Boys basketball
By: Mike Molaro
Bernie Gurick hates to lose.
Whether it’s a pickup game with friends or on the bench watching his Pennington School boys basketball squad compete, the Red Raider coach always wants to win.
That’s why it might be surprising that Gurick isn’t too disappointed with Pennington’s 10-15 record this season. On the surface, the numbers aren’t what he would have preferred. But given the circumstances surrounding his team, the season was a success.
"Many people didn’t think we’d win eight games," said Gurick, who completed his 14th season at Pennington with 212 career victories. "To win 10 says something about the guys on this team. I’m very pleased with the guys. Being the competitor that I am, I’m not pleased with the outcome."
With leading scorer forward Muhammad Siddiqu as the only senior on the roster, it was obvious from the first day of practice this year’s Red Raider squad would be competing against more-experienced teams.
In addition, starting center Kenny Love, a junior, missed the first third of the season with a knee injury, and senior guard Joe Persichetti was out for the year with a shoulder injury suffered during football season. For those reasons, it was clear this wasn’t going to be a typical Pennington boys basketball campaign.
"The guys were very young," said Gurick, who has led the Red Raiders to 14 consecutive seasons with 10 or more wins. "We threw them into the fire. They grew a lot this year. The guys started to believe in themselves. That means a lot, as everyone is coming back except Mo (Siddiqu). We all learned a lot."
A 73-64 loss to third-seeded Newark Academy in the Prep B state tournament quarterfinals Feb. 15 closed the book on this year’s season. Junior guard Fernando Cardenas led the sixth-seeded Red Raiders with 14 points.
"Newark Academy outplayed us," Gurick said. "Give them credit. We wanted to go further in the state tournament. With a young team, that doesn’t happen all the time."
A young roster forced Gurick to focus on teaching the basic fundamentals that have made Pennington one of the area’s most successful boys basketball programs.
"Most of the guys didn’t have varsity experience going into the season," Gurick said. "You have to change your philosophy and your game plan. You try to prepare the guys as they go along. You can’t be as hard-nosed with them. You don’t want them to lose interest in the sport, and you have to get them ready for upcoming years.
"You want to win, but with a lack of experience, you know it will be tough."
Despite the 10-15 mark, Gurick was pleased with the effort the Red Raiders gave him every time they stepped onto the court.
"This was a great team to work with," he said. "They worked extremely hard. We didn’t have the senior leadership."
Gurick points to the 69-67 overtime setback to cross-town rival Hopewell Valley on Feb. 6 as the point where everything came together.
"That was the best game for us, even though we lost," Gurick said. "That was the most well-balanced game we had. We really executed like we practiced."

