Vikings Only Have to Look At Its Only Other Finals Run in 1993
UNION, NJ–On Thursday night, South Brunswick will be playing top seeded and top ranked St. Joseph’s for the third time this season, and will be looking to use this extra opportunity to do something that no other GMC team has been able to do this year, and that is hang with the Falcons. In their previous two meetings against St. Joe’s, the Vikings have lost by double digits.
Most if not all of Middlesex County that will be in attendance at Kean University’s Harwood Arena on Thursday night, believes the Vikings are a heavy underdog at best, but the Vikes only have to look to the only other title run and finals appearance that South Brunswick had to serve as a source of inspiration and motivation. The 1992-93 Vikings, led by the twin tower tandem of Julian Tate and Andres Oliviera, were pre-season ranked second that season, and stayed at number two for much of the season.
Then, about a week or so before the GMCT got underway, South Brunswick took on St. Joseph’s in the annual Primetime Shootout at the old St. Joseph’s Gym in Metuchen, and lost. The Vikes suffered another setback before the tourney, and ended up being seeded fourth, which put them on the same side of the bracket as top ranked and top seeded Perth Amboy, which were rolling through the GMC Red, and appeared destined to win the school’s first county/conference title since 1981. Those Panthers were led by 1,000 point scorers, Rah-Shun Roberts and Jose Urena, and also had the likes of Adam Rivera down low, and the athletic Ronald Snipes, who was known for his highlight reel dunks.
The 1993 GMCT was the last year of the 16 team field. The following year, the open tourney format was instituted, and has been pretty much the same ever since with the one modification in the form of the GMCT Play-In round in 2007. South Plainfield, a team that played South Brunswick twice during the regular season as part of the GMC White schedule that season (Yes…South Brunswick was in the White then!), was the 16th seed, and took on Perth Amboy in the opening round at Middlesex County College. Back then, the 8 vs. 9 game and the 1 vs. 16 game were held at MCC. Opening round games were played at neutral sites then.
The game between South Plainfield and Perth Amboy was an intriguing one since the two teams had contrasting styles. The Tigers were a team that took time off the clock, ran their sets, and were more methodical while the Panthers were up and down, and were the St. Joseph’s of their time. South Plainfield played South Brunswick at the old SBHS in Monmouth Junction on opening night, and the Tigers didn’t have much of a chance on paper. However, after three quarters, SPHS had a major upset in the making with a 36-25 lead. In the fourth though, the Tigers tried to stall, and the Vikes became aggressive defensively, and the game dramatically turned with a 20-4 SBHS surge in the final frame to avoid the upset with a 45-40 victory.
The Tigers and Vikings clashed again in mid-January at the start of the second half of the schedule in South Plainfield, and again the Tigers battled the Vikings for four quarters before losing 42-35. So, in two games against the second ranked team in the GMC, South Plainfield, which ended up being the last team to get into the field of 16 in the 1993 GMCT, lost by an average of six points. However, when the Tigers played Amboy at MCC in the opening round, the contest wasn’t even close. The Panthers, which had a raucous crowd that drove over from Amboy, and a coaching staff that had anticipated the loud crowd by making signs to signal what defenses and offenses to play, jumped out to a 17-1 lead as Rivera was unstoppable down low.
South Plainfield never recovered after that as it trailed 32-14 at the half, and ended up losing 76-32. Adding all of this together, you would think that the 1993 South Brunswick Vikings would stand much of a chance when it clashed with Perth Amboy in the second semifinal at the Rutgers Athletic Center. However, they found a way, and managed to hang with the Panthers throughout, and once they had their opening, the Vikes seized it, and pulled off one of the most memorable upsets in the history of the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament. The Vikings were unable to carry the momentum to a championship though as they lost to third seeded St. Joseph’s for the second time in a span of two weeks in overtime, 57-54. It was the Falcons first ever MCT/GMCT title.
Perth Amboy would eventually win the Central Jersey Group 4 Championship over Bridgewater-Raritan at Hunterdon Central, but then lost to Shawnee in the State Semifinal at Brick Memorial. South Brunswick would never appear again in the GMCT Boys Championship until this year. There were the GMCT runs in 2002, 2005, and 2007, but they all ended in disappointing semifinal losses. St. Joseph’s would win 7 more titles since 1993 including five straight under the guidance of Dave Turco, who actually coached the 2005 SBHS squad that lost in the semis to Andrew Bynum and Sean Baptiste led St. Joseph’s.
If these South Brunswick Vikings aim to shock the world on Thursday night at Kean, they may want to seek out those 1993 Vikings for some advice and inspiration.