The summaries of all the games played in first, second, third, and fourth weeks of the Middlesex County College Summer League have not vanished, we have archived them. So, feel free to take a look if you have missed out on some of the action from earlier this year.

GMC Hoops Summaries--Thursday, July 22, 2004
Middlesex County College Summer League--Playoffs

St. Peter's Last Second Win Highlights Day Of Upsets At MCC

The second night of playoff action got underway at the 2004 Middlesex County College Summer League in Edison on Thursday night, and oh what a night it was. After play-in games on Wednesday night produced victories for Watchung Hills and Monroe, there were five upsets in the first round including a stunning last second win by a St. Peter's team that only one two games all summer in the regular season.

The Cardinals got a shot in with two seconds remaining to down Gold Division rival, Perth Amboy Vo-Tech, 40-39. Meanwhile, Dunellen had to go to double overtime before finally defeating Middlesex, 51-49, Union Catholic came up with its third win in a row, and second upset in a week by stunning A.L. Johnson of Clark, which only lost one time prior to that all summer. Other upsets included Roselle Park edging Somerset Vo-Tech, and South Amboy getting its first win of the summer over East Brunswick Vo-Tech in losers bracket competition.

Other games saw South River cruise by Spotswood, 47-24, Edison roll past Highland Park, 38-18, St. Joseph's downed a game Watchung Hills, 45-33, and Bishop Ahr smothered Monroe, 32-19. In their win over Spotswood, the Rams of South River were never really threatened as they lead 22-14 at halftime only to go on a 25-10 surge in the second half including an 18-7 surge over the final 13:27 for the 47-24 victory.

Meanwhile, at the same time, Edison jumped out to an early 18-9 lead with 1:08 remaining in the first half of their game against Highland Park. The Eagles then closed the first half with a 4-2 run as they hit on two of three free throws while the Owls went 0 of 3 from the charity stripe. In the second half, Edison continued to roll with a 16-7 showing as Highland Park, which defeated Edison during the regular season this past year, continued to have problems with foul shots including one of four by Alieu Bangura as the Eagles jumped to a 28-12 lead with 13:30 to go.

Edison put the game away for good with a 5-0 run capped by a three pointer at the 12:05 mark to make the score 33-12. Although Highland Park would end the game with a 6-5 run to shape the final, 38-18 margin, the final result was never in doubt. Finally, in the featured game of the evening, St. Peter's jumped out to a 16-15 lead with 3:06 to go as we gave the Cardinals our first really good look of the summer. St. Peter's closed the half with a 3-2 over the final 3:06 to make it 19-17 at the half.

However, at the start of the second half, Perth Amboy, which went 6-2 in the National Division during the regular season, quickly established themselves with a 12-6 run for a 29-25 lead with nine minutes to go. The Cardinals wouldn't go away as Kyle Hartland netted two three pointers within a thirty-two second span to give the Cardinals 31-29 lead with 8:13 to go. Amboy Tech rallied though over the next 8:15 with an 8-5 run that gave them a 37-36 lead although the Patriots called an ill-advised timeout.

Coming out of the timeout, St. Peter's was able to regroup and take advantage of the error by the Patriots, and forced Amboy Tech to commit a turnover with 41 seconds left to play. St. Peter's then got a basket off a layup on the low block on the right side of the key to make it 38-37 with 20 seconds to go. Quickly getting fouled off the ensuing inbounds, Perth Amboy Vo-Tech got two free throws to go in for a 39-38 lead with 19 seconds to play.

Then, after Amboy Tech got a blocked shot on the Cardinals with just five seconds to play, St. Peter's managed to take the inbounds pass, and scored a layup in the exact same spot they did some 18 seconds earlier to get the upset in a quite exciting, 40-39 win. St. Peter's will now take on Roselle Park, which downed Somerset Vo-Tech in another upset. See the latest brackets.

GMC Hoops Summaries--Tuesday, July 20, 2004
Middlesex County College Summer League--Week Five

St. Joseph's Remains Unbeaten While Edison Loses Heartbreaker

The fifth week of action got underway at the Middlesex County College Summer League in Edison on Tuesday night with St. Joseph's winning easily over Middlesex, Monroe rolling past Watchung Hills, and Edison losing a heartbreaker, 49-47 in overtime after coming all the way back from a 28-12 deficit with only 2:54 to go in the first half. The win by the Falcons over Middlesex gave them a perfect 8-0 record on the regular season, and most likely, the top seed in the upcoming tournament.

St. Joseph's, which had a couple varsity players playing in the game tonight including forward, Shawn Harper, went into the halftime intermission with a 34-15 lead. At the beginning of the second half, the Falcons maintained that lead at 37-18 with only 17:20 left before Middlesex went on a 5-0 run over the next 5:10 to make the score 37-23 with 12:10 left to play. However, that would be as close as the Blue Jays would get as the Falcons went on a 10-4 run to take a 47-27 lead with about 3:30 to play.

Middlesex then closed to within 14 again on a 6-0 spurt to make the score 47-33 with 1:48 to go in the game. From there, St. Joseph's closed out the contest with a 6-2 run to round out the scoring, and won the game 53-35. Meanwhile, on Court #2, Monroe and Watchung Hills squared off in a game that would determine last place in the National Division. With the game tied at 6-6 with seven and a half minutes remaining, Monroe went on a 13-0 tear to close the opening half with a 19-6 lead.

Then, in the second half, Monroe increased the lead to 15 at 25-10 on a 6-4 run over the first 3:50 of the half. After that, they were never really threatened as they closed the game with a 13-9 run including a 5-0 burst in the last 3:19 to double up Watchung Hills, 38-19. With the win, Monroe escaped last place with a 2-6 record on the summer while Watchung Hills remained in the cellar of the National Division at 1-7.

The most exciting and competitive game that we saw on the night was on Court #3 between Union Catholic and Edison. UC had just come off a big win over previously undefeated Bishop Ahr on Thursday while Edison was coming in off of a tough three point loss to Perth Amboy Vo-Tech. The game appeared to be Union Catholic's for the taking as they put together a 28-12 onslaught over the first 17:06 of the contest, which forced Edison coach, Charlie Mohr, to call for time. Coming out of that timeout, the Eagles went on an 18-1 barrage over the rest of the first half, and the first six minutes of the second half to take an astonishing, 30-29 lead with 14:00 left in the game.

From that point on, the game went back and forth with a number of lead changes before Edison seemed to gain control with a 44-41 lead with only 2:54 to play. However, Union Catholic, came right back and tied things up with three points over the next 1:34 to make the score 44-44 with only 1:20 remaining in regulation. Union Catholic managed to tie the game by drawing a charge on an Edison player, and then forcing a turnover on a later possession. Then, after Edison had gotten the ball back, and called a timeout with 52 seconds left, Union Catholic was able to make Edison commit a five second violation with four seconds left to force overtime.

In the extra session, Union Catholic drew first blood with a bucket at the 2:33 mark to make it 46-44, and then padded their lead with one of two free throws at the 1:10 mark to make it a three point game, 47-44. However, on the very next possesion, Edison got a clutch jumper from just to the right of the top of the key to make the score, 47-47 with 0:35 to play. However, after a Union Catholic timeout with just 15 seconds left, the Mountain Valley Conference school got a fade away jumper to go in with three seconds left to get their second straight win, 49-47. See the latest standings and scores.

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