Thu, 21 Jan 2010 07:56:18 +0000

Well tonight’s Twitter experiment went OK, so far as I can tell, and now I can focus on updating you at more than 140 words per-game:

Cardinal McCarrick led by seven at halftime, but watched last-place South Plainfield rally ahead by as many as eight in the fourth quarter, only to finally swing back in front in the closing seconds, 53-52. Sophomore Dana Raysor delivered the knockout blow with a layup with 10 seconds to go, and the Tigers (3-8, 1-6 GMC White) couldn’t respond. The Eagles (10-3, 5-3) are now alone in second place in the division, and can worry about trying to reel in Monroe, who hosted Colonia.

St. Joseph gave St. Anthony a good scare in Metuchen, but faded in the closing minutes of a 54-41 loss. The competitiveness bodes well down the road for the Falcons (10-3), though I’m sure they’d have liked to stick a little closer. Senior guards Andrew Morgan and Steve Rennard had big games, but the support was lacking.

Carteret had an upset well in hand before nearly letting it slip away, finally putting away North Brunswick in overtime, 71-65. This is the Ramblers (5-5, 3-4) biggest win since upsetting McCarrick, and while it doesn’t put them back in the division hunt, it muddles the middle by pulling the Raiders (7-6, 4-4) back to the pack. D.J. Hamlet led all scorers with 24, but it was Nasheed Hamlet’s 3 in OT that put Carteret up for good. He followed with a transition bucket off Manny Singh’s steal to get the Ramblers rolling in the extra session. Sophomore Dion Rogers’ 20 led North Brunswick.

Keep reading for more GMC Red and White action:

GMC RED
Piscataway avenged its opening night loss in Perth Amboy by jumping all over the Panthers, 58-43. The Panthers (3-9, 2-6) were led by Kearny Canela’s 13 points. Two days after a huge effort in an OT loss to New Brunswick, senior Wayne Newsom led the way again to power the Chiefs (6-6, 5-3), who are one of three Red teams with three losses, two games back of second-place East Brunswick in the loss column.
Speaking of the Bears, they hammered Edison, 71-35, behind a big effort from no one in particular. Eleven players scored, none more than 12, as East Brunswick (10-2, 7-1) put a little pressure on St. Joe’s, which leads the division at 7-0. The Eagles (3-9, 2-6) have shown promise, but this clearly wasn’t their night.
Nor was it J.P. Stevens, which started well but was on the wrong side of an 18-4 second quarter in a 49-34 loss to South Brunswick. I not only wrote a gamer that you can read below, but I gave live Tweeting a try, which you can find here.

GMC WHITE
Sayreville finally cooled off New Brunswick, knocking off the Zebras, 66-52.  Senior guard Jarrell Smith’s 20 points led all scorers as the Bombers (7-4, 4-3) slipped ahead of New Brunswick into fourth place in the division. Sophomore Milton Pittman had a second straight big effort for the Zebras (8-6, 4-4), but another quiet night from Jaquan Cook made things tough for the one-time hottest team in the county, which has now lost two of three.
Monroe topped Colonia, 58-48, to really take control of the division. Both teams had balanced scoring, but the Falcons (10-2, 7-1) simply scored a little more. They had Timmy Brix (16), Danny Brix and Kenny Pace (both 15) all within a point of each other, which topped the Patriots (2-8, 2-5), who had C.J. Gray and Matt Wagner each at nine and Greg Jones and Justin Williams both at eight. It’s tough to believe Colonia’s record, but it is what it is, and they’ll need to start winning or risk getting left out of the North 2 Group III field.

GMC BLUE
South River, coming off an ugly-albeit-high-scoring loss to Spotswood, did their best Charger impression in an 83-65 win over Wardlaw-Hartridge. OK, so it wasn’t 96 points, but that’s still nearly 20 points more than the 65 points-per-game South River (7-7) was averaging. And, much like South River yesterday, Wardlaw obviously isn’t happy with a double-digit loss or the defensive effort, but still has to like the 65 they put up. That’s offense the likes of which we haven’t seen much

Well tonight’s Twitter experiment went OK, so far as I can tell, and now I can focus on updating you at more than 140 words per-game:

Cardinal McCarrick led by seven at halftime, but watched last-place South Plainfield rally ahead by as many as eight in the fourth quarter, only to finally swing back in front in the closing seconds, 53-52. Sophomore Dana Raysor delivered the knockout blow with a layup with 10 seconds to go, and the Tigers (3-8, 1-6 GMC White) couldn’t respond. The Eagles (10-3, 5-3) are now alone in second place in the division, and can worry about trying to reel in Monroe, who hosted Colonia.

St. Joseph gave St. Anthony a good scare in Metuchen, but faded in the closing minutes of a 54-41 loss. The competitiveness bodes well down the road for the Falcons (10-3), though I’m sure they’d have liked to stick a little closer. Senior guards Andrew Morgan and Steve Rennard had big games, but the support was lacking.

Carteret had an upset well in hand before nearly letting it slip away, finally putting away North Brunswick in overtime, 71-65. This is the Ramblers (5-5, 3-4) biggest win since upsetting McCarrick, and while it doesn’t put them back in the division hunt, it muddles the middle by pulling the Raiders (7-6, 4-4) back to the pack. D.J. Hamlet led all scorers with 24, but it was Nasheed Hamlet’s 3 in OT that put Carteret up for good. He followed with a transition bucket off Manny Singh’s steal to get the Ramblers rolling in the extra session. Sophomore Dion Rogers’ 20 led North Brunswick.

Keep reading for more GMC Red and White action:

GMC RED
Piscataway avenged its opening night loss in Perth Amboy by jumping all over the Panthers, 58-43. The Panthers (3-9, 2-6) were led by Kearny Canela’s 13 points. Two days after a huge effort in an OT loss to New Brunswick, senior Wayne Newsom led the way again to power the Chiefs (6-6, 5-3), who are one of three Red teams with three losses, two games back of second-place East Brunswick in the loss column.
Speaking of the Bears, they hammered Edison, 71-35, behind a big effort from no one in particular. Eleven players scored, none more than 12, as East Brunswick (10-2, 7-1) put a little pressure on St. Joe’s, which leads the division at 7-0. The Eagles (3-9, 2-6) have shown promise, but this clearly wasn’t their night.
Nor was it J.P. Stevens, which started well but was on the wrong side of an 18-4 second quarter in a 49-34 loss to South Brunswick. I not only wrote a gamer that you can read below, but I gave live Tweeting a try, which you can find here.

GMC WHITE
Sayreville finally cooled off New Brunswick, knocking off the Zebras, 66-52.  Senior guard Jarrell Smith’s 20 points led all scorers as the Bombers (7-4, 4-3) slipped ahead of New Brunswick into fourth place in the division. Sophomore Milton Pittman had a second straight big effort for the Zebras (8-6, 4-4), but another quiet night from Jaquan Cook made things tough for the one-time hottest team in the county, which has now lost two of three.
Monroe topped Colonia, 58-48, to really take control of the division. Both teams had balanced scoring, but the Falcons (10-2, 7-1) simply scored a little more. They had Timmy Brix (16), Danny Brix and Kenny Pace (both 15) all within a point of each other, which topped the Patriots (2-8, 2-5), who had C.J. Gray and Matt Wagner each at nine and Greg Jones and Justin Williams both at eight. It’s tough to believe Colonia’s record, but it is what it is, and they’ll need to start winning or risk getting left out of the North 2 Group III field.

GMC BLUE
South River, coming off an ugly-albeit-high-scoring loss to Spotswood, did their best Charger impression in an 83-65 win over Wardlaw-Hartridge. OK, so it wasn’t 96 points, but that’s still nearly 20 points more than the 65 points-per-game South River (7-7) was averaging. And, much like South River yesterday, Wardlaw obviously isn’t happy with a double-digit loss or the defensive effort, but still has to like the 65 they put up. That’s offense the likes of which we haven’t seen much