By: David Gurney
Senior guard Mark Gulick was convinced the game was over when he hit a 3-pointer with 59 seconds remaining to break a 35-35 tie in Monday night’s Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament’s first round game at Old Bridge.
He thought it solidified Monroe’s upset of a GMC Red Division team on the road.
But there to remind Gulick and the Falcons was that nagging issue of the team’s lack of height. Old Bridge center Elvis Obi scored the last three points of regulation to force overtime and, from there, the game was dominated by the Knights, en route to a 48-43 victory over Monroe.
The loss ended Monroe’s hopes for another deep run in the GMCT’s and leaves the Falcons with a regular season game against South Amboy and the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group III play-in game on the road with Hamilton West on Feb. 27.
If Monroe wins that game, it will face No. 1 seed Red Bank in the quarterfinals.
"They were bigger than us and we’ve had trouble covering big guys all year," Monroe head coach Bob Turco said. "We could look at 3,000 different things, but at the beginning of the season we knew we were small and had to hit our shots, but we missed our shots and we missed our foul shots down the stretch tonight."
Monroe (10-13) held Old Bridge below 40 points in regulation and seemingly had the higher seed exactly where they wanted them.
Following a time out at the 2:08 mark, Obi’s (17 points) consecutive misses set up the 3-pointer by Gulick off a pass from senior guard Vinny Mahmoud.
The table was set, all the Falcons needed was a defensive stop and to hit some free throws.
"I thought for sure we had the game after the shot," said Gulick, who led the team with 20 points. "I thought the game was over, they had barely scored in the game."
Only 17 seconds later the Knights came down, gave the ball inside to center Lance Rogan, who hit the layup to cut the Monroe lead to one.
Still up one, Mahmoud (five points) was fouled to set up a one and one situation at the line. With 20.3 left in the fourth, Mahmoud missed the front end, giving the ball back to OB with enough time to manufacture a shot.
And up came that nagging issue of height, which victimized the Falcons late.
A miss by Joey Reyes was rebounded by Rogan, who was fouled on the floor by senior forward James Pellino to give the Knights a one and one with 2.2 left.
Rogan hit the front end but missed the back end, getting his own rebound but shooting an airball to send the game into overtime.
"They were just like us, they hung around and hung around," Turco said. "Today they were just better than us. Being at home and shooting better, we just got shut down."
In overtime, Monroe simply couldn’t get it going against the 2-2-1 Old Bridge press, missing several shots, turning the ball over, and missing a free throw before scoring their first points with 1:04 left on another Gulick three-pointer.
Another Old Bridge turnover and a banker by junior forward Justin Mitchell (five points) cut the deficit to three and a OB free throw, followed by a missed three-pointer by Mahmoud, ended any hopes of a upset for Monroe.
"At the end we lost our composure against the press," Gulick said. "Some shots didn’t fall for us. We gave away the game. They didn’t beat us, we lost the game."
At least for the Gulick and Monroe, a shot at redemption is on the way.
In the state tournament the Falcons will play the same team that ended their dream season last year in the Central Jersey Group III semifinals in Hamilton West. It’s a chance to get revenge for last year, and also a chance to get revenge for the football team, which also lost to the Hornets in the states last fall.
It also provides the seniors with one last crack at success in the postseason.
"It’s tough going out this early in the GMC’s, especially compared to last year," Gulick said. "We wanted to prove everyone wrong, and it hurts to go out this early in the counties, but we still have Hamilton West who beat us last year. But this hurts."

