Greaves and West Lead Falcons Past Bears
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| St. Joseph’s Malachi Walker puts up a shot in the second half against East Brunswick on Tuesday night. Walker finished with 5 points as the top ranked Falcons remained undefeated with a 54-42 victory. |
EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ–On opening night, then sixth ranked East Brunswick took on fifth ranked St. Joseph’s in a match-up of two teams appearing in transition. The Falcons would rally in the fourth quarter to defeat EB, 49-43, and that win sparked what would become a gradually rise through the GMC Hoops Top Ten.
Fast forward to Tuesday night’s contest between the same two teams. The top ranked Falcons entered into the evening at 11-0 including recent wins over Westfield, South Brunswick (56-53), and Old Bridge (65-40). Meanwhile, East Brunswick, which fell out of the GMC Hoops Top Ten for the first time this season, has been snakebit with 5 of its 6 losses by a total of just 20 points.
Once again though, the Falcons were able to overtake EB after falling behind. This time, St. Joseph’s rallied from a 22-17 first quarter deficit with a 22-7 surge over a 10 minute span from the final two minutes of the first half until the end of the third quarter to take a 39-29 lead.
From there, the Falcons led by as many as 13 midway through the fourth quarter, and eventually went on to win, 54-42. Freshman Richard Greaves led the way for St. Joe’s with 19 points including 10 of 13 from the foul line while Letrell West chipped in with 15 points and Tyree Taganeca-Ford added 11. Dante Ralph led EB in a losing cause with 19.
After the JV teams from both programs went at it with St. Joseph’s Junior Falcons winning 68-60, the varsity squads went at it with East Brunswick jumping out to an early 6-3 lead on two buckets by Dante Ralph and a score from Joe Sampson (4 points). St. Joe’s responded though with 9 of the last 13 points of the first including a Malachi Walker (5 points) score off a lob pass from Zach Martini for a 12-10 edge heading into the second.
East Brunswick would take control for much of the second period with a 12-5 showing over the first six minutes including a three by Brandon Rosenthal (3 points) for a 22-17 lead. Then, freshmen Greaves and Taganeca-Ford got scores for the Falcons to end the first half and close the gap to 22-21 at the intermission. Greaves connected on a jumper from the left elbow while Taganeca-Ford scored a layup in transition just before the half.
St. Joseph’s took the lead for good at the start of the third by scoring 7 of the first 9 points including a three from Letrell West at the 5:23 mark. East Brunswick would close within two at 31-29 after a 5-3 run that included a Mitchell Pingoy (5 points) trey off a Jesse Perel (5 points) kickout at the 2:23 mark, but the Bears wouldn’t get any closer. Instead, St. Joe’s ended the third on an 8-0 run for a 39-29 lead heading into the fourth.
The Bears tried to get back into the contest by scoring 4 of the first 6 points including a Dante Ralph putback off a missed free throw at the 4:30 mark to close the gap to 41-33. Following a St. Joseph’s timeout with three minutes to go, the Falcons scored 7 of the next 9 points including one of two free throws by West and and two technical foul shots by Mike Granda (4 points) for a 48-35 lead.
Ralph, who was the only EB player to score in double figures did his best to give the Bears some fight with a score underneath after battling a double team at the 2:14 mark, and a layup from the right side with 1:32 to play to close the gap to 48-37, but it wasn’t enough as Joes scored 6 of the last 11 points of the contest for the 54-42 victory.
With the win, St. Joseph’s improved to 12-0 on the season including an 8-0 mark in the GMC Red. Meanwhile, East Brunswick dropped to 4-7 overall including a 3-5 mark in divisional play. Both teams returned to action on Thursday with the Falcons hosting Piscataway in the GMC Hoops Game of the Week radio broadcast, and East Brunswick hosting J.P. Stevens in another GMC Red Clash.
GAME NOTES: With the win over East Brunswick on Tuesday night, St. Joseph’s defeated EB for the 10th straight time dating back to the 2012-13 season. The last time East Brunswick defeated the Falcons was in the second regular season match-up in January 2013 to clinch the GMC Red title. Two of those victories were in the GMCT Championship in 2013 and 2014.