The Colonia boys’ basketball team celebrates its 2024 GMC Tournament title. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)
The final margin might have been ten, but it was much closer than that for about 30 of the 32 minutes of game play in Friday night’s Greater Middlesex Conference boys’ championship game.
No one led by more than six until the final minutes, as second-seed Colonia got to the foul line and hit its shots to pull away.
The Patriots ended fourth-seed St. Thomas Aquinas’ three-year reign as GMC Tournament champions, pulling out a 55-45 win at Monroe Township High School, despite trailing after each of the first three quarters of play, as heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio.
Sophomore Aiden Derkack was named MVP after pouring in 21 points for the champion Patriots (18-8), while senior Jaeden Jones chipped in 14.
Rinelson Dilone led Aquinas (16-10) with 20 points in defeat.
Colonia led early, 8-2 in the first quarter, but Aquinas went on a 14-4 run to make it 16-12. Those were the last big runs anyone would make until the Patriots pulled away, holding Aquinas without a field goal for almost the last four minutes of the game.
Click below for postgame reaction presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:
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