20th Seeded Barrons Advance to Play Old Bridge in Preliminary Round
WOODBRIDGE, NJ—After winning just 6 games the previous two seasons, Woodbridge basketball is on its way back under first year head coach, Jonathan Toczynski. On Saturday, the 20th seeded Barrons rolled to an 84-37 victory over 29th seeded East Brunswick Tech in the 2022 GMCT Play-In Round to double its win total from two seasons ago while advancing to face 13th seeded Old Bridge in the Preliminary Round on Tuesday.
After having its season delayed due to COVID, Woodbridge lost its first five contests of the season, and 9 of its initial 11 games. However, with Saturday’s win, the Barrons have won 6 of their last 9 and now have two more victories than they did over the previous two years combined. Sophomores Micah Eason (Game high 22 points) and Jayce Green (13 points) combined for 35 points.
Meanwhile, freshman Derek Anderson added 18 points including 7 in the first quarter when Woodbridge got off to an explosive start with a 29-8 lead. Sophomore Kendall Pala drained three first quarter treys for all 9 of his points. Nick Hilenski, who recently committed to Marywood University, chipped in with 7 points while Asad Lane (8 points), Nadino Charles (3 points), and Jake Serrano (2 points) rounded out the Barrons scoring.
Sophomore Estevan Atanacio and junior Scott Pede were bright spots in defeat for EB Tech. Atanacio led the Tigers with a team high 14 points while Pede, also a baseball standout, who led the team in scoring a year ago, and leads the team in points scored so far this season, also scored in double figures with 10. Eason opened the scoring with a bucket in transition before Pede responded with a layup to tie the game at 2-2.
Woodbridge then scored 12 straight points over a span of three minutes as Pala sank two of his threes including one from the right corner at the 4:07 mark to help the Barrons take a 14-2 lead. The Barrons then scored 4 of the next 6 points as Hilenski and Eason added scores while Atanacio got a bucket for East Brunswick Tech to make the score 18-4 in favor of Woodbridge.
The Barrons pressure defense gave EB Tech a ton of trouble as they forced a 10 second violation, and produced several steals that resulted in transition baskets. Woodbridge then finished the opening stanza with 11 of the last 15 points as Anderson highlighted the spurt with a three from the left wing, and two scores off the break while Eason added a score of his own to give the home team a 21 point advantage.
Outscoring EB Tech in each period, Woodbridge increased its lead to 49-16 at the intermission with a 20-8 second quarter showing. Then, the Barrons had a 19-10 edge in the third, and a 16-11 edge in the fourth to round out the victory. Woodbridge had 8 different players score in the contest while East Brunswick Tech had 6 different players get into the scorebook.
Woodbridge had a 36-26 edge in points scored inside the arc while holding a 39-0 advantage in points from long distance. East Brunswick Tech held an 11-9 edge from the foul line. With the victory, the Barrons improved to 8-12 overall and will face Old Bridge at 5:30 PM on Tuesday. East Brunswick Tech, which rallied to beat Carteret (47-42) on Thursday, dropped to 4-14 on the season.
DID YOU KNOW? Woodbridge first year head coach, Jonathan Toczynski played hoops at J.F. Kennedy in Iselin. Toczynski was a member of the 2005 Kennedy Freshmen boys basketball team that won that year’s Perth Amboy Freshmen Tournament as the 2nd seed. The Mustangs defeated 12th seeded South Brunswick in the Championship Game.
Toczynski also served on Kennedy’s boys basketball staff with head coaches Drew Hill and Sebastian DeVoogd before joining the coaching staff at Bergen Catholic. With the Crusaders, Toczynski was part of the team led by Zach Freemantle (Xavier) and Matt Zona (Notre Dame) when they won the Non-Public A State Championship, and reached the 2019 Tournament of Champions Final before losing to Scottie Lewis (Florida), Bryant Antoine (Villanova), and Ranney (67-63).
Meanwhile, East Brunswick Tech also has a first year head coach in Matt O’Brien. Prior to taking the helm of the Tigers this past off-season, O’Brien served as JV coach at Matawan for five seasons, and on the AAU circuit with DBA Elite. O’Brien took over for Jeff Staples, who stepped down after coaching the Tigers for 12 seasons.