Former Tigers Hoops Standout Now Playing Professionally in Spain and Member of Ghana National Team
SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ—The South Plainfield High School boys basketball team has had a number of great players over the years, and they were usually associated with great teams. Players like Wally Cirafesi, Joe Thompson, Eddie Bolton, Mike Thompson, Dominique Pender, Marquis Jones, Darren Smith, and Mike Burton are a few of those names.
Cirafesi was the all-time leading scorer at SPHS from 1965 to 1986, and led the school to sectional championships in 1964 and 1965 as well as its only state title in boys basketball in 1964. Thompson helped rebuild an SPHS program that had struggled through a good portion of the 1970s and early 1980s. Bolton teamed up with Craig Kearney to bring the Tigers back to back sectional championships in 1990 and 1991.
Jones and Smith brought the Tigers three straight GMC White titles, and the school’s first ever county/conference titles in 2004 followed by another such title in 2005. Denzel Mensah played at South Plainfield during a time when Tiger basketball was not winning any championships. As a matter of fact, South Plainfield went through years of struggle. Mensah was a freshman in 2007-08, a year after South Plainfield’s last appearance in the GMCT Final Four (2007).
Mensah, who was the MVP of the 2010-11 South Plainfield Tigers, which was only 7-15 overall on the season, and defeated Old Bridge (73-69) in the 2011 GMCT Play-In Round before losing to J.F. Kennedy (55-35) in the preliminary round, went on to play USCAA Division 2 basketball for Penn State-Wilkes Barre, where he not only became a 1,000 point scorer, but also the school’s all time leading scorer with 1,168 points. Despite being ranked as one of the top 50 players in high school his senior year, Mensah didn’t score 1,000 points at SPHS.
During his senior year at South Plainfield, Mensah, who teamed up with the likes of Claude Payne (Georgian Court University) and Bryant Rosario, led the team in scoring with 332 points on 131 field goals and 70 free throws along with a team high 168 rebounds, 28 assists, 25 steals, and 6 blocked shots in 21 games to average 15.8 points and 8.0 rebounds per contest. One of his top performances was a game high 25 points including 17 in the second half on December 21, 2010, versus a Cardinal McCarrick team that defeated defending TOC winner, Trenton Catholic, and won the 2011 Non-Public B South championship.
At Penn State-Wilkes Barre, Mensah helped the Lions turnaround from a 7-17 finish including a 5-11 mark in the PSUAC in 2012-13 to a 15-11 mark including a 12-5 conference mark in 2013-14 and a 14-12 overall mark in 2014-15. As a freshman, Mensah played in 27 games including two starts, and played 18.4 minutes per game while averaging 8.0 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 1.3 assists per game. His sophomore year, he played in 23 games including 4 starts, and averaged 24.3 minutes, 11.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 2.7 assists per game.
Making bigger strides as a junior, Mensah played in 26 games for the Lions including 10 starts, and averaged 24.6 minutes, 11.8 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per game. The biggest improvement was in his three point shooting though. During his senior year at South Plainfield, Mensah didn’t make a single three point field goal. As a sophomore at PSU-Wilkes Barre, he only shot 15.4 percent from beyond the arc, but his junior year, his percentage went up to 32 percent as he made 8 of 25 attempts versus only 2 of 13 as a sophomore.
Mensah made significant steps his senior year. His points per game increased by 4.5 points per game to 16.3 per contest along with 6.5 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game. He played 26 games including 14 starts, and averaged a career high 27.5 minutes per game. Mensah made 163 of 314 shot attempts including 7 of 25 from three for nearly 52 percent. Over his four years at PSU-Wilkes Barre, Mensah played in 102 games including 30 starts, and averaged 11.7 points per game.
He also became the first player in PSU-Wilkes Barre school history to collect 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, and 200 assists in his career. His senior year at PSU-Wilkes Barre in 2014-15, he was selected All American, All Conference, and team MVP. Mensah moved on to play professionally for the Jersey Express of the ABA, which has been home to other former GMC players such as Devon Young (South Brunswick/Felician) and currently Sky Harris (J.P. Stevens/Cardinal McCarrick/Brookdale CC/Drew).
The South Plainfield native didn’t stop there though. He persisted in the ABA, where he was a Rookie of the Year finalist in 2016, won back to back Northeast Division championships. He also began to play in the Jersey Shore Basketball League during the summer, where he continued to build a reputation for himself as a solid player and a tough competitor. The past two seasons, Mensah has been a member of the Orthopedic Institute team, which reached the finals in 2018 and 2019 and defeated Larson Ford for the 2018 JSBL Championship.
After the 2019 JSBL season ended with Orthopedic Institute losing to Larson Ford in the title game, Mensah got the opportunity to play overseas in Spain with Valencia B in the EBA. In addition, Mensah was selected to play for his native Ghana’s national team. Both endeavors were put on hold though due the the coronavirus outbreak. Mensah also visited Ghana to run a basketball clinic at the Presbyterian Boys Senior High School according to basketballghana.com.