Clash of Turcos: St. Joseph’s Looks to Get Past Notre Dame for 4th Finals Berth in Last Five Years
METUCHEN, NJ–On Monday night, the Non-Public A South Semifinal game between top seeded and top ranked St. Joseph’s and fourth seeded Notre Dame was postponed due to a death of a Notre Dame soccer player on Sunday night. The game was rescheduled for Tuesday night at 7:00 PM at Maglio Gymnasium at St. Joseph’s. The contest will be the latest in the Clash of the Turcos saga, where Notre Dame, coached by Bob Turco, will take on St. Joseph’s, coached by younger brother Dave Turco. This will be the third time that the Turco brothers, who coached together at Carteret and South Brunswick, have faced off against each other in a tournament game.
The first time was in the 2010 GMCT Boys Championship at Woodbridge High School when Bob Turco was the head coach of second seeded Monroe. Top seeded St. Joseph’s, led by Steve Rennard (Penn) and Quenton DeCosey (Temple) rolled past MTHS in a battle of Falcons, 65-45 for its first GMCT title since 1999. It started a historic run of five straight conference tournament championships and 6 in the last 7 years for Joes. Later that summer, Bob Turco took the head coaching position at Notre Dame. The Irish have played St. Joseph’s once during Bob Turco’s reign in Lawrenceville.
The only meeting between Notre Dame and St. Joseph’s during Bob Turco’s tenure was back in 2014 when Joes hosted on the Irish in the Quarterfinal round of the Non-Public A South State Tournament. Led by the trio of Karl Anthony Towns, Wade Baldwin, and Marques Townes, the Falcons rolled to a 101-75 victory over the Irish en route to their fourth straight Non-Public A South sectional crown, Non-Public A State title, and only Tournament of Champions title. Notre Dame is making its third semifinal appearance in five years, but its first since 2013. Joes is returning to the semifinals after losing to Union Catholic in the Non-Public A South quarterfinals last year.
The winner of this contest will face St. Augustine Prep of Richland in the Championship Game of the 2016 Non-Public A South Tournament on Wednesday night at Jackson Liberty High School at 7:00 PM. The Hermits advanced to the finals by rolling past defending champion, CBA in the other semifinal that went on as scheduled on Monday afternoon. Led by Justyn Mutts, who compiled a double-double of 24 points and 11 rebounds, St. Auggie’s put together a total team effort in an 85-52 victory to make its second straight final appearance. It also avenged last year’s loss to the Colts in the Championship Game. The Hermits improved to 28-1. Whichever team wins tonight’s semifinal will have a tough task in defeating the Hermits, especially without a day of rest.
St. Joe’s has begun to develop quite a trio with sophomore big man, Alanzo Frink getting into the mix more. The result was the 2016 GMCT’s MVP award capped off by a 25 point performance in the 56-48 win over 2nd seeded South Brunswick in the Championship. Add that to the increased scoring of Bree Tyree and the steady play of Tyus Battle, and you have a much bigger three headed monster than you had at the beginning of the year. In addition, Branislav Vujadinovic, has adapted to his new role of playmaker and defender, and has been a very good stopper on defense as proven by his efforts against Old Bridge’s Stephen Strom (5 points) in the January 28th win, and versus South Brunswick’s Mike Ugarte (4 points) in the GMCT Championship. Vujadinovic only had three points in the win over St. John Vianney in the quarterfinals on Friday night, but he handed out four assists.
Coming into this contest, the Falcons have struggled against non-conference competition this year. In ten games this season, Joes is only .500 at 5-5 after its win over Vianney. However, the Falcons have faced a very tough non-conference schedule including the likes of Non-Public B South finalist, Gill St. Bernard’s, Lone Peak of Utah, Paul VI of Fairfax, Virginia, and Monteverde Academy of Florida. However, if St. Joseph’s expects to win its fourth sectional crown in five years, it will have to do it against solid non-conference competition. Notre Dame enters this game at 27-2 and has defeated the likes of St. Mary’s of Elizabeth, Bishop Eustace, Red Bank Catholic, Trenton (three times), Concord of Delaware, and Trenton Catholic. The Irish’s two losses came against Our Savior Lutheran of the Bronx in the Championship Game of the Joe Silver Holiday Tournament in Hillside and Mater Dei.
There is a bit of a GMC connection on this Notre Dame squad. Ryan Turco, the son of Bob Turco is on the squad, and the two still reside in Monroe. Then, there are the two talented freshmen in Isaiah Wong of South Brunswick, and Travis Cumber of East Brunswick. Wong is the younger brother of Brian Wong, a standout player at Piscataway, and a member of the 2011 Chiefs team that lost to St. Joseph’s in the GMCT Championship. He is also the younger brother of Terrance Wong, who graduated from South Brunswick last year. Isaiah Wong came to Notre Dame after a remarkable career at South Brunswick’s Crossroads Middle School, where he tallied over 500 points in two years there. Cumber is the younger brother of Ryan Cumber, who was a member of the 2014 East Brunswick JV squad that won the 2014 EB/GMC JV Tourney Championship.
Notre Dame will be playing short handed to some extent. According to NJ.com, one of its top players, Manny Dixon, who had missed the team’s first two playoff games, is out for the reason of the year due to disciplinary reasons. Dixon was the team’s second leading scorer as the Irish won the Mercer County Tournament in addition to the Colonial Valley Conference’s Colonial Division title. Dixon scored 389 points this season, and averaged 14.4 points per game. He led the team in field goals (111), rebounds (214), and steals (74). Others have picked up the slack in Dixon’s absence though. Troy Jones led the Irish in their win over Eustace on Saturday with 20 points while Sean Hoggs added 14 and Wong and Mike Walley chipped in with 12 and 10 respectively.
In the opening round victory over Red Bank Catholic, Wong led the way with 21 points along with 7 rebounds. Walley and Jones each added 19 and Hoggs chipped in with 11. Jones is second on the team in field goals made with 140 while Wong is third with 119. Walley leads Notre Dame with 63 three pointers while Ryan Turco is second with 28 and Sean Hoggs is third with 18. How the freshmen, Wong and Cumber perform against the likes of Tyree, Battle, Letrell West or Xavier Townes, and deal with the raucous environment of Maglio Gymasium, will be a key factor on the outcome of this game.
Prediction: St. Joseph’s wins, 70-65