Tag: Bob Turco

February 27, 2023February 27, 2023 by Mike Pavlichko

Roselle Catholic’s early spurt keeps Aquinas behind the eight ball all night, ends Trojans’ season in sectional semis

St. Thomas Aquinas brought its A game against Roselle Catholic. Or at least its A effort..

But it still wasn’t enough as the fourth-seeded Rams – the No. 1 team in New Jersey – proved why it deserved that ranking with a 90-72 win over top-seed St. Thomas Aquinas – ranked No. 5 in New Jersey – in the Non-Public North B Semifinals in North Edison Monday night, as heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

The Rams – with several high-level Division 1 college recruits – jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the first couple of minutes before Aquinas head coach Bob Turco called a timeout to stop the bleeding. It worked, if only momentarily, as the Trojans got the next two buckets to cut it to 10-4.

But Roselle Catholic went on a 15-9 run from there to close the half with a 25-15 lead, and built their lead by five more points at halftime, taking a 47-32 lead into the break that they could not overcome.

The loss ends the season for Aquinas at 25-4, and ends the scholastic careers of three senior starters, Kamal Lee, Terrell Pitts and Jalen Pichardo. Bench players Chris Santner and Sherief Guinyard also will graduate.

The game had all the hype leading up to it, and it wasn’t even a title game. It was just a semifinal, with the Rams seeded fourth and Aquinas first based on power points, not human rankings, which bore themselves out in the game.

North-Carolina bound Simeon Wilcher led all scorers with 27 for Roselle Catholic, and Mackenzie Mgbako – in his first action since late January, added 13. Michael “Deuce” Jones led the Trojans with 19 in defeat.

Roselle Catholic (20-5) now goes on to the Non-Public North B title game Wednesday night at 5 pm at Franklin, against the winner of second-seed Gill St. Bernard’s and 6th-seed Montclair-Immaculate.

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

COMING SOON! Postgame reaction from CJSR’s Justin Sontupe with Aquinas head coach Bob Turco, presented by SportsPlex at Metuchen.

February 27, 2023February 27, 2023 by Mike Pavlichko

Statewide Top 5 battle on tap in Non-Public North B semis, as St. Thomas Aquinas squares off with Roselle Catholic

It’s a game that’s more befitting a sectional final, a group final, or maybe even a Tournament of Champions final – if they still played it.

But it’s only going to be a trip to a title game on the line Monday night when top-seed St. Thomas Aquinas (25-3) welcomes fourth-seed Roselle Catholic (19-5) into the Trojans’ tiny, sweaty gym in the a Non-Public North B semifinal game at 6 pm, that can be heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

Justin Sontupe and Chris Tsakonas will call all the play-by-play of what is a marquee state matchup, with pregame beginning at 5:45 pm. Click here to listen to the fill broadcast live on Monday night.

Aquinas is the three-time defending Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament Champion, and has gone 84-15 over the past four seasons. They’ve got some great players who are household names in the GMC, including Jaden Kelly, Jalen Pichardo, Terrell Pitts, and seamlessly added Trenton Catholic transfer Michael “Deuce” Jones to the mix this year.

That’s all well and good, but Roselle Catholic – last year’s last-ever TOC winner – is stacked with major D-1 talent. Senior guard Simeon Wilcher is going to the ACC to play for North Carolina. Akil Watson is committed to Arizona State. Mackenzie Mgbako will face Wilcher in the ACC at Duke. Tarik Watson, Akil’s younger brother also is a physical presence.

And even though Mgbako – the transfer from Gill St. Bernard’s – is injured, and hasn’t played since late January, there’s plenty of talent at the ready for the Rams, who count three losses to teams ranked No. 1 nationally – Duncanville (TX), Paul VI (VA) and Montverde (FL) – among their five losses.

In fact, Roselle Catholic hasn’t lost to a New Jersey opponent since dropping its opener last year to Camden, the team it beat to win the Tournament of Champions.

Click below to hear Justin Sontupe talk about the matchup with St. Thomas Aquinas head coach Bob Turco:

February 17, 2023 by Mike Pavlichko

St. Thomas Aquinas boys win back-and-forth GMC Tournament final to complete the three-peat

In a game that saw 18 lead changes – ten in the third quarter – and neither team lead by more than six, No. 1 seed St. Thomas Aquinas got by No. 7 seed South Brunswick 53-50 to win the GMC Tournament Boys’ Championship, as heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio Friday night from Monroe Township High School, presented by Dayton Toyota Service and Dayton Collision.

South Brunswick (17-6) had been vying to be the lowest seeded team to win the title, which has never been won by any lower than a sixth-seed.

Instead, the Trojans (24-3) now have won three full GMC Tournament Championships in a row, and – coupled with their girls’ 49-42 win over Colonia earlier in the evening – you can make it three straight sweeps by the Aquinas girls’ and boys. No other school has done that.

Deuce Jones led Aquinas with 21 points; the Trenton Catholic transfer had two thunderous jams that brought Monroe’s gym to its feet.

South Brunswick led after each of the first three quarters, even though the third was back and forth. St. Thomas Aquinas – which only led by as many as two until taking the lead late in the fourth quarter, was up two with 34.9 seconds to go when Jones – shooting only 5 of 10 from the line at that point, strode to the foul line and hit two free throws to put Aquinas up by four.

South Brunswick senior Harmehar Chhabra scored on a drive to cut it to two, and after an Arshvir Singh foul sent Jaden Kelly to the line and he split a pair, the Vikings had it with 14.9 seconds to go, down 53-50.

South called time out, and on the ensuing inbound, Chhabra got the ball up the floor, but the play designed in the huddle by head coach Joe Hoehman seemed to not materialize. Stuck, Chhabra threw up a three from right of the key with just one foot on the hardwood. It hit the back iron, the rebound tipped around, time expired, and the Trojans had their championship.

Kalani Antoine of South Brunswick had game-high honores, with 23, including three treys, and two big ones in the third quarter when the game was back-and-forth.

Click below for postgame reaction sponsored by SportsPlex at Metuchen:

St. Thomas Aquinas junior Michael “Deuce” Jones

St. Thomas Aquinas head coach Bob Turco

February 15, 2023 by Mike Pavlichko

St. Thomas Aquinas “stuns” St. Joseph, bombing the Falcons in GMCT semis to move on to the finals yet again

It wasn’t “stunning” in terms of the result, or maybe even the margin, since it’s what St. Thomas Aquinas has been doing to opponents all year long.

But the fact that the Trojans and St. Joseph-Metuchen have played two games this year with a grand total differential of seven points – both Aquinas wins – made what happened in Wednesday night’s GMC Tournament semifinals stunning in every sense of the word.

Aquinas hit five of its first six three-point attempts before Joe’s could even blink, and found themselves with a 15-0 lead just over two minutes into the game.

Overall, the Trojans (23-3) hit 15 threes in the game, the most by Aquinas in the past five years under head coach Bob Turco. All five starters scored in double figures, seven different players hit from downtown, and two – Terrell Pitts and Deuce Jones – had a pair of thunderous jams each.

Jones led all scorers with 16, including three treys. Kamal Lee had 12, all on threes. Jaden Kelly had 15, including three trays. Jalen Pichardo has 12 including two threes, while Samir Thomas, Jebron Harris and Sherief Guinyard each had threes off the bench.

In a losing cause for St. Joe’s (15-10), senior Josh Ingram finished with 28 points, enough on a normal night, but this one was anything but, with Aquinas bringing it’s A++ game.

Now, the GMC Tournament Finals Friday night are set. Top-seed and two-time defending champ St. Thomas Aquinas will take on seventh-seed South Brunswick at 8 pm on Central Jersey Sports Radio. No team higher than a six-seed has ever won the GMC or Middlesex County Tournament

St. Thomas Aquinas Senior Jalen Pichardo and junior Michael “Deuce” Jones

St. Thomas Aquinas Head Coach Bob Turco

January 17, 2023 by Mike Pavlichko

St. Thomas Aquinas makes big plays down the stretch in all-out battle at St. Joseph to win Red Division title, virtually assuring No. 1 seed in GMC Tourney

Not only did top-ranked St. Thomas Aquinas make big plays, but they made free throws, which so often can make-or-break a team.

It made the Trojans GMC Red Division champions Tuesday night, as they beat St. Joseph in Metuchen 66-62, in a game heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

In the pivotal fourth quarter, with the Falcons hanging around longer than most outside their locker room would have given them credit for, Aquinas hit 12-of-12 from the charity stripe.

“Deuce” Jones led the Trojans (15-1) with 16 points, while Jalen Pichardo tallied a double-double of 15 points and 10 boards, his fourth of the season. It was his highest scoring output of the calendar year.

The win clinched the Red Division title outright for Aquinas, which finishes the first go-through of the division schedule – the only one that counts under a one-year pilot program in the GMC Red – with an 8-0 mark.

It was also St. Thomas’ fifth straight division title – the most recent three being in the White Division, and the one before that in the Blue in 2018-19 – and the Trojans’ 54th straight divisional regular season win. They last loss in divisional play was in the Blue on January 26, 2017, by a 70-62 score at Carteret.

Jeremy Clayville had game-high honors and kept his team in it all night, hitting four treys, one from as far away as 27 feet in the second half. Josh Ingram chipped in 14.

The teams exchanged the lead six times in the first half, but never again the rest of the game. Aquinas looked like it might pull away in the second quarter, as it got out to a ten-point lead, the biggest of the game, but the Falcons stayed in it by playing good defense, chipping away to go into the home locker room down 30-27.

And it never got much bigger than a two-possession game in the second half, with Joe’s closing to within one point on several occasions, including 44-43 at the end of the third quarter, and even tying it at 50 with just under five minutes left. But they could never get over the hump.

No. 1 Aquinas uses defense to topple No. 3 Colonia, take control of GMC Red race

Even when Samir Thomas sank four threes in rapid succession in the second quarter, the game was far from over.

He got top-ranked St. Thomas Aquinas back in the game when his team was down five, at 25-20 in the second. Then gave his team the leas as the Trojans took a 15-5 run into the locker room to lead 35-30 at the half.

Turco talks Trojans ahead of Colonia clash

Nearly every game between the two teams – whoever wins them – has been an all-out battle.

Whether it was St. Thomas Aquinas winning all three matchups last year, including the GMC Tournament final, or the Trojans beating Colonia in their only regular season meeting of the COVID-shortened 2021 season, only to have the Patriots beat them on their home court in the GMC top pod title game, they have all been bitter battles.

Add to that the implications of Thursday night’s game between top-ranked St. Thomas Aquinas (11-1) and No. 3 Colonia (10-0), and it should be a good one in North Edison.

You can hear the game, of course, on Central Jersey Sports Radio, with Mike Pavlichko and Justin Sontupe calling all the action. Pre-game starts at approximately 6:35, with tip-off at 7:00. Click here to listen to the live broadcast for free.

The implications for GMC Tournament seeding and the all-important Red Division title are this: since only one round of games through the division count, under a one-year pilot program approved last spring by the GMC, should Colonia beat St. Thomas, the Patriots would be the outright Red Division champs, by virtue of being 2-0 against Aquinas and St. Joseph of Metuchen, which they beat in triple overtime back on January 20th.

Should Aquinas win, both the Trojans and Patriots would have one win each, and Tuesday’s matchup of Aquinas at St. Joe’s becomes huge. A win there for STA would give them the division outright, as they would have two wins and Colonia one.

A win for the Falcons would force a three-way tie, and all three would be Co-Champions. To break the tie at the GMC seeding meeting in February, the second round of games between the three schools would have to be considered since they’re head-to-head matchups. Then, all three teams would be back in play to come out of the Red first, and likely earn the top-seed.

But there’s a big game to be played in North Edison first on Thursday night before we get to all that.

Click below to hear St. Thomas Aquinas head coach Bob Turco talk about his team’s 11-1 start, and Thursday’s matchup with Colonia:

December 15, 2022December 13, 2022 by Mike Pavlichko

With Silas gone, St. Thomas Aquinas will look to veteran starters to step up

Adam Silas was easily the face, heart and soul of the St. Thomas Aquinas boys’ basketball team last season.

He and his teammates took home a second straight GMC Tournament title, and even knocked off powerhouse Gill St. Bernard’s in a huge showcase game at Roselle Catholic in February, en route to a 27-2 season.

Silas is now at Wofford in South Carolina, averaging eleven minutes and 3.3 points per game as a freshman, and fellow guard Samar Abdullah is scoring five points a game at undefeated 8-0 Montclair State, hitting 8-of-15 from beyond the arc. But it hardly means the cupboard is bare.

Head coach Bob Turco expects his senior-laden team to be another solid defensive group, a characteristic the Trojans stake their reputation on every time they hit the court. Key starters are back, including football player and senior Sherief Guinyard (5.8 ppg last season), along with fellow seniors Kamal Lee (7.8 ppg), Jalen Pichardo (10.1 ppg) and Terrell Pitts (13.5 ppg).

In a rebalanced Greater Middlesex Conference, Aquinas will play a tougher schedule this year. The Trojans – along with Colonia, their arch-rivals in the GMC White the last several years – move on up to the Red, while New Brunswick and Perth Amboy take their place in the White.

Aquinas opens its season Thursday at 5:30 pm with a division game at JP Stevens.

They will appear twice in the regular season on Central Jersey Sports Radio in a span of six days in January, in two critical Red Division games: entertaining Colonia on the 12th, and just down the road at St. Joseph-Metuchen on the 17th.

Click below to hear Mike Pavlichko talk with St. Thomas Aquinas head coach Bob Turco about the upcoming season:

March 7, 2022March 7, 2022 by Mike Pavlichko

Aquinas, Rutgers Prep boys square off looking to make history in states

One way or another, St. Thomas Aquinas and Rutgers Prep are battling for a chance at history tonight, in addition to keeping their seasons alive.

When the 2nd-seeded Trojans and 3rd-seeded Argonauts face off in an NJSIAA state tournament Non-Public South A semifinal game tonight in North Edison, the winner will have a chance to do something they’ve never done before: win a sectional championship.

Central Jersey Sports Radio will broadcast Monday night’s game live, with pregame beginning at 5:45 pm, and tip-off set for 6:00. Mike Pavlichko will call all the action. Listen live by clicking here.

Aquinas (27-1) already is having a historic season, setting a school record for wins, and winning its second straight GMC Tournament championship (winning in 2020 and 2021; the 2020 season featured eight four-team pods).

The Trojans are led by Adam Silas, a senior who is having a monster year. He has notched five different career highs in scoring this season, capping it off with 37 in the GMC Tournament final, the second highest GMCT scoring effort since the league’s inception in the mid-1980s, second only to the late Keith Hughes of Carteret. It was the fourth-highest scoring total in a final dating back to the Middlesex County Tournament of the 1960s.

Silas is averaging 19.3 points per game, and five assists per game, to go along with 61 steals and 53 treys, all team bests.

Aquinas plays stingy, pesky, annoying defense. Junior Terrell Pitts – perhaps the team’s best defender – came back for the team’s quarterfinal win over St. John Vianney, and led the team with 14 points.

FEATURE: The veteran, the leader, and the newcomer: why St. Thomas Aquinas has a shot to win it all

For Rutgers Prep, junior guard Jadin Collins leads the way at 16.7 points per game, while senior point guard Ryan Pettit sets everyone up, averaging over six assists per game; but he plays defense, too, notching 4.3 steals per contest. Then there’s the long Ryan Zan, a 6-7 senior who transferred from Ranney Prep, who could present matchup issues for Aquinas, which is smaller, but plays bigger than it looks.

The Argonauts made the last Non-Public South A finals – in 2020 – losing to Wildwood Catholic in the finals, 80-67. Their history in the NJSIAA is short-lived, as the school played a prep schedule until the 2012-13 season, when they began NJSIAA play. They are 12-8 all-time in the state tournament, and have never missed the states in eight years, but are playing in just their third semifinals.

Both teams are ranked in the Top 20 in the state: Aquinas at No. 3 and Rutgers Prep at No. 9.

DID YOU KNOW? Before this season, St. Thomas Aquinas/Bishop Ahr had won only one NJSIAA playoff game in its entire history? That came in 2019, Bob Turco’s first season, a 75-48 home win over Donovan Catholic in the Non-Public South A first round. The Trojans are 2-2 under Turco in state tournament playoff games.

Click below to hear previews of tonight’s game with both coaches:

St. Thomas Aquinas head coach Bob Turco

February 26, 2022February 26, 2022 by Mike Pavlichko

CLEAN SWEEP! St. Thomas Aquinas boys win GMC Tourney title, make it two trophies for the Trojans in one night

The St. Thomas Aquinas girls’ basketball team had done its part, and it was all up to the boys.

The Trojans had beaten Colonia twice this regular season, and even once last regular season. But in the 2021 Towns/Williams GMC top pod, the Patriots got the better of them.

They almost let it happen twice.

Third-seed Colonia jumped out to an 11-2 lead with a balanced scoring attack, a three by red-hot senior Saivon Pressley, and buckets from Jaeden Jones, Billy Anderson and Justin Gordon.

But the top-seeded Trojans – ranked third in New Jersey – were too talented and had come to far to let it go that way the rest of the night. In fact, they answered with an 11-2 run of their own to tie the score at 30-30.

Then they took the lead, and never looked back, even though Colonia would mount a furious comeback. They just couldn’t get close enough to get over the hump.

A major reason why was a thorn in every opponent’s side this season, senior Adam Silas, who recorded yet another – his fifth – career high game in the 2021-22 campaign. Silas scored an all-time high school personal best 37 points – 18 in the first half, 19 in the second – to help give his team the 69-53 win, and a second straight GMC Tournament title.

He finished the county playoffs with 86 points in four games, and was named the GMC Tournament MVP.

Click below for postgame reaction from Silas and head coach Bob Turco, who joined Mike Pavlichko live on the postgame show:

NUGGETS:

St. Thomas Aquinas is now a perfect 3-0 in the GMC Finals. As the 2nd-seed, they beat 4th-seed South Brunswick in the 2020 final by a 63-52 score. Their only appearance prior to that was in 1992 under the Bishop Ahr moniker. Like this year, they were the top seed, and beat 2-seed St. Joseph-Metuchen 61-47. Bill Leahy was the Trojans’ head coach, while the legendary John Somogyi coached the Falcons.
Aquinas head coach Bob Turco is now one of 13 coaches with multiple GMC Tournament wins. He’s 2-1, with both wins at his current school. The lone loss came in 2010, as head coach at Monroe, to his brother, Dave, at St. Joe’s. Dave is 8-4 (7-3 with the Falcons, 1-1 at the Turcos’ alma mater, Carteret) and was in attendance Friday night, dressed in Kean University blue, where he’s the current head coach (and his high school teammate, Lamont Repollet, is the school’s president).
The 37 points by Tourney MVP Adam Silas ranks as the second-best single-game performance in the history of the GMC Finals. Only Keith Hughes – who scored 40 in Carteret’s 1986 title win scored more. If you include the Middlesex County Tournament (1965-1985), two more were better than that: Gary Brokaw of New Brunswick scored 46 in a losing effort against Metuchen in 1971, and John Somogyi of now-defunct St. Peter’s in New Brunswick poured in 49 in 1968’s title game against unseeded Piscataway.
Silas’ three treys were also fourth-most in a GMC final. 13 others have done it, the most recent being Karl Towns of St. Joe’s. Three players have hit four in a game, and two have hit five. Darren Smith of South Plainfield holds the record with six.
While Aquinas is 3-0 in GMC finals, Colonia is 5-4 all-time in MCT/GMCT championship games.
While it woulnd’t have mattered who won the game, the GMC White Division officially has now won 13 titles, trailing the Red Division by ten. It’s won 23, the Blue has won 6, and no Gold team has ever taken the title.
It was also the 26th title for the No. 1 seed in the tournament. But winning it all is hardly a lock when facing the No. 2 seed. When the top two teams make the final, the No. 1 seed is now 15-11, including 9-6 in the GMC and 5-5 in the MCT.