GMC Hoops Backstory—2005 GMCT Boys Final

Photo credit: John Szpara

Recalling the 2005 GMCT Boys Championship—2nd Best Final Ever—15 Years Later

SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ—With all the chaos that has unfolded over the past couple months, another anniversary of a memorable game in Greater Middlesex Conference history passed. A significant one as well. Fifteen years ago on February 25th, the most memorable GMCT Boys Final of the GMC Hoops era until the double overtime classic in 2013 between St. Joseph’s and East Brunswick took place at the Rutgers Athletic Center.

The game featured two teams that didn’t appear likely to be in the 2005 GMCT Boys Final. Although St. Joseph’s was ranked the pre-season number one by GMC Hoops, and South Plainfield was ranked atop the Home News-Tribune, both teams, which had two NCAA D1 commits, dealt with their share of adversity en route to their finals appearance. St. Joe’s had the likes of big man Andrew Bynum, who had decided originally to commit to UConn, and Sean Baptiste, who was still a junior, but a year away from committing to FDU, but with Bynum experiencing a pre-season knee injury, and the Falcons taking on a monster non-conference schedule in addition to the usual GMC Red grind, it had to overcome a 1-7 start.

Meanwhile, South Plainfield, which had the likes of 2004 GMC Hoops Player of the Year, Marquis Jones, who was slated to attend Rhode Island, and Darren Smith, who committed to Penn, played well throughout much of the season until the last couple weeks of the regular season, where the Tigers slipped in two key divisional games on the road at Colonia (65-59) on February 2nd, and at Woodbridge (84-80) in a double overtime thriller broadcasted on WCTC. Then, SPHS had to survive a controversial game against New Brunswick in the GMCT Elite Eight (60-59) to get a third match-up against Colonia in the semifinals.

Speaking of the semifinals, St. Joseph’s had to overcome top seeded South Brunswick with big man Dan Stonkus, who ended up going D1 with NJIT, and coached by Dave Turco. South Plainfield and Colonia, led by Nick Smith (Stonehill) and Zach Rosen (Penn), had become fierce rivals in the first five years of GMC Hoops. During that time, the Patriots and Tigers played each other 16 times with Colonia winning 9 games and South Plainfield winning 7. However, after Colonia had won 8 straight games to the middle of the 2002-03 season including four wins over the Tigers during the 2001-02 season, South Plainfield won 7 of 8 including a 56-44 victory in the semis at Middlesex County College on February 22nd.

When Bynum injured his knee against Linden in a pre-season scrimmage, it originally appeared that Bynum was out for the rest of the season. All the hard work that Bynum had done to increase his stock on the AAU scene during the off-season appeared to be lost. The Falcons opened the season with a stunning 60-55 loss to a Perth Amboy team that wasn’t even ranked in the GMC Hoops Pre-Season Top 10 after a brawl during the previous academic year led to key returning players either being expelled or ineligible to play in the 2004-05 season. Later that opening weekend, Joes lost again to St. Patrick’s (now Patrick School), 67-52 at the 2004 Hoop Group Tip-Off Classic at Seton Hall University.

South Plainfield also participated in the traditional opening weekend showcase by taking on perennial powerhouse and defending TOC champion, St. Anthony’s, and surprisingly grabbed a 41-38 lead with about five minutes to play in the fourth quarter before the Friars finished the game on a 15-1 tear for a 53-42 victory. While St. Joseph’s would lose three more games including a 71-62 defeat to Piscataway in the Falcons home opener on December 21st, and then both games it played in the Glaxo Smith Kline Holiday Tournament in Raleigh, North Carolina to Christ School (57-41) and Abington Friends of Pennsylvania (75-61), South Plainfield would reel off 11 of its next 13 games with the only two losses coming out of conference to Teaneck (62-57) on January 9th, and Paterson Catholic (69-53) at the Firefighters Hoops Challenge in Paterson on January 17th.

St. Joe’s began the New Year with a lopsided win over Edison on January 4th (66-27), but then lost another two in a row at South Brunswick (65-53) on January 6th, and then to St. Benedict’s (74-45) at home on January 8th. The Falcons would lose only one more game all the way to the final. St. Joseph’s began to turn things around with a couple wins at J.P. Stevens (57-50) on January 11th and versus East Brunswick (65-54) on January 13th. Then, more good news came when the Falcons and Andrew Bynum got another medical opinion on the injured knee, and was cleared the to play. Joes really got rolling after that, and as a person covering all of this, you could feel the Falcons Basketball Express was coming down the track. Not only did they win, but they dominated.

With Bynum back in the lineup, Joes rolled past Amboy in the second meeting between the two teams at the newly christened Maglio Gymnasium, 82-59 on January 19th. The Falcons then followed that up with a 69-51 victory at Piscataway about a week later on January 25th. St. Joseph’s ended up winning 15 of 16 games after the 1-7 start with the only defeat coming at the hands of, yep you guessed it, defending TOC champion, St. Anthony’s (58-41) on January 28th in Metuchen. The Falcons, led by a stat stuffer deluxe performance from Baptiste, even registered a huge GMC non-conference win over an 18-1 Rochester East squad at the 2005 Primetime Shootout played at then Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton (now Cure Arena) on February 13th (78-68).

Despite slipping down the stretch with losses to Colonia and Woodbridge, South Plainfield, which was getting tremendous play from Smith including a 35 point performance in the road loss to the Barrons, still managed to earn the 3rd seed behind South Brunswick and Colonia. St. Joseph’s had rolled into the tourney as the 4th seed. The Falcons rolled into the quarterfinals with an 86-34 victory over 29th seeded East Brunswick Tech (86-34) in the preliminary round and then crushed 13th seeded Perth Amboy again with a 97-64 win in the GMCT Round of 16. After getting a preliminary round bye, South Plainfield downed 14th seeded J.P. Stevens (75-59) in the Round of 16. Both teams had to withstand strong challenges in the 2005 GMCT Quarterfinals.

St. Joseph’s jumped out to a huge first half lead against 5th seeded and GMC Blue Division champ, Cardinal McCarrick, but Bynum got into foul trouble, and actually fouled out of the game after McCarrick’s Stephen Liberty drew a charge on the big fella. The Eagles then made a tremendous rally reminiscent of Linden’s rally versus Joes in the 2013 TOC Semifinals after Karl Anthony Towns fouled out with about 6 minutes to go in the fourth quarter at Monmouth University. Fortunately for the Falcons, they were able to hang on for an 80-73 win. South Plainfield faced off against New Brunswick for the third time that season, and the Zebras, which GMC Hoops had picked to finish last in the GMC White with a young, but talented athletic squad that included the likes of D1 football standout, Jonathan Casillas, a future D1 football standout in Brandon Smith, Brandon Landfair, and Davar Watson.

The Zebras were also coached by Tony DiGiovanni, who had led Piscataway to the 2004 GMCT Elite Eight, and a match-up against then undefeated South Plainfield at South Brunswick High School, and pushed the Tigers to the limit, but a technical foul assessed for a scorebook error, and two missed free throws by the Chiefs that would have put the game away late in regulation, left the door open just enough for Ian Robinson to draw a foul, and make one of two with 10 seconds to go in the fourth. Then, in the extra session, Gary Houston knocked down a huge three from the right wing to lift the Tigers to an eventual 59-56 victory. This Elite Eight Game would be very similar in terms of how it ended, except the very end of regulation, which resulted in the game not going to overtime.

South Plainfield would trail New Brunswick late with the Zebras drawing a foul with just under two minutes to play, and having an opportunity to put the game away with two free throws. But, like in the Piscataway game the year before, the Tigers benefited from their opponents misfortune at the charity stripe, and eventually tied the game late in the fourth. The Zebras had a chance to win in the closing seconds, but missed the shot, which was rebounded by Darren Smith, who drew contact. Rather than letting things go, and letting the teams move on to overtime, the officials called a foul on NBHS, and Smith had a chance to put the Tigers on top with a second to play. Smith made one of two from the line to lift South Plainfield to a 60-59 victory as New Brunswick fans threw objects at the officials as they ran off the floor.

In the semifinals at Middlesex County College on February 22nd, South Plainfield took on Colonia first at 5:30 PM. Led by an amazing performance from senior Matt Baszika, who is the nephew of the late Bill Mosca, JV coach as SPHS when yours truly played at the school, the Tigers came to play against a Colonia team that along with South Plainfield, where GMC White co-champions, and was anchored by Nick Smith, who surpassed Justin Chiera as the all-time leading scorer for the Patriots, and had earned Home News-Tribune Player of the Year honors by scoring over 500 points his senior year including a monster 35 point performance in an 82-59 at Cardinal McCarrick in South Amboy two days before Christmas 2004. Baszika came out like a house of fire in the game, and knocked down shots from all angles including a first half dunk that let loose all the emotion in the young man.

The Tigers rode that emotion and the momentum to a 12 point, 56-44 victory to defeat its division arch rival. Meanwhile, St. Joseph’s and GMC Red champ, South Brunswick duked it out for the third time that season in the semifinals as well. Like South Plainfield and Colonia, the Falcons and Vikings had split their previous two meetings. South Brunswick, which was playing in its 2nd GMCT Final Four in four years after losing to Colonia in the 2002 semifinals. The Vikes were the top seed in both 2002 and 2005. However, Joes wouldn’t be denied. Bolstered by an enthusiastic Falcon Flock student section, Bynum, Baptiste, and the Falcons were able to outlast a South Brunswick squad that not only consisted of Stonkus, but also the likes of Nick Fazio, Tommy Hill, and sophomores Devon Young, Martin Soaries, and Malcolm Soaries by the score of 46-44.

All this set the stage for the Championship Game, which appeared to be in Jeopardy thanks to a minor snowstorm that brought a small accumulation of snow, and forced school closings and delayed openings on that Friday, February 25th. Regardless of what was going on in terms of the school schedule, GMC officials were determined to hold the game that evening. Even then GMCT Chairman, Frank Noppenberger responded to questions about the status of the game with a quote in the Star-Ledger, “We’ll get a shovel.” In other words, nothing was going to stop this game from being played. The previous September, I had started a job in tape operations in Somerset, and was working nights.

One of the things that I had done with GMC Hoops that season in response to my night schedule at work, and my part-time college load was to cover both a Freshmen Game of the Week, and a JV Game of the Week during the latter portion of the week so that I could provide coverage of some sort of game since I couldn’t cover any varsity games. However, for the 2005 GMCT Boys Final, I had arranged to come in later to work that Friday night. I got a bit of a run in during the late afternoon. Then, I got my GMCT Final Preview in, and then headed over to the RAC. I also brought my Sony Handicam DV camera, which I had purchased in October 2003 to shoot some video of the action.

The atmosphere was electric. Once again, the St. Joseph’s Falcon Flock student section came out in full force by packing in the smaller end of the gym over by the refreshment stands. During the course of the winter, St. Joseph’s had lost a member of its faculty, which also was an emotional experience for the entire student body of the school. The game and the team’s late season run had given the students a much needed release. Meanwhile, the South Plainfield student section, which stormed the court after the Tigers win over Colonia in the semifinals, came out in full force as well. The chanting and roar of the crowd at the start of the game reverberated around the RAC. Kenny Widgeon, who would also eventually play D1 college hoops with Baptiste at FDU, got the first points of the game on a layup down low from the right side.

The game went back and forth with Shamai Santiago netting a jumper, and Jones connecting on a baseline jumper before the half to give South Plainfield the halftime lead. Both teams continued to go tooth and nail at each other with the Tigers, led by 2005 GMC Hoops. Player of the Year, Darren Smith, who had a game high 31 points on a GMCT Finals record 6 three pointers, holding a one point, 64-63 lead with about 14 seconds left. Bynum, who later went on to be drafted out of high school by the Los Angeles Lakers, and played in three NBA finals with two titles, went in for an emphatic dunk, but missed much like Mike Doctor did for St. Peter’s towards the end of regulation against Metuchen in the 1988 GMCT Boys Final my senior year (Metuchen won 55-53 in OT). Fortunately for Bynum, Baptiste was there to clean up with the offensive rebound, drew the foul, and made two free throws for a 65-64 lead with 10 seconds to play. Following a timeout by SPHS head coach, Jeff Lubreski, the Tigers inbounded the ball to Jones, who dribbled up court and pulled-up for a jumper from the right elbow over Kevin Joyce for a 66-65 lead with seconds remaining.

St. Joe’s was unable to score and the Tigers were able to hang on for a thrilling 66-65 victory, and back to back GMCT Boys Championships. South Plainfield would go on to get a first round bye before losing to New Brunswick in their fourth meeting of the season in the 2005 NJSIAA North Jersey Section 2 Group 3 Quarterfinals at SPHS to finish the season at 19-6 while St. Joseph’s fell in the opening round of the 2005 NJSIAA Non-Public A South tourney to a solid Monsignor Donovan team led by Randall Stallworth, who teamed up with Colonia’s Nick Smith and Monroe’s A.J. Rudowitz at Stonehill College in Massachusetts. Ironically, South Plainfield assistant coach, Mike Allocco, also known as Big Mike, also played college ball at Stonehill before being drafted by the Washington Bullets. The Falcons finished the season at 16-10.