The St. Thomas Aquinas Trojans with their 2022 GMC Tournament Championship banner. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)
Adam Silas was easily the face, heart and soul of the St. Thomas Aquinas boys’ basketball team last season.
He and his teammates took home a second straight GMC Tournament title, and even knocked off powerhouse Gill St. Bernard’s in a huge showcase game at Roselle Catholic in February, en route to a 27-2 season.
Silas is now at Wofford in South Carolina, averaging eleven minutes and 3.3 points per game as a freshman, and fellow guard Samar Abdullah is scoring five points a game at undefeated 8-0 Montclair State, hitting 8-of-15 from beyond the arc. But it hardly means the cupboard is bare.
Head coach Bob Turco expects his senior-laden team to be another solid defensive group, a characteristic the Trojans stake their reputation on every time they hit the court. Key starters are back, including football player and senior Sherief Guinyard (5.8 ppg last season), along with fellow seniors Kamal Lee (7.8 ppg), Jalen Pichardo (10.1 ppg) and Terrell Pitts (13.5 ppg).
In a rebalanced Greater Middlesex Conference, Aquinas will play a tougher schedule this year. The Trojans – along with Colonia, their arch-rivals in the GMC White the last several years – move on up to the Red, while New Brunswick and Perth Amboy take their place in the White.
Aquinas opens its season Thursday at 5:30 pm with a division game at JP Stevens.
They will appear twice in the regular season on Central Jersey Sports Radio in a span of six days in January, in two critical Red Division games: entertaining Colonia on the 12th, and just down the road at St. Joseph-Metuchen on the 17th.
Click below to hear Mike Pavlichko talk with St. Thomas Aquinas head coach Bob Turco about the upcoming season:
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