Tag: Alex Grospe

March 21, 2025 by Mike Pavlichko

Central Jersey Sports Radio GMC Boys’ Player of the Year: Colonia’s Aiden Derkack led Patriots to back-to-back GMC titles, another sectional crown

While the Colonia boys’ basketball team was very much a team in every sense of the word, there’s no doubt who is the big draw: Aiden Derkack.

They’ve got a lot of excellent ballplayers. Even Derkack – who was named GMC Tournament MVP for the second year in a row, the first to be so honored since Quentin DeCosey of St. Joseph-Metuchen in 2011 and 2012 – admitted R.J. Wortman could have at least shared the MVP honor with him.

That shows you, of course, what kind of leader Derkack is. But that’s not even something that came as naturally’ it was something he really worked on in the off-season leading into this, his junior year.

Which is another scary proposition for their Greater Middlesex Conference foes. While losing excellent senior guard Zach Smith to graduation, he’s the only senior departing – there’s not even another bench player moving on. So essentially, the entire band will be back in 2025-26.

And that includes Aiden Derkack, Central Jersey Sports Radio’s GMC Boys’ Basketball Player of the Year.

But back to Derkack. The numbers he’s been putting up are off the charts. While a full list of all-time scorers isn’t available, among GMC boys school career scoring leaders, he’s 14th all-time at 1,739 career points. He’ll easily crack the 2,000-point mark next year, joining a club that includes just ten players, although two of them just joined this year, seniors Jalen Fleming of Timothy Christian (2,152) and Alex Grospe of South River (2,173).

Derkack won’t catch No. 1 on the list – John Somogyi at 3,310 points – he could get very, very close, depending on how deep the Patriots go in next year’s postseason, to Blake and Brian Taylor of those great Perth Amboy teams. Brian finished with 2,495, graduating in 1969, while Blake landed at 2,541, graduating in 1975. Derkack would need 802 points to reach Blake Taylor; he scored 790 this season, averaging 24.7 points per game.

Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s GMC Boys’ Player of the Year Aiden Derkack:

Here are our Honorable Mentions for GMC Boys’ Player of the Year:

R.J. Wortman, Colonia: Aiden Derkack may be the star, and everyone plays a role for the Patriots, but their run in the postseason may not have been possible without Wortman, who only played in eleven games last season and scored a grand total of nine points. This season he averaged 12.2 points per game, but was even bigger in the postseason. In the GMC Tournament, he averaged almost 18 points through four games, scoring 20 in the semifinals over St. Thomas Aquinas, then registering a double-double of 23 points and 13 rebounds in the title game win over Piscataway.
Nate Davis, Piscataway: There was plenty of talent to go around with the Chiefs as well, and Davis was the team’s leading scorer. Davis averaged 14.5 points per game, and hit a team best 53 treys on the year. Sophomore Landon Pernell was an excellent point guard, and he’ll have his day, but Davis – along with fellow senior Vaughn Turner, the two biggest pieces graduating – was instrumental in the success the Chiefs achieved under first-year head coach and Coach of the Year Bob Turco: providing senior leadership for the rejuvenated Piscataway program.
Aiden Ur, St. Thomas Aquinas: It was a difficult year around the Trojan program in 2024-25, but one player who was key and stuck with it en route to a 15-12 season amongst all the turmoil was Aiden Ur, who joined St. Thomas after playing his first two seasons at St. John Vianney in Holdmel. Ur averaged 16.2 points per game this season with 44 treys, and scored in double figures in all but five out of 27 games. Ur was a steadying force this year.
Alex Grospe, South River: The Rams weren’t able to duplicate their success of a couple of years ago, when they went to the Central Jersey Group 2 title game, but he had another outstanding year and was one of two GMC players to join the elite, eight-member 2,000-point club. Grospe – the program’s all-time top scorer – averaged an even 30 points per game this year, and finishes with 2,173 points, placing him fifth all-time in Middlesex County history (including before the GMC era). In his career, he hit 170 three-pointers, and was never someone you’d want to put on the foul line, where he was a nearly 80-percent free-throw shooter in his final three seasons as a Ram.
Jalen Fleming, Timothy Christian: Fleming is the other one to join the GMC’s 2,000-point club this year, finishing at 2,152, and also becoming the all-time leading scorer in his school’s history. Quick, but also powerful, he can hit the three or throw down a dunk in transition. Fleming had the biggest scoring season of his four years with the Tigers, going for 681, a 26.2 point per game average. He hit 136 triples in his career, and is an 82-percent free-throw shooter. On defense, he averaged over 40 steals a season all four years on varsity.

December 19, 2024December 14, 2024 by Mike Pavlichko

South River’s Alex Grospe looking for big things in senior year for experienced Rams

Two years ago, the South River boys’ basketball team had an extraordinary run.

The Greater Middlesex Conference – and the state – took notice when, four games in the season, they beat one of the league’s blue bloods, on their own floor, topping St. Joseph in Metuchen, 74-66.

That team would start the season 11-0 before suffering their first loss. They reached the GMC Tournament semifinals, and went all the way to the Central Jersey Group 2 title game, falling in their own gym by eight to Manasquan.

Current senior Alex Grospe was on that team, as a sophomore, along with his younger brother, Jeremy, and their cousin, Roman Santos. It was a well-balanced group, with players like Lax Rodriguez, Gavin Franco, and the off-the-bench spark of the enthusiastic Kobe Taylor.

A year later, Alex was the focal point of the Rams, scoring 797 points and averaging 30.7 points a game – tops in the state – a year after leading the state in assists. Last year, he led his team in that category, scoring, rebounding, steals and assists.

Now, coming off a 13-15 season, Grospe and company are looking for improvement, and the first goal is to compete with a strong Spotswood club – their arch-rivals – for the GMC’s Gold Division title.

As leadership, Grospe says Edward Herrera – “my best friend” – is right there with him, a real physical player who will make an impact.

But in the end, Grospe says, “All we can really do is focus on ourselves and what we need to do better.”

South River will open its season Friday with a home game against GMC Gold Division foe Middlesex at 5:30 pm.

Click below to hear South River senior Alex Grospe talk about the Rams’ upcoming season with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko:

January 20, 2023 by Mike Pavlichko

South River clears perhaps its biggest remaining hurdle, as Santos, Rodriguez power Rams past Chargers

Ever since Spotswood took its high schoolers out of South River and opened its own high school in 1976, Chargers-Rams has been an intense rivaly. And 47 years later, little has changed.

The crowd got here for the JV game and never left, and the doors were shut well before tip-off.

Spotswood kept it close for a while, down just eight points at the half.

But the fifth-ranked Rams (13-1, 9-0 GMC Blue) pulled away, getting well into double digits in the third, and beat Spotswood (11-4, 7-3) 73-51 before a packed house in South River.

Senior Roman Santos led all scorers with 18 points, 16 in the first three quarters. By then it was well in hand for the Rams. Santos’ final bucket, his only score in the final eight minutes, was a thunderous one-handed jam in transition.

Senior Laz Rodriguez added 17 in another very balanced game.

Spotswood kept punching, but every time they cut a double-digit lead to six or seven, the Rams always had an answer, and eventually, South River was just too much for them.

*Follow Sportsplex at Metuchen on Instagram for the latest on open gym sessions on their courts and turf!*

South River won its first meeting with the Chargers just two games into the season in Spotswood. That was a five-point game, and one of the toughest opponents they’ve played all year. It may have been their toughest remaining divisional challenge, as South River is widely considered to have a strong argument for the third-seed in the GMC Tournament next month – providing they don’t trip up the rest of the way – by virtue of beating St. Joseph-Metuchen after Christmas, and despite suffering its first loss of the season last weekend against Piscataway.

Click below for postgame reaction presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

Senior Alex Grospe

*South River sophomore Alex Grospe (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)*

Senior Kobe Taylor

Head Coach Brandon Walsh0

January 7, 2023 by Mike Pavlichko

No. 10 South River frustrates No. 6 Bound Brook in unbeaten clash at GMC-Skyland Challenge

Bound Brook led the game by four in the first minute or two, but never again against South River, as the 10th-ranked Rams knocked off the 6th-seeded Crusaders 66-61 Saturday night, in the finale of the GMC-Skyland Challnge, as heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

Once the Rams took the lead in the first, and went ahead by as many as 15 points at one stage, they never lost the lead, even though the advantage would shrink to single digits late in the third.

South river got off to a hot start thanks to Roman Santos, who had nine first-quarter points, including a couple of treys, but also quickly picked up two fouls and spent more time on the bench than he or his coach, Brandon Walsh, would have liked.

Laz Rodriguez had 15, with 11 coming in the second half, and eight in the fourth quarter.

But it was Alex Grospe – a sophomore – who earned Game MVP honors: 18 points, a pair of treys, and a balanced night. He also did it on the defensive end.