By: Carolyn M. Hartko
The Monroe High School boys basketball team received a wakeup call on Tuesday.
After racking up a surprising 6-1 record, which included six victories in a row by large margins, the Falcons hosted South Plainfield on Tuesday a South Plainfield team recognized as one of the best in the state with Division I talents Marquis Jones and Darren Smith leading the way.
A year ago, the Tigers beat Monroe twice, by exactly 40 points each time. It wasn’t that bad this time, but South Plainfield jumped to an 11-2 lead en route to a 58-31 victory.
"We had some good looks early on, but the ball wouldn’t drop," coach Pete LoPresti said. "Then we had trouble with their guards and we could never get into sync. We did okay against their pressure in the backcourt, but we got the ball over, we couldn’t get into our spots. They played just aggressive defense, they took us out of our offense. But they’ve done that to a lot of teams the last two years. This was a wakeup call for us."
South Plainfield, 35-3 over the last two seasons, received a combined 37 points from Jones, an electrifying point guard and Smith, a versatile swingman. Monroe, held to 22 points under its previous season low for points, was led by A.J. Rudowitz, who scored 12, and K.J. Rolland, who had nine.
The Falcons settled down a little after the first quarter and trailed 25-12 at halftime. But a 14-5 third-quarter advantage in the third quarter propelled the Tigers.
"We made a little run, but we just struggled for the most part," LoPresti said. "We had a hard time getting the ball into A.J. and it was just one of those nights. But our kids played hard and defensively, we didn’t play bad at all."
Following the game and even the next day in practice, Monroe was able to let it go.
"We put it behind us, we didn’t even talk about it the next day," LoPresti said. "We tried to keep the game into perspective all week. This was a big game for us to compete against two excellent players and an excellent team, but it wasn’t going to make or break our season. The game was an eye-opener. It showed our kids another level of awareness, which is good."
The Falcons played at Woodbridge last night, then will host Bishop Ahr on Saturday.
"I think the kids handled it very well," LoPresti said. "They were anxious to get back to work and prepare for Woodbridge."

