The Monroe Township High School boys’ basketball team may be short on victories, but it isn’t lacking determination.
That attitude far exceeds the record the Falcons have compiled this season.
Fritz Frage, a senior guard for Monroe, pointed out the positives that evolved out of the Falcons’ 57-42 setback to Edison High School on Jan. 30 in Edison.
“We played hard tonight,” Frage, who led Monroe in the loss with 12 points, said after the loss. “We played together, and, most importantly, we didn’t give up. We thought they were going to play a zone, and we prepared for that all week. But they came out in a man front, so we had to switch it up a little bit. It just took us a while to adjust because we prepared for the zone all week.”
Luke Patel, a senior point guard who finished the game with four points, also addressed areas that Monroe must continue to work on.
“I loved that we played unselfishly today,” he said following the game. “We actually got a lot of open shots today, but we just couldn’t knock enough of them down. Rebounding is going to be a big deal the whole year because we’re a small team. But in order to win games, we’re just going to have to outwork other teams.”
Monroe also received nine points from senior Sashank Sindhia, while junior Joshua Daniels and sophomore Andrew Turco each ended with five points against Edison.
The Falcons went on to lose their next two contests at home, falling to Piscataway Township High School, 68-54, on Feb. 1 and Old Bridge High School, 56-51, on Feb. 3.
Monroe knows there are areas where the team needs to improve, with the hope that the Falcons can improve on their 5-14 record this season.
Frage believes the biggest thing Monroe needs to get better at is boxing out.
“We’re not the biggest team, and it shows because we give up the most offensive rebounds,” he said. “So we have to work together and box out more.”
Patel, meanwhile, wants to see the Falcons work harder offensively.
“We have to execute better on offense as well,” he said. “I feel like if we get more open shots and start knocking them down, we can be a deadly team.”
Monroe hoped to make strides in those areas when they visited East Brunswick High School in a matchup scheduled for Feb. 6.
Edison, which broke away from Monroe by outscoring it, 19-11, in the third quarter, was led by junior forward Christian Wantong, who recorded 19 points and seven rebounds, and senior center Abu Kaikai, who collected 17 points and 10 rebounds.
The victory was Edison’s fourth straight. The Eagles were defeated at home by North Brunswick Township High School, 51-47, in their next contest on Feb. 1, but they got back on the winning track with a 55-49 victory over Freehold High School on Feb. 3 in Freehold.
Edison is 12-9 on the season and sits just two games behind Sayreville War Memorial High School in the Greater Middlesex Conference White Division standings with a 7-4 record against division opponents. Colonia High is second in the division and was scheduled to face Edison on Feb. 6.
The Eagles recently went on the road and knocked off Sayreville, 59-45, on Jan. 25.
Head coach Charles Mohr is pleased that the Eagles are gearing up for the postseason.
“It’s tournament time now,” Mohr said. “The [GMC] Tournament is coming up. The state tournament is coming up, and we already made that. We’re playing really well, and it’s a positive thing to be playing well come tournament time.”
Kaikai is also focused on upcoming tournament play.
“We’re just getting ready for states,” he said. “We want to get a good seed in that tournament. We want to win the GMC’s as well, so we need to get a good seed in that tournament as well because there’s a lot of great competition in both. We just want to win it all.”
Mohr credited preparation for the success Edison was able to achieve against Monroe.
“We knew we had to take care of the ball,” the coach said. “We know they like to play a zone defense, and we really prepared for their zone [the day before] in practice. I thought we had a really good practice, and the key was to get stops and push the basketball. Also, again, the emphasis was for us to take care of the ball, and we did that.”
The Eagles were effective in getting the ball inside.
“We tried to get the ball inside because we knew we had the size advantage,” Kaikai said. “We just pounded it inside and got layups.”
The Eagles will be home to Spotswood High School on Feb. 9 at 6 p.m.