Monroe tops No. 1 Aquinas to throw a wrench in GMC Red race, and make its own case

Every year, they talk about St. Joseph, St. Thomas Aquinas, and Colonia in the GMC Red Division. Many assume those will be the teams at the top, in some kind of order.

They didn’t count on Monroe this year.

That is until the Falcons upset of No. 1 Aquinas Thursday night, a 58-43 win that was their seventh in a row since a season-opening loss to Old Bridge. It’s also a victory that puts them directly into the GMC Red Division race, and in contention for a top seed in the GMC Tournament.

More on that in a bit.

First, it was how Monroe won. The goal was to make the game ugly, says head coach Jeff Warner, and they succeeded. The second was to hit some threes, and they did, knocking down ten buckets from beyond the arc, led by 18 points – including six treys – from Myles Marabuto, while Mark Laughery (11 points) and Brody Piscitelli (9 points) also knocked down three triples apiece.

Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko talk with Monroe head coach Jeff Warner about the win, and next week’s matchup at St. Joseph:

Back to the Red race and the quest for the GMCT’s top seed: St. Joe’s sits atop the division at the moment, the only team unbeaten in Red Division play thus far, at 4-0. But then there’s Aquinas at 4-1, and Monroe and Colonia at 3-1.

And the thing to remember is that the GMC Red is in the second year of a pilot program where teams are only required to play each other once. Others play twice each. 

Generally, most publics opted out of playing St. Joseph and St. Thomas twice. Monroe is one of them, so they beat Aquinas in their only meeting. They’ll play St. Joe’s in Metuchen next Thursday, their only meeting as well.

Colonia will play both twice, including Aquinas at home next Thursday, a game you can hear on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

Still a lot of basketball to be played, but now the GMC seeding meeting could have a little extra intrigue when the committee gets together on February 2.