Partying like it’s 1993, Perth Amboy wins tenth straight, tops JP Stevens to clinch GMC White American Division

The season began like gangbusters for Perth Amboy. Four straight wins gave them their best start in a long time.

Then, they dropped three of four around the holidays, a situation that could make any coach reconsider their chosen profession.

But not Donnie Reid, and not this edition of Panther Basketball.

How did they respond? Well, they’ve won ten straight since, including Saturday’s 73-57 victory over at JP Stevens that clinched the Greater Middlesex Conference White American Division title with an 11-0 division mark and one game left against second-place South Brunswick (8-3 in division) this Tuesday.

It’s their first division crown since 1993, when they went 12-0 in the GMC Red and earned the top seed in the GMC Tournament.

While there are no more guaranteed seeds in the GMCT – the four division winners used to get one of the top eight seeds regardless of overall record – The Panthers will be a tough out wherever they are.

Yandel Susana – the No. 3 scorer last year – is back and leading the team at 18.8 points per game. He had 25 Saturday afternoon, and Reid says “when he gets going, he can shoot lights out.” But he’s far from the only one contributing. It’s a true team effort.

There’s Jeremy Garcia-Peralta, who Reid says is “always on the boards, and does the little things for us.” Kasey Abreu “started on fire,” Reid says, before he hit a little lull, but notes he’s been consistent with other things. “He didn’t change what we needed him to do,” Reid says.

And the list goes on: Point guard Justin Ramos “controls the game,” Reid says. Then there’s Ricardo “Ricky” Reyes, a senior transfer from Woodbridge who had to sit early in the season by NJSIAA rule. But when he took the floor, Reid says the Panthers “got a little extra pep in our step.” He’s now leading the county in assists.

“That’s big for us,” Reid says, “having two point guards out there.”

For Reid himself, he almost didn’t get tho this point. After head coaching stops at the Academy of Urban Leadership in the Bay City as well as Perth Amboy Magnet, he applied for the open Perth Amboy High School job a few years ago and figured if he didn’t get it, maybe he’d move on to something else.

Good thing he got it. The team went from 8-13 his first season to 15-12 last year, and now they’ve matched that total in 2025-26, but have just three losses.

And after a couple tough defeats in the Butch Kowal Holiday Tournament in Rahway between Christmas and New Years, the Panthers opened the 2026 part of the schedule in fine form: on the third day of the New Year, they picked up a home win over Edison, 73-52, that gave Reid his 100th career coaching win.

They haven’t lost since.

The perseverance probably came in large part from his scholastic playing days, across the bridge in South Amboy, at the now-shuttered Cardinal McCarrick High School.

With the Eagles, coached by Joe Lewis, Reid won a Non-Public South B title in 2005, as well as in 2003, when he was a sophomore. McCarrick won the GMC Tournament title that year, too, beating St. Joseph-Metuchen with players like Vinny Rosario and Tourney MVP Mika Wilson.

Reid looks back fondly on those days. Some day, the current Panthers may be thinking the same thing about 2026 and Coach Reid.

Click below to hear Perth Amboy coach Donnie Reid talk about the Panthers’ season, his time at Cardinal McCarrick, and the influence of his former coach, Joe Lewis, with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko: