Bridge can be a threat from the perimeter, even forward Kyle Parris has knocked a triple down in the win over Matawan in the holiday tourney championship, and in the loss last week to Joes.
Expect a tournament like atmosphere at East Brunswick High School tonight. The Bear’s Den always comes out in droves at home, and Old Bridge has started to get solid turnouts at their games as well. The last time these two teams played at OBHS, it was the largest crowd I’ve ever seen for a Knights basketball game. It was just about a packed house on the one side of the gym, and it was the most intense atmosphere at an Old Bridge game ever in the almost 16 years GMC Hoops has been covering Middlesex County boys basketball.