Welcome to the GMC Hoops Notebook section on the The Basketball Shooting Academy's Fall League. This is a continuing feature that we are presenting here on our web site in response to all the team camps, summer leagues, and fall leagues that are being run. This is basically a section, where we'll talk about some of the goings on in the league as well as some games, teams, or players that have stood out during the course of the season.

GMC HOOPS NOTEBOOK: NOVEMBER 7, 2006--TBSA FALL LEAGUE

For the first time in the four years that GMC Hoops has been covering fall leagues, there are more than one around Middlesex County. In addition to the HawksBasketball Fall-Ball Classic, which is in its twelfth year, there is the brand new fall league that is being run at The Basketball Shooting Academy in Edison, New Jersey. TBSA opened in August of this year, and has quickly become the rage around the county as well as much of the Central Jersey area as a great place to work on improving your jump shot.

This season at TBSA saw a total of 12 teams competing including six from the GMC, and six from other conferences. Conferences represented in this fall league were the Skyland Conference, the Watchung Conference, and the Colonial Valley Conference. Among the twelve teams were schools from the GMC and other conferences that had competed previously in one of the leagues run by the HawksBasketball Association including Bridgewater, Cardinal McCarrick, Colonia, East Brunswick, Immaculata, Monroe, North Hunterdon, Scotch Plains, South Brunswick, and St. Joseph's.

The league began on September 21st, and continued for six weeks until October 26th. Each team played a total of six games, and against an opponent not in a particular team's conference. For instance, all the GMC teams played games against any one of the six non-conference schools participating: Bridgewater, Immaculata, Montgomery, North Hunterdon, Scotch Plains, and Trenton. The GMC as a conference didn't do to well in terms of overall record with a 15-21 mark, but was quite competitive. South Brunswick finished the highest out of all the GMC teams in the league with a 5-1 mark. The Vikings defeated both Immaculata and Trenton to earn second place via tie-breaker, and could have ended up undefeated had Bridgewater not rallied from a double-digit deficit to win 65-64 on September 28th.

Speaking of the Panthers of Bridgewater-Raritan, the team, which was one of the lower seeded teams at the Linden Summer League, and exited in the Quarterfinal round of the playoffs there, turned in a splendid effort at TBSA with an unblemished 6-0 record to win the first ever regular season title. In addition to the aforementioned victory over South Brunswick, the Panthers defeated St. Joseph's in a last second 51-49 win on October 5th, edged East Brunswick, 37-32 on October 19th, and rolled past Colonia, 56-38 on October 26th. James McNally led the charge for the Panthers with a scoring average of 18.3 points per game while teammates such as former St. Joseph's player, Keith Fallon and Andrew August also chipped in with solid efforts.

Another team outside the GMC that competed was Randy Morrison's Trenton Tornadoes, which are the two time defending Central Jersey Group IV Champions. Trenton has won the Central Jersey Group IV bracket three out of the last four years including 2003, 2005, and 2006. In 2004, Trenton reached the semifinals where it lost to eventual champion, Pennsauken, 84-64. For five weeks, the Tornadoes, which hail from the Colonial Valley Conference's Valley Division, kept pace with Bridgewater with a 5-0 record. However, in the last game of the season, South Brunswick upset the Tornadoes to create a three-way tie for second place.

Joining Trenton and South Brunswick in a tie for second place was Immaculata of Somerset County, and the Skyland Conference's Delaware East Division. The Spartans had a solid season, where they split with the Panthers of Bridgewater-Raritan in the regular season, and then lost to Bridgewater in the Championship of the Somerset County Tournament. The Spartans rebounded though with a solid run in the NJSIAA Non-Public A North State Tournament, where it reached the championship game before losing to perennial state power, Seton Hall Prep. This year looks to be another great year for the Spartans with the likes of Gamal Mohammed transferring over from Kearny Christian, where he was among the top scorers (586 points for 20.2 points per game) and three point shooters in the state (94 three pointers).

Both Colonia and St. Joseph's showed some flashes of the potential the perennial GMC powerhouse programs have. Each team went 3-3, but were very competitive with Colonia only losing to Trenton by five, 41-36, and St. Joseph's suffering two last second losses to Immaculata (42-41), and Bridgewater (51-49). Cardinal McCarrick went 2-4, but played much better after an 0-2 start with two solid wins in back to back weeks over Montgomery (50-33) and North Hunterdon (56-36) while giving Trenton a game before the Tornadoes pulled away with a 23-10 surge down the stretch for a 61-48 victory. Scotch Plains, the lone representative from the Watchung Conference, started the fall very sluggishly with losses in each of its first two games, but rebounded with three wins in their last four games to even up at 3-3 for the season.

Montgomery finished the fall with a 2-4 mark thanks to an overtime victory over Monroe. The Cougars, which were a small Group I school competing in the Colonial Valley Conference back in the mid to late 1980s, has since grown to a Group IV school and now a member of the Skyland Conference's Delaware East Division after initially joining as a member of the Raritan Division. The Cougars, which have competed in each of the last two years at the Gene Haley Memorial Tournament, also defeated East Brunswick in week one. Speaking of East Brunswick and Monroe, the Bears and Falcons both finished 1-5. Monroe won on opening night over North Hunterdon, but lost in each of its last five games despite fine efforts of Justin Mitchell, who averaged 14.2 points per game over the last five games of the fall.

Not to say the Falcons weren't competitive. Besides the overtime loss to Montgomery, Monroe also lost to Scotch Plains-Fanwood by a dozen, 54-42. East Brunswick defeated North Hunterdon as well, but played very competitively against Bridgewater and Trenton (51-42). Looking at how the other conferences did: the Skyland Conference had the second most representation with a 13-11 record. Trenton and Scotch Plains were lone representatives of their conference. Special thanks goes to former Colonia Head Coach, Ken Pace, who provided the results from all the games played here since I wasn't able to attend them due to my work schedule.

Greg Machos
Webmaster/Owner
GMC Hoops

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