LINDEN, NJ–On Wednesday afternoon, GMC Hoops headed over to the Linden P.A.L. on Maple Street to take in some action from the third night of games in the North Division of the 2009 Linden Team Camp. The main featured matchup of the day was between Piscataway and Asbury Park since the site had already made commitments to seeing action from the Raritan Bay Summer League, and the Showcase Games at the Rebounds Spring League. Nevertheless, it paused to watch one quarter of basketball between St. Joseph’s and Immaculata.
Notes From First Quarter Between St. Joseph’s and Immaculata
After some deliberation, the site decided to stay and watch the first quarter of action between the Falcons of St. Joseph’s and the Spartans of Immaculata. The Falcons were coming off a close two point victory over Rutgers Prep on Tuesday night while GMC Hoops was getting its first glance at Immaculata. The Spartans were coming off another fine season with a 27-4 overall record, a Somerset County Tournament Championship, and its second straight Non-Public A State Title, and Tournament of Champions semifinal appearance.
These two teams had played each other during the regular season at the 2009 Prime Time Shootout at Rutgers University. Nikko Vastola propelled the Falcons to a 59-49 victory over the Spartans on January 23rd. The first quarter of this scrimmage was a battle as the two team’s went back and forth against each other. However, St. Joe’s didn’t take the lead until the 40 second mark of the period, and a short time later, Immaculata took the lead back on a three point play with 18 seconds to go in the first.
There were nonetheless, four lead changes and two ties in the frame while neither team had a lead bigger than five points. Immaculata got its eleven points on three field goals, a three pointer, and 2 of 3 from the foul line. Meanwhile, St. Joseph’s tallied its ten points on four field goals, and 2 of 5 from the charity stripe. The breakdown of the Falcon scoring was like this: Nick Contino had a field goal, and a one of three effort at the line for 3 points, Slay Sudah added three of his own with a steal for a layup that gave the Falcons their only lead after the sophomore tied it up on a one of two showing from the line. Mike Simpson added a field goal on a nice one and one move to the basket, and Kevin Mayce netted a jumper from the right wing for his only points in the period.
The one thing that stood out from the only period of the game seen by the site was the fact that despite some recent losses to this past year’s St. Joe’s roster including Gagan Dhaliwal, the Falcons still look very loaded with a couple players from this year’s Freshmen Green team in attendance, and a 6’7″ big man, who stated he was only 14. In addition to Sudah and Mayce, the Falcons also had fellow sophomore Nick Straughn while soon to be senior Andrew Morgan also played for St. Joe’s.
Asbury Park Downs Piscataway, 61-50
Today was the first time, GMC Hoops had a chance to look at Piscataway, which once again, put its youngsters to the test. Without the likes of Wayne Newsome, Malcolm Griggs, and Scott Kinney, P-Way had to utilize the likes of some of its championship Freshmen team as well as sophomores like Bryan Wong, and juniors such as Julius Nadarajah. Meanwhile, Asbury Park was coming off its huge second half against Bridgewater-Raritan for the victory Tuesday night. The Bishops appeared to have a different team on the floor than the one that they had playing against the Panthers in the day two nightcap. P-Way fought all the way until the end, but still came up short. Asbury Park scored the last five points of the first quarter, and then outscored the Chiefs by a 20-9 margin in the second to take a 35-20 lead at halftime. Piscataway would outscore the Bishops in the second half by a 31-26 margin, but could only get as close as 52-41 after trailing by 18 in a 61-50 loss.
In the first quarter, Asbury Park connected on a three pointer, made three field goals, and sank 6 of 8 from the foul line while limiting Piscataway to just a three pointer, three field goals, and one of two from the line. The first quarter saw the most competitive basketball of the game although Piscataway fought hard in the fourth to make things interesting. There were three lead changes and two ties in the period while Asbury Park’s 15-10 quarter ending lead would be the biggest of the period. The Bishops started things off with a jumper from the right baseline for a 2-0 lead at the 9:32 mark. Piscataway then responded with an offensive rebound, and turnaround jumper on the follow for a 2-2 tie at the 8:54 mark. Asbury Park then netted two free throws for a 4-2 lead at the 7:26 mark, and then followed that up with a steal off an errant P-Way pass for a layup from the left side that made the score 6-2 with 6:53 left in the first.
One of P-Way’s talented freshmen that closed the gap to one with a trey from the top of the key for a 6-5 score at the 6:25 mark. On Asbury’s next possession, the Bishops again drew a foul, and made one of two from the foul line for a 7-5 lead. Piscataway then responded with one of two of their own from the line to make the score 7-6 with 4:46 to go in the opening frame. The Monmouth County school, which comes from the Class B Central Division of the two county Shore Conference, connected on a three pointer of its own to go ahead by four at 10-6. The Chiefs would rally though with four unanswered points including a jumper from the right wing at the 2:45 mark, and then a layup at the 2:10 mark. However, that would be the last time the game was tied for the rest of the contest as Asbury Park outscored P-Way by a 24-9 margin over a span of 12:10.
First, it began slowly like it did against Bridgewater with five points over the final 2:10 of the first including two free throws at the 1:31 mark, one of two from the line at the one minute mark, and then a steal for a fast break layup with a half minute left to go up by five at 15-10 heading into the second. During the early part of the second quarter, GMC Hoops had a chance to talk with former Linden assistant coach, Marty Luc, who is running the team camp, about the last second changes to the camp. According to Luc, it was basically over a misunderstanding of when the camp was going to be run. The people that he was working with at Linden thought it was for the week of June 15th, but he had put it in for June 8th. As a result, the camp didn’t have a gym to utilize as of late last week. Well, Luc went to work, and was able to get two facilities for this week, and get enough teams to agree to play this week so things worked out in the end.
Returning to the game, Asbury Park opened the second quarter with a steal for a dunk attempt that was missed, but the Bishops got the offensive rebound, and scored on the follow for a 17-10 advantage with 9:37 left in the first half. The Bishops then scored five of the next seven points for a 12-2 run, and a 22-12 lead before Piscataway called for a timeout at the 8:09 mark. Following the stoppage, Asbury Park went right back to work with four more points to go up by fourteen, 26-12 with 6:24 to go in the first half. The Bishops added four more points on top of that over the next 3:58 for a 20-2 run including fifteen unanswered points before Wong ended the carnage with a three pointer for a 30-15 score at the 2:26 mark. Asbury Park then added another field goal, and one of two from the line while P-Way missed two foul shots for a 33-15 score at the 1:17 mark. The Chiefs then outscored the Bishops with a 4-4 effort at the line for a 4-2 edge to close out the half with Asbury Park leading at the intermission, 35-19.
In the third quarter, the defenses took over somewhat as both teams combined for their lowest point total of the game (18 points). Piscataway clamped down on their end by only holding Asbury Park to eight points. Meanwhile, the Chiefs started the period with an 8-5 run to close the gap to 40-27 at the 5:33 mark, and then twenty seconds later, added an offensive rebound, and a one handed follow for a 40-29 Asbury Park lead. The Bishops then closed out the frame with the final three points for a 43-29 lead entering the fourth. In the final period, Asbury Park started things off with the first four points to match its largest lead of the contest at 18 points. First, the Bishops made one of two from the foul line at the 9:35 mark, and then got a conventional three point play at the 8:31 mark for the 47-29 advantage. P-Way then answered with a 5-0 run before Asbury netted a three pointer from the left corner to make the score, 50-34 at the 6:28 mark.
Nadarajah then got his only points of the game with two free throws at the 5:05 mark to not only close the gap to 50-36 with 5:05 left, but start a 7-2 run that included more highlights from our freshman standout including a three pointer from the right wing at the 3:26 mark that made the score, 50-39, and then a nice spin move off the break for a layup that pulled P-Way to within 52-41. However, the Chiefs couldn’t get any closer in a 61-50 loss. Piscataway will be back in action on Thursday with games at 5:00 PM and 7:00 PM over at the Linden P.A.L. to close out the camp. GMC Hoops will be there for its second game against Bridgewater.
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asbury Park | 15 | 20 | 8 | 18 | 61 |
| Piscataway | 10 | 9 | 10 | 21 | 50 |
GMC Hoops will be back out on Thursday night for the third day of action from this camp. The site will cover games involving East Brunswick, Piscataway, and St. Joseph’s from the Linden P.A.L.