Manville boys continue perfect year on court

Three more wins make it 7-0

By: Shawn Tyrrell
   
   Winning – oh, how it can change everything.
   Last season, the Manville High School boys’ basketball team struggled and managed only three victories for the entire year. That is all just a memory now, as the Mustangs continue to build on a fast start to what is turning into an incredible season. This past week, Manville remained undefeated and improved to an impressive 7-0 with one-third of the season now gone.
   MHS earned victories over Bound Brook (64-35), Roselle Park (61-51) and David Brearley (64-46) during the span and in all three contests jumped out to first quarter leads from which their opponents were never able to recover.
   What has been the formula for success?
   A lot of things have changed since last year, as the players have better attitudes, they have bought into coach Larry Blasi’s style of play, and most importantly, it seems that the "team concept" is not just a term but something the kids believe in.
   "The kids are enjoying themselves and seem to really like the system," Blasi said. "This group has really committed itself and they are doing what it takes to win. They have found ways to win and done so with a total team effort."
   That effort was never more evident than in the Bound Brook game. The Crusaders came to Manville looking for their first win and they left with another blowout loss. One thought the game might live up to the usual tight, close game that usually comes about when these two teams meet. But this game wasn’t even close as the Mustangs raced out to a 20-6 lead and by halftime had a comfortable 34-13 advantage.
   MHS took the lead early on for good, when Brian Teryek hit a 3-pointer with 6:09 gone in the first period. Neither team was sharp in the early minutes of the contest, but Manville got going thanks to the team’s pressure defense and some turnovers by the Crusaders. Baskets by Glen Liszczak and two free throws by Chris Wass made the score 7-2. MHS kept up the pressure with baskets by Teryek (on a nice inbound pass from Mark Maychrich), and back-to-back easy baskets by Maychrich pushed the lead to 14-6. From there on, the night was an easy one.
   "We played hard and got the win," said Maychrich, who had 12 points and 11 rebounds. "We weren’t too over confident and just came out and played our game. We knew we had a good chance to win and we came out hard and that was the difference."
   With the final score being the as one-sided as it was, some may have expected one player to lead the Mustangs or have a big night. That was hardly the case, as the scoring was again balanced. Credit must go to the players and how they distributed the ball evenly.
   Time and time again players passed on open shots to make a great pass for an easy lay-up. In addition to Maychrich’s 12 points, Teryek also scored 12 points, while Ed Gryzeski, Chris Wass, Liczszak, and Joe Adamcik all had six points apiece.
   Teryek found his mark in the next two games. The senior had big games against Roselle Park and David Brearley. He came up with 23 and 20 points in the victories, while Maychrich had 11 and 12 rebounds for the Mustangs.
   It has been a good number of years since Manville was on top of the division. With some of the teams in the conference being noticeably weaker than in the past, there is no reason to think MHS can’t compete for the crown.
   Upcoming games against Oratory, Rutgers Prep, New Providence and Dayton will be tests, but Blasi has said all along that there is no team on the schedule the Mustangs can’t compete with and beat.
   It will be interesting to see just how far this team can go.