By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
The partnership between Tommy Soulias and the Ivy Inn team in the Princeton Recreation Men’s Summer Basketball League has been one that has proven beneficial for both parties.
Soulias, who will be a senior at Kean University, is currently in his fourth season with Ivy Inn. Each year his game has improved as he’s meshed with a team full of league veterans.
This year Soulias has put together his best season yet, finishing as the league’s second leading scorer and helping Ivy Inn to the regular season league championship.
“It feels good,” Soulias said after scoring 15 points to help Ivy Inn to a 58-47 win over Bring Me Food on Wednesday that secured the top seed for the playoffs, which begin on Monday.
“That was a good team we played tonight. The game was for first place. Our mentality coming into this one was we all had the playoff fever. This was like a playoff game for us. We wanted to lock up the No. 1seed and we knew if we lost we could have fallen to as far as three or four and we didn’t want that to happen.”
Sherm Brittingham led the way with 25 points for Ivy, which finished the season 7-2. The 7-2 record tied Ivy for the top of the standings with Bring Me Food and SAT Smart/Princeton Soup and Sandwich. The tie-breakers gave Ivy the top seed for the playoffs.
The playoffs begin Monday with seventh-seeded King’s Pizzarama taking on 10th-seeded Princeton Youth Sports. Eighth-seeded Princeton Pi takes on No. 9 seed Dr. Palmer, while third-seeded SAT Smart/Princeton Soup and Sandwich will face sixth-seeded Belle Mead Physical Therapy.
On Wednesday, top-seeded Ivy Inn will face the Princeton Pi-Dr. Palmer winner, while second-seeded Bring Me Food takes on the King’s Pizzarama-PYS winner. In the other game, fourth-seeded Aria Health takes on fifth-seeded Winberies.
Soulias finished the season averaging 18.8 points per game. In his four years with Ivy his role on the team has grown a little each year.
“This group has been together for a long time and then it is just a matter of adding pieces the puzzle like me and Sherm coming in and everyone just doing whatever it takes to win,” said Soulias, who led Kean and the New Jersey Athletic Conference in scoring with a 21.4 average last year. “Everyone knows the reputation these guys have in the community and especially the summer league of always being a tough, hard-fighting team.
“Up at Kean I have just been working hard and trying to get my individual game better and then just learning from these guys. Every summer coming down here I take advantage of the opportunity to learn from all of these guys. They have been playing basketball for a long time now.”
Soulias played his AAU basketball in high school with some of the players in the Princeton league. His AAU coach was Bobby Davison, who has been the player-coach of Ivy for several years.
“I have known Bobby for going on about eight years now,” Soulias said. “I have known (Shahid Abdul-Karim) and Mark (Aziz) for the last six years. These guys are great role models for me with everything they do in the community. I hope one day I can be like them.”
Right now he’s focused on trying to secure a league championship for Ivy. The team has great balance in its scoring with Brittingham, Soulias and Aziz. There is a strong inside presence with Eamon Cuddy and solid veteran leadership with Davison and Abdul-Karim.
“I played AAU for Bobby so I played with Davon Black and Fernando Silva and Ben Harrison,” said Soulias, a Milltown resident who played at Spotswood High School. “Those are all my good friends from high school from playing AAU with them. So when Bobby asked me the summer after high school to come play in this league I didn’t know what to expect. But the talent level is really high here and the guys all play really hard.
“I play a pretty long summer schedule with my college team. Last week I think I played all seven nights. But I’ll never miss a game here because this is always a great experience. I can work on some things here that I don’t get to do with my college team. I get to handle the ball more here and that helps me expand on my game.”
His play in the summer has helped him become a better player for Kean, which has also been a positive experience.
“The experience has been good,” Soulias said. “I made first-team All-League and led the league in scoring so I had a good season as a junior. We lost a couple games due to some injuries we had but we’re just looking to reload. We have some good recruits coming in and I am looking forward to making my senior year special.”
And he’s hoping he heads into that senior year off a championship summer.
