Higher seeds sweep GMCT boys’ preliminary round; top 16 seeds to square off in Thursday’s first round

Debate the GMC seeding if you want – though there wasn’t much controversy to begin with – but so far, it’s nearly gone to chalk through the first two rounds of the 2024 boys’ tournament, with no upsets to speak of in Tuesday night’s preliminary round.

That means the first round to be played Thursday will include all 16 of the top seeds for the first time since 2020, with one lower seed crashing the party each of the last two seasons. (There was no full tournament in 2021 due to the COVID-19-shortened season.

Among the notables from Tuesday night, 16th-seed North Plainfield narrowly escaped 17th-seed Carteret, 58-55. It was a tight one throughout, with the teams tied at 29-29 at the half. After a strong third quarter left the Canucks up six heading into the final eight minutes, a late push by the Ramblers fell just short. Nfii Bannavti and Quadir Williams led North Plainfield (7-14), while Asi Powell scored a game-high 23 for Carteret (14-9). The Canucks now get to take on top-seed St. Joseph-Metuchen (16-6).

Ninth-seed Timothy Christian won, 58-53, at home against 24-seed Edison, and they now will faced Spotswood – with whom they shared the Blue Division title – a third time this season. With two co-champs in the GMC – in the Blue and the White, between South Plainfield and Woodbridge – the seeding committee broke the tie by picking the Chargers (16-5) as the first team to come out of the Blue, which gave them the eight-seed and a bye to the first round over the ninth-seeded Tigers. Timothy won their first meeting on January 30th, 78-70. Spotswood won the rematch by the same margin, but by an 84-76 score in overtime, on January 27th. Now, they meet again Thursday, 12 days later.

For 19th-seed South Brunswick, which lost a ton to graduation and has a new coach in Bed Badeen, their 61-49 loss at 14th-seed Sayreville made it the first time since 2017 a GMC Tournament finalist from the prior season did not reach the Round of 16.

Below are Tuesday’s full results. Scroll down further for the next round of matchups in the boys’ GMCT, and as well as the girls’ both of which are being played Thursday afternoon and evening.

GMC Tournament – Boys’ Preliminary Round Scores: