West’s 2nd Half Performance for Joes One for the Ages
Now that I have gotten my feelings on my pre-season rankings off my chest, I would like to take some time to at least look back at the 2017 GMCT Championship. It didn’t look good early on for top seeded St. Joseph’s. Sayreville had a 23-9 and 26-12 lead late in the first half.
However, as I had cautioned on twitter, that St. Joseph’s rallied from 14 points down with six minutes to play to force overtime in the game it eventually lost to the Knights on February 7th at Maglio Gymnasium in double overtime (62-59).
And, just like they did with a 13-4 tear to end the game on the road against South Brunswick in their first meeting on January 12th after giving way to a monumental 28-8 surge by the Vikings for the first 12:18 of the second half to trail 49-44, or like they did when they trailed Neptune 27-18 early in the third quarter on January 28th at Maglio Gymnasium, the Falcons rallied from behind for the win.
Central to the Falcons comeback in the second half was Letrell West, who eventually became the 2017 GMCT MVP. West, who was a top tier GMC Gold Division player as a sophomore at Piscataway Tech two years ago, went to the bench with his second personal foul after former teammate, Xavier Townes drew a charge on him for Sayreville. Townes had played brilliantly at both ends of the floor in the first half with 7 straight points at one time. Townes was essentially the difference over the first two periods.
St. Joseph’s began to chip away at the double digit deficit with a 6-0 run to end the second period including a score by freshman forward Zach Martini to close the gap to 26-18 at the intermission. The 6-0 flurry to end the second was the opening chapter in what would become a 38-18 surge to finish the game for the 50-44 victory. Malachi Walker, who blocked 9 shots in the semifinals against Woodbridge, had two key scores in the third to close the deficit even further.
But, it was West that took over. West, who scored no points in the first half, scored all 19 of his points over the final two quarters to spearhead the comeback. I’ve seen many games in this county in my 46 and a half years of life. Not just the 1,500 or so that I’ve seen over the 17 years of doing this, but also games from when I was a volunteer coach with Jeff Lubreski at South Plainfield from 1992-1997, and also as a player at South Plainfield from 1984-1988. Letrell West’s effort over the final two quarters of the 2017 GMCT Final was the stuff of legend. West’s performance was magical.
His effort was reminiscent of Larry Spigner’s performance for 6th seeded Metuchen against top seeded St. Peter’s with 19 points in the second half and overtime to win the Bulldogs their last county/conference title during my senior year at South Plainfield in 1988. FYI: The team Metuchen beat in the semifinals was 7th seeded Carteret, a squad that included current St. Joe’s head coach, Dave Turco. West’s effort is also one that reminds me of the performance turned in by St. Joseph’s Jonathan Dixon over the last five minutes of the fourth quarter to rally the Falcons from a 14 point deficit to defeat New Brunswick on a Josh Batts layup at the buzzer (64-62) in the 2003 GMCT Semifinals at East Brunswick High School.
Letrell West, a player that was from what many around the county call the wretched Gold Division two years ago as a sophomore, to a defensive specialist, who scored only 56 points all last year in his first season at St. Joseph’s, to a performance of the ages not only against Piscataway in the quarterfinals with 41 points, but a magical effort in the second half of the 2017 GMCT Championship to become the King of Middlesex County. A story that truly exemplified what this wild season of Greater Middlesex Conference boys basketball was.