GMC Hoops Preview–#3 Plainfield vs. #2 St. Joseph’s–NJSIAA Tournament Of Champions–Semifinals–March 16, 2012

Bye Provides St. Joseph’s Rest And Motivation For Plainfield

PISCATAWAY, NJ–Two local area teams will be facing off in the semifinal round of the 2012 Tournament of Champions at the Rutgers Athletic Center on Friday night with a chance to make a trip to the IZOD Center in the Meadowlands on next Tuesday for the final.

For Plainfield, seeded third in the tournament, and ranked fourth in New Jersey, it is more routine since it is the second straight trip to the T of C Final Four while for St. Joseph’s, it is a whole new experience since the Falcons were making their first trip to the Tournament of Champions.   St. Joe’s won its first ever state title last Saturday.  Plainfield was in that position last year after winning its first state title since 1983.

With a record of 29-1 including twenty-eight straight victories, St. Joseph’s earned the second seed, and a first round bye in the T of C so this will be the first game the Falcons will have played in a week.  Meanwhile, Plainfield played on Wednesday night against Asbury Park.  Will the extra rest help or hurt St. Joe’s?  Will playing an extra game in the T of C make Plainfield sharper?  Will not getting the higher seed and the first round bye be used by Plainfield as motivation?  Lots of questions will be answered in this contest.

Plainfield was the three seed last year, and had to play in the quarterfinal round versus Asbury Park before taking on St. Augustine Prep of Richland in the semis, but it didn’t faze the Cardinals as they rolled past the Non-Public A State Champs last year.   However, knowing that the Cards reached the final of the T of C last year before losing to St. Anthony’s (61-49), they may feel that they deserved higher than a three seed much like Newark Science did in 2009 when they were seeded third behind Immaculata, and had to prove themselves by beating the Spartans in the semis.

As far as getting the extra rest, St. Joseph’s had a similar situation after winning the GMCT at the end of February.  The Falcons had a first round bye in the Non-Public A South state tournament before playing arch rival, CBA in the quarterfinal round the following Friday.  In that game, the Falcons still managed to dominate the Colts with a solid team effort despite some struggles.  Both teams played Teaneck this season.  St. Joe’s played Teaneck on the opening weekend in the Hoop Group Tip-Off Classic while Plainfield played the Highwaymen in the Group III state semifinals.

The Cardinals surprised a few people by the way they dismantled Teaneck, which was undefeated coming into the game.  St. Joe’s fell to Teaneck by four (53-49), but were still figuring things out at that time.  In addition, the Falcons had gotten off to a solid start, and played well during the first period, but Danny Brix picked up his second foul early in the second, and Teaneck took advantage.  In spite of that, St. Joe’s had the lead in the fourth quarter, but an emphatic dunk by Neville Fincher and a four point play by Joel Hernandez boosted the Highwaymen to the victory.

Both teams do not have a lot of depth and rely heavily on their starting five.  Each team has plenty of size, talent and athletic ability.  St. Joseph’s is a better perimeter shooting team than Asbury Park and Neptune so the Cardinals will have to guard the perimeter well while also avoid letting the Falcons into transition with the likes of Quenton DeCosey getting into the open court.  The presence of Karl Towns will provide St. Joseph’s the ability to go to the basket as well since the 6’10” freshman’s ability to shoot the three will force the likes of shot blockers Justin Sears and Dijon Allen-Jordan to come out a bit in the halfcourt, stretching the Cards defense, and give DeCosey a shot to go to the hoop.

St. Joe’s will be giving up some overall size though since Taylor Plummer and Jahmal Lane provide some additional length for the Cardinals.  Brix will be an important piece in this game for the Falcons.  His ability to handle the basketball, play solid defense, draw charges, and hit shots from the perimeter, makes him very important to the success of St. Joe’s in this game.  Either Karim Awad or Jimbo Long will have to matchup against Sekou Harris, and find a way of keeping the senior Plainfield guard from having an impact.  In the win over Neptune, Harris came up big in the fourth quarter en route to a 14 point performance.  Then against Asbury Park, he netted all three of his treys in the first half en route to 13 points while handing out 6 assists.  

Both coaches, Dave Turco of St. Joseph’s and Jeff Lubreski of Plainfield preach defense as their foundation of success, and strongly emphasize man-to-man defense.  Don’t expect either to deviate from that in this contest. This game will likely be the best of the two semifinal games with St. Anthony’s  playing against Group IV champion, Atlantic City in the other semifinal.  Expect a very good crowd for this game at Rutgers since both St. Joe’s and Plainfield are schools in the area.