By Rich Fisher, Sports Editor
It wasn’t done under the bright lights of a varsity setting, but it was history nonetheless for the Monroe Township High School boys basketball program on Saturday, Feb. 28.
The Falcons’ junior varsity became the first MTHS boys basketball team on any level to win a Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament title, when the top-seeded Falcons defeated sixth-seeded Cardinal McCarrick, 70-66, in the county JV title game.
”I wasn’t actually aware that it was the first one,” said head coach Matt Gigliello, a 2002 MTHS graduate. “Someone told me after the game, I was like ‘Wow!’
”I wish it was the varsity. But hey, we’ll take it. It’s another step in the right direction for the program.”
Indeed it is. All three boys levels reached the GMCT semifinals this year. And it was the JV that brought home the prize, putting the wraps on a remarkable 24-1 campaign.
McCarrick came in on a high after upsetting the third and second seeds, but appeared to be outmanned when Monroe jumped to a 23-9 advantage early in the second quarter. The Falcons rallied to make it a five-point game at the half and it went back and fourth from there.
Monroe, playing without injured sophomore starters Alex Vizcaino and Matt Gorham, got within 66-65 with 30 seconds left. An Eagles player missed a foul shot, Monroe broke downcourt and junior Zach Batchelor drained a three-pointer from the corner for what proved to be the game-winner. Sophomore Mike Mahmoud sealed it with two late free throws, capping an 8-for-8 day from the line for him.
Sophomore Mike Walp finished with 18 points and junior Travis Dufner, who was inserted as a starter due to the injuries, came through with 16 points. Mahmoud added 13, junior Matt Stolte had a season-high nine and sophomore Keyshawn Stroughn chipped in with six.
Like most of the games this season, it came down to a team effort. Gigliello had 15 players on the roster during the regular season and tried getting all playing time. Others who contributed were freshmen Ryan Genevieve and Victor Sorrento, sophomores Mike Scarrone, Nick Labannet, Vinny Piro and George Meyers, and junior Kevin Conklin.
”I pretty much played 15 guys during the regular season; in the tournament we cut it down to nine,” Gigliello said. “Our depth was pretty much our strength. We pressed the whole game and wore teams down.
”We were also pretty big. With Walp, Dufner and Keyshawn, we would get a lot of put-backs inside. We also liked to press to keep the game up-tempo. We liked to run a secondary break, get some easy baskets and get into the press.”
It helped that his players bought into the system.
”They were really unselfish,” Gigliello said. “We’ve preached that all year about being unselfish, making the lead pass.”
This was Gigliello’s first year as JV coach after spending three seasons as Bob Turco’s varsity assistant. Being close to both programs, he sees a positive trend developing.
”The seventh- and eighth-grade teams have been winning at Applegarth and it’s finally starting to carry over,” he said. “We’re getting depth in the program that we’ve never had at Monroe, which is nice. A lot of kids are concentrating on basketball, working on it 10 months out of the year and really busting their humps.”
And busting down some barriers in the process.
