Dunellen, New Brunswick, Piscataway, Sayreville, and St. Thomas Aquinas to Represent GMC in Hub City Showcase
NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ—On Tuesday afternoon, GMC Hoops learned from New Brunswick Boys Basketball head coach, Samir Sanu, that the 2020 MLK Roundball Classic is scheduled for January 20th at New Brunswick High School.
Four games are slated for that day just like it was in 2019 when the annual showcase in the Hub City was expanded to four games. Five GMC teams will participate in the event including Dunellen, which will be participating in the showcase for the first time.
The Destroyers recently competed in the Kayla Spooner Showcase at Plainfield High School, where they defeated Dickinson of Jersey City, 68-63 behind 21 points from junior Drew Johnson, and 18 from senior Tyje’ Kelton. Dunellen will be taking on Sayreville, which lost to Plainfield in last year’s roundball classic.
Sayreville, which recently lost at Monroe on Saturday afternoon, 87-59, comes into action on Tuesday night with a mark of 2-6 under first year head coach, Tom Passafaro. Senior Luca Ventricelli and junior, Danny Golaszewski are leading the team by averaging 11 and 8 points per game respectively.
The game between the Destroyers and Sayreville is scheduled to begin at 11:00 AM on Monday. The GMC crossover contest will be followed by a high powered non-conference game between Trenton and Plainfield, two historic powers in New Jersey public school boys basketball.
The Tornadoes, which lost to New Brunswick (59-42) in a game played in Trenton on December 23rd, is currently 2-4 on the season after not only playing the Zebras, but also taking on St. Augustine of Richland in South Jersey, Rutgers Prep, and Mastery Charter North of Pennsylvania in addition to its CVC schedule.
Meanwhile, Plainfield has already played two teams in the Greater Middlesex Conference this season in Carteret (won 66-63 in OT on December 21st) and Monroe (won 49-39) in the Championship Game of the Monroe Township Holiday Tourney on December 30th.
The Cardinals, currently (3-3) on the season, also lost a tough opening day Union County Conference tilt against Union Township in OT (73-72), and also lost back to back games this past weekend at Westfield (47-39) and St. Benedict’s (64-51).
Plainfield is coached by Mike Gordon, who was head coach at Piscataway Tech during the 2014-15 season, and former Bishop Ahr/St. Thomas Aquinas (2017-18 season) head coach, Ron James. The contest between the Cardinals and the Tornadoes is scheduled to start at 1:00 PM.
In the third game of the day at New Brunswick, St. Thomas Aquinas, the GMC Hoops Pre-Season No. 1, and currently ranked 2nd in the latest poll, will take on Executive Education Academy Charter School of Allentown, Pennsylvania at 3:00 PM. These two teams played each other last year in the 2nd game of the day, won by Aquinas, 53-38.
The Trojans just came off an 89-44 victory over Spotswood in Charger County on Monday night to improve to 7-2 on the season. St. Thomas Aquinas is led by Wake Forest commit, Quadry Adams, who is currently averaging 19.1 points per game, and sophomore Jaquan Harris, who is averaging 18.2 points per contest.
In the nightcap game, New Brunswick and Piscataway will go at it in a revival of a neighborhood rivalry. Over the past several years, New Brunswick has played another neighborhood rival in Franklin in this showcase while Piscataway has battled Trenton in each of the past two seasons.
New Brunswick, which was ranked 3rd in the pre-season by GMC Hoops, and is currently ranked 5th in the latest poll, is led by 1,200 point scorer, Ahyan Brown-Miller and big man, Tahjay Moore. Both are averaging in double figures with Brown-Miller scoring 16.8 ppg, and Moore chipping in with 14.2 ppg and 10.2 reg.
Meanwhile, Piscataway, which defeated the Zebras in the 2019 GMCT Semifinals before falling to St. Joseph’s in the Championship Game, lost 12 players from a year ago, and have a mostly young and inexperienced team led by the trio of Jonathan Livingston (17.2 ppg), Keshawn Peterson (11.5 ppg), and East Brunswick transfer Denzel Taylor (6.0 ppg).
The Zebras enter Tuesday night’s GMC Hoops Game of the Week against North Brunswick at 4-1 overall while Piscataway is 1-5 on the season. This game, the finale of the showcase, is scheduled to start at 5:00 PM. Admission for the event is $5. GMC Hoops plans to be on hand to cover all of the action from this showcase.