South River’s newest 1,000 point scorer, Lazaro Rodriguez dribbles toward the hoop for two of his six fourth quarter points during a 73-68 Rams’ victory over arch rival Spotswood in a battle of two GMC Hoops Top Ten teams from the GMC Blue on Monday night.
Five Rams Score in Double Figures to Defeat Rival Chargers
SPOTSWOOD, NJ -It was a game that lived up to the hype. Monday night’s contest between 8th ranked South River and 10th ranked Spotswood was the 2022-23 GMC Blue Division’s version of Ali-Frazier III, the Thrilla in Manila. Both teams came out throwing haymakers and giving it all they can. Each team weathered a storm of adversity only to respond stronger than before in the contest.
In the end though, the No. 8 Rams were able to outlast the No. 10 Chargers, 73-68 as five different South River players scored in double figures. Senior forward, Roman Santos led the way with a share of the game high of 21 points on six total field goals and 9 of 11 from the foul line. Sophomore point guard, Alex Grospe chipped in with 17 points on five total field goals and 7 of 10 from the charity stripe.
Lazaro Rodriguez and Isaac Linares each added 11 points as Rodriguez, who scored his 1,000th point of his career in the season opening victory over Metuchen (72-50), made 3 of his 5 total field goals in the fourth quarter and made one of two from the line before fouling out late in the game. Linares made quite an impression with his athletic play as he made four total field goals along with 3 of 5 from the line.
Senior guard, Jeremy Grospe rounded out the double digit scorers for the Rams with 10 points on three treys along with a free throw. Kobe Taylor didn’t have much of an impact on the scorebook with only 3 points, but his hustle and defense produced to of the biggest plays in the fourth quarter.
Leading the way in a losing cause for Spotswood was junior guard Kiye Walker, who followed up his team high 18 points in the 80-47 victory over South Amboy in the Friends of South Amboy Charity Basketball Games on Saturday with a share of game high with 21 in this epic contest. Walker was one of four Charger players in double figures as classmate Daniel Yarus added 16 on 6 total field goals including two threes and a dunk along with 2 of 2 from the line.
Rion Ahmetaj chipped in with 12 points on four total field goals including a three and 3 of 4 from the foul line while senior Casey Cumiskey contributed with 11 points on four total field goals including two threes and a free throw. Aiden Scher (6 points) and Dominic Perez (2 points) rounded out the Spotswood scoring with Perez’s only points giving the Chargers a 44-43 lead late in the third.
After Yarus’ dunk capped the third period scoring to give Spotswood a 46-43 advantage, South River began the fourth on a 6-0 spurt to retake the lead, and proceeded to outscore its fierce neighborhood rival by a margin of 30-22 in the final stanza for the win. The Rams outscored the Chargers by a margin of 40-34 from within the arc while Spotswood had a 21-9 advantage from long distance.
However, the biggest disparity would turn out to be at the foul line where South River got there often and took advantage by making 24 of 37 from the charity stripe. Spotswood was only 12 of 16 by comparison. Spotswood had 20 team fouls while South River had just 16. The Chargers dominated the glass with a 36-24 rebounding edge and 5 blocks to the Rams two.
The Rams were a bit more unselfish and came up with key defensive plays as they held a 12-11 edge in assists and an 8-6 edge in steals. Each team had six different players score in the contest. Spotswood scored in double digits in each period while South River only did that in three of the frames. However, the Rams outscored the Chargers by a combined margin of 51-37 in the first and fourth periods.
Like Ali in the Thrilla in Manila, the Rams won the early rounds, then gave way to the Chargers in the middle of the fight before rallying in the end. South River jumped out to a 6-0 lead and then after Spotswood responded twice to take the lead or tie, the Rams ended the frame on an 8-0 run for a 21-13 first quarter lead. The Chargers then outscored the Rams in both the second and third by a combined margin of 31-22.
The atmosphere at the Spotswood Athletic Center was electric as the SAC Psychos returned to form while South River brought plenty of its fans and had a boisterous student section as well. The Rams scored the first six points of the game in a span of 2:08 as Rodriguez and Santos capped the run with buckets, which forced the Chargers to call timeout.
Following the timeout, Spotswood roared back with eight straight points in just 1:51 including threes by Walker and Cumiskey for an 8-6 lead at the 4:01 mark of the first. South River responded with 13 of the last 22 points of the frame for a 21-15 lead at the end of the first quarter. Both teams scored eight points over the first 3:52 of the second as Yarus scored on a follow to keep Spotswood within six at 29-23.
The Chargers, which got eight second quarter points from Yarus including a half ending three, finished the opening half on a 10-5 spurt to close the gap to one at 34-33 heading into the intermission. Although the Rams got a three from Jeremy Grospe for a 41-40 lead with 3:14 left in the third, they would fall behind heading into the fourth as the Chargers scored 6 of the last 8 of the frame including Perez’s only bucket and a two handed jam by Yarus that blew the roof off of the SAC for a 46-43 Spotswood lead.
Spotswood’s lead would not last long as South River commenced fourth quarter play with the first six points including a score by Santos that was a result of the hustle by Taylor, who saved the ball from going out of bounds. The Rams then scored 9 of the next 17 points including a couple scores by Rodriguez to take a 58-54 lead with 2:37 remaining.
Taylor came up big again by swiping a steal that was converted into South River free throws as the Rams scored 15 of the next 26 points for a 73-65 lead with about 12 seconds to play. Rion Ahmetaj then closed out the scoring by knocking down a three from the left corner in the closing seconds for the 73-68 final score and South River win. The Rams survived a memorable contest in a very hostile environment.
With the victory, South River improved to 2-0 to start the season both overall and in GMC Blue play. The Rams will return to action with another Blue Division game on Wednesday when they host Timothy Christian, which moved up from the Gold this season. Meanwhile, Spotswood dropped to 2-1 overall and 1-1 in the GMC Blue, and will travel to play Metuchen on Wednesday at 6:00 PM.