By Justin Feil, The Packet Group
There will be a far different looking Allentown High School boys basketball team this season from the one that closed last year by pushing second-seeded Woodbridge to the brink of upset elimination.
Gone are all but 21 of the 59 points the Redbirds scored that night. Allentown has three regular varsity contributors back from a year ago — Dan Bascara, Hunter Gerling and Hal Shaw – and a lot of promising candidates to join them.
”I think we’re young, but they’ve been working really hard,” said Allentown head coach Jay Graber. “They put a lot of time in over the summer. They’ve been working hard in the weight room and putting in a lot of time shooting. We’re hopeful.”
Figuring all out the starting five and rotation is what Graber plans to do over the next two weeks before the season opener Dec. 20 against Princeton High. The Redbirds’ first scrimmage is today against South Jersey school Clearview, an unfamiliar opponent coming off a solid 15-10 season.
”I just want to see us come together on defense, play good team defense and run through our plays, run through our sets, get good shots early and not turn the ball over,” Graber said. “That’s what we’d like to see in the first couple scrimmages.”
Allentown will be looking to its experienced players to lead early in the year. The Redbirds have three seniors — Heely, Tom Anzalone and Dave Palmieri. They are the oldest of an inexperienced team.
”I think we have good leadership,” Graber said. “Collectively we have good leadership. We have a lot of guys that have been working hard. The main thing is they’ve been working together. I think this group is more together, and I think we have good leadership.”
The veterans will be welcoming a new crew that is strong with sophomores, some juniors and a couple freshmen in the mix between the junior varsity and varsity spots. Juniors are Bascara, Derisi, Austin Moy, Xavier Roldan and Shaw. Sophomores are: Matt Blazier, Shaney Duffy, Gerling, Payton Jackson, Kyle Lysy, Tristan Millett, Luke Newman and Bekim Nikovic. The two freshmen are Ricky Mottram and Nahshon Taylor.
”We only have three seniors,” Graber said. “We do have a big sophomore class. It’s early, so we’re competing at all the positions. They’re making it hard on us to decide who plays and who gets minutes. We have a lot of players competing very well.”
Regardless of the final rotation, Graber has an idea of the style that he’d like to see his team play. It’s much like he saw at the end of last season just with new faces.
”I was happy with the way we competed the last quarter of the season, and especially the state games,” Graber said. “We played against a tough Woodbridge team, the second-ranked team in the bracket and we were on the road and held our own and was able to compete. Hopefully that game will carry us over into this season.”
The Redbirds have seen encouraging signs in their preseason practices. They are hoping their practice habits show up in games.
”I think we have to play defense,” Graber said. “We have to be able to play defense and box out. On offense, we have to play smart. We can’t commit a lot of turnovers and we have to hit shots.”
Many of the Redbird varsity candidates played on an Allentown junior varsity team that had a successful season. How quickly they adapt to the speed and size of play at the varsity level will determine how competitive AHS is.
”I can’t judge that right now,” Graber said. “All I can say is during practices, they’ve practiced extremely hard. They’re doing everything they can to get themselves ready.
”We have a lot of guys who played a lot of basketball over the last eight months,” he added. “They’re mostly basketball-only guys, which is good.”
The Redbirds expect to feature a balanced attack. They have several strong outside shooters, and the 6-foot-3 Shaw, 6-foot-5 Anzalone and 6-6 Heely give them an inside presence on offense as well as defense.
”We’re going to multiple sets,” Graber said. “It’s going to depend what the defense gives us. We’ll be a motion offense and get everyone a touch. And we’ll be the same defensively. We’ll mix it up.”
Allentown is certain there will be a challenge every night in the Colonial Valley Conference. The Redbirds are hoping that they can improve on last year’s five-win season and get another chance to advance in the state tournament.
”The CVC schedule is tough,” Graber said. “There are a lot of good teams. Ewing, Trenton, Notre Dame, Lawrence, they always make a run at states. There are teams that are surging. Hopewell is good, and Princeton had a good year last year. Top to bottom, it’s a very competitive league. We’re going to do our best to compete night in and night out.”
