Tag: Bob Turco

by Mike Pavlichko

St. Thomas Aquinas ready to ride Silas to second straight GMCT title

If top-seeded St. Thomas Aquinas is to win the GMC Tournament championship for a “third” year in a row – last year’s mini four-game postseason pods due to COVID notwithstanding – Adam Silas will probably have his usual big game.

That’s not to say no one else will either.

Kamal Lee, Jalen Pichardo, Samar Abdullah

Every night, it’s someone different after Silas, and that’s what has made this year so special, according to head coach Dave Turco.

Tonight, the Trojans (25-1) will take on third-seed Colonia (21-3) for the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament Championship, in a game that can be heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio at 8 pm from Monroe High School. Mike Pavlichko and Justin Sontupe will call all the action. Click here to listen.

Aquinas is looking for the school’s second consecutive full GMC Tournament title, having won it in 2020 as the No. 2 seed, beating 4th-seed South Brunswick 63-52.

Before that, their only other title game appearance was in 1992, when Ahr was the top overall seed and beat 2-seed St. Joe’s of Metuchen 61-47. Bill Leahy was the Trojans coach at the time, and the Falcons were coached by the legendary Jon Somogyi.

Click below to hear a preview of tonight’s final with St. Thomas Aquinas head coach Bob Turco:

by Mike Pavlichko

Top-seed St. Thomas Aquinas punches second straight ticket to GMC Tourney finals with win “at” Monroe

Technically, it’s a neutral site. And as the lower seed, Monroe even wore its road purple uniforms.

But even with the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament semifinals being a “home” game for the Falcons, all the love, support and adulation of the home fans was not enough to overcome how good St. Thomas Aquinas is, even if the Trojans did struggle early in the game with Monroe’s defensive looks, and played a bit sloppy.

In the end, top-seed St. Thomas Aquinas did what it’s done all year: wear down and beat its opponents. And on Wednesday night, they beat the fourth-seeded Falcons 62-41 to go to a second straight GMC Tournament Final.

That will be Wednesday night at 8 pm against Colonia, back down at Monroe, after the Patriots knocked off St. Joe’s in the night’s first semifinal game. Both were heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

Adam Silas played another good game, even if he “only” had a pedestrian 16 point night, with only eight from the field to go along with an 8-for-8 night at the charity stripe.

Senior guard Samar Abdullah had a big third quarter – eight points, including a pair of treys – which turned out to be decisive; after leading just 25-22 following a low-scoring first-half, Aquinas exploded for a 24-point third quarter, including an 11-0 run that also included key buckets from sophomore Jaden Kelly.

Solid as St. Thomas Aquinas has been the last three seasons – still ranked No. 3 in the statewide rankings that came out today – it will be just their third appearance in a GMC final.

Aquinas won it all in 2020, beating 4-seed South Brunswick 63-52. That was their first title since their only other one, in their only other appearance in the title tilt, in 1992, when – as the top seed – they beat 2-seed St. Joseph 61-47. The legendary John Somogyi was their head coach.

Click below for postgame reaction from St. Thomas Aquinas’ semifinal win over Monroe, as head coach Bob Turco and senior Adam Silas talk with Mike Pavlichko:

by Mike Pavlichko

Aquinas ready to ride Silas into GMC Tournament finals

Jaquan Harris – the Seton Hall-bound guard – has been out since late last season with a knee injury that required surgery, and he may or may not be back in time for the state playoffs. The timetable is similar for Terrell Pitts – one of the team’s premiere defenders – who has a deep bone bruise suffered nearly two weeks ago.

That didn’t matter in a win over Gill St. Bernard’s in a statewide top four battle nearly two weeks ago, and the reason was Adam Silas.

As it has been all year.

Silas has taken this team on his back, both stat-wise, and – much to head coach Bob Turco’s pleasure – mentally and emotionally, as the leader he always thought he could be and wanted him to be.

Tonight, Silas will be front and center as the top-seeded Trojans (24-1) take on fourth-seed Monroe (21-3) in the second game of the Greater Middlesex Conference tournament semifinals, set for 7:30 at Monroe High School.

You can hear all the action on Central Jersey Sports Radio beginning at 4:45 pm with Mike Pavlichko and the pregame for the night’s first matchup, which features 2nd-seed St. Joseph-Metuchen and 3rd-seed Colonia. Click here to listen.

Click below to hear Mike Pavlichko talk head coach Bob Turco about the matchup with Monroe, the school where he got his head coaching start:

by Mike Pavlichko

Silas, No. 1 St. Thomas Aquinas knock off No. 2 Gill St. Bernard’s in thriller at Heart 2 Hear Invitational

Each team was missing key players – Terrell Pitts and Jaquan Harris for St. Thomas Aquinas, and Denver Anglin and Naasir Cunnigham for Gill St. Bernard’s – but there was no lack of star power for either side.

Ultimately, it was Adam Silas’ career-high 33 points that powered top-ranked St. Thomas Aquinas over 2nd-ranked Gill St. Bernard’s, 65-61, in a game heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio Saturday night at the Hearts 2 Hands Invitational at Roselle Catholic.

The senior guard consistently hit big shot after big shot, outudeling Gill’s duo of Mackenzie Mgbako – who finished with 26 for Gill – and Giancarlo Pejuero, who scored all 15 points of his in the second half.

He also had a good supporting cast. Jalen Pichardo played well defensively when he drew Mgbako, Kamal Lee was everywhere on defense and had some key rebounds, and Jaden Kelly had three more treys as Auquinas hit the bottom of the net nine times from downtown. (That was far from the season high they had earlier this week against Sayreville, however, when they dropped 14 from beyond the arc.)

And yet, the game could have been over pretty quickly. Gill jumped out to a 13-point first-quarter lead, and led by as many as 15 in the second quarter, 23-8. But Aquinas put together a 23-4 run the rest of the half and took a 31-27 lead into the locker room.

The lead changed hands a few more times in the third quarter, but Aquinas would pull ahead late, and hold off Gill with solid defense to pull off the victory, to improve to 22-1 on the season, and hold on to the top ranking in the Bellamy & Son Paving Top Ten. The Knights dropped to 13-6.

It was a matchup of two of the top teams in the state, as Gill St. Bernard’s was ranked third in the statewide rankings entering the evening, and the Trojans were ranked fourth.

Gill also was missing head coach Mergin Sina, who injured his back during the week and was in the gym just before tip-off, but apparently couldn’t give it a go on the bench, with assistant Joe McDonald taking over.

Click below for postgame reaction with Aquinas head coach Bob Turco and senior guard Adam Silas:

Hudson Catholic 80, St. Joseph-Metuchen 67

Three Falcons scored in double figures, but St. Joseph of Metuchen fell behind by double digits in the first quarter and couldn’t recover, falling to state-ranked No. 5 Hudson Catholic 80-67 in the first of two games broadcast by Central Jersey Sports Radio from the Hearts 2 Hands Invitational at Roselle Catholic High School Saturday night.

Ethan Simmon scored 24 points and had five treys, but only six came in what turned out to be the pivotal first half, which saw Joe’s (16-5) trail by eleven at the end of the first eight minutes of play, and 16 at the intermission, 43-27.

Josh Ingram added 18, and Amari Campbell chipped in with 15.

by Mike Pavlichko

St. Thomas Aquinas up for its toughest challenge to date when Trojans face Gill St. Bernards in Saturday showcase

They were an early invitation, then COVID mangled things, the date was off, then it was back on again.

But no matter how you slice it, St. Thomas Aquinas is happy to be playing Gill St. Bernard’s Saturday night in the headline game of the Hearts 2 Hands Invitational at Roselle Catholic, a huge high school basketball game that can be heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

The game is scheduled for 7:45 pm, and will immediately follow CJSR’s coverage of the third game of the four-game showcase, St. Joseph-Metuchen against Hudson Catholic.

You can listen live by clicking here.

Aquinas is ranked No. 4 in the state by NJ.com, and Gill St. Bernard’s is No. 3. The Bellamy & Son Paving Top Ten rankings on Central Jersey Sports Radio have it flip-flopped: the Trojans are No. 1 and the Knights are No. 2.

Until a couple of weeks ago, this game wasn’t on the calendar, and who knows if the teams ever would have faced off in the state tournament, where both would have to win very difficult sections – Aquinas in South A, Gill in North B – win their group, and get lucky enough to meet in the Tournament of Champions.

Now, we can find out who’s No. 1 and who’s No. 2 in February.

Click below to hear Mike Pavlichko talk with St. Thomas Aquinas head coach Bob Turco about the team’s season, including their first loss last weekend to George (PA), and their matchup with Gill St. Bernard’s:

by Mike Pavlichko

No. 1 Aquinas takes GMC White title with win over No. 4 Colonia, stakes claim to top seed in GMC Tournament

The Trojans threw the first punch. Colonia answered. Then St. Thomas Aquinas went got the takedown.

Top-ranked Aquinas beat No. 4 Colonia Thursday night 68-54 in a game heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio, to sweep the season series from the Patriots, clinch the Greater Middlesex White Division title, and lay claim to the top seed in the GMC Tournament when it’s seeded a week from today.

Now 19-0 – owners of the state’s second-longest winning streak, behind only Bound Brook, which has won 27 straight since the beginning of last season – Aquinas has beaten everyone in it’s division, as well as St. Joseph-Metuchen, the top team in the GMC Red Division. That should be enough to give the Trojans the No. 1 seed.

Aquinas took a 3-0 lead to start the game, and built it to a 13-point advantage in the second quarter. But Colonia, on the strength of four treys from the combo of Saivon Pressley, Matthew Scherb and Billy Anderson, tied the score 28-all shortly before half, only to see the Trojans go on a mini 4-0 run off a pair of turnovers to take a 32-28 lead into the locker room.

In the third quarter, Colonia went ahead by three with under five minutes to go in the period. Aquinas was in the rare position of playing from behind. But fueled by great team defense, led by Adam Silas and Kamal Lee, constantly poking at the basketball, often leading to transition buckets, Aquinas wrestled back the lead, took a four-point advantage into the fourth quarter, then pulled away.

Colonia dropped to 13-3, 10-2 in the GMC White, with their only non-division loss coming out-of-conference to Lenape.

Click below to listen to St. Thomas Aquinas head coach Bob Turco and senior guard Adam Silas talk with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko and Justin Sontupe after the game:

by Mike Pavlichko

No. 1 St. Thomas Aquinas, rolling through GMC, faces Colonia rematch with potential top seed in county tournament on the line

All apologies to the rest of the Greater Middlesex Conference, but St. Thomas Aquinas has not faced much of a challenge in league play this year. And that’s without Seton Hall-bound senior Jaquan Harris, who’s still recovering from knee surgery due to tendinitis that sidelined him late last season.

Not that out-of-conference opponents are faring much better, but in 13 league games – including just one divisional crossover against St. Joseph-Metuchen – the Trojans (18-0) are outscoring opponents 79-37. Take out the 64-57 win against the Falcons, and they are winning White Division games by an average 80-35, a whopping plus-45.

They’ve beaten their five non-conference opponents – Shawnee, St. Joseph-by-the-Sea (NY), Archbishop Carroll (PA), Plainfield and Morris Catholic 64-42 on average, “only” a plus-22.

Thursday night – in a game to be broadcast live by Central Jersey Sports Radio – top-ranked St. Thomas Aquinas will host No. 4 Colonia (13-2), maybe the only team left in the division this regular season that has a shot to beat them.

The Patriots – themselves ranked No. 1 at the time – fell 12 points shy in a highly-anticipated January 11th matchup at Colonia, and that’s the closest any divisional opponent has come to knocking off the Trojans. (St. Joe’s-Metuchen lost to them by seven in December.) Colonia’s only two losses have come to Aquinas, and non-conference opponent Lenape.

Mike Pavlichko and Justin Sontupe will call all the action, beginning with pregame at approximately 6:45 pm. Tip-off is at 7, and you can click here to listen for free.

Of course, the last time these teams met in Aquinas’ gym was last March in the de facto GMC Championship Game, the top-grouping Karl -Anthony Towns/Jay Williams Pod final, and that one saw Aquinas lead for much of the first half, only to have Colonia rally in the second half to win, fueled by some big three-point shooting.

Should Aquinas win, it would sweep the season series, and barring a loss elsewhere in the division – highly unlikely – they would be the top-seed in the GMC Tournament, having beaten the first-place team in the next division up, St. Joe’s in the Red.

A loss, and they would have a split with Colonia, which didn’t play St. Joe’s, leading to a potentially interesting debate next Thursday morning when the GMC Tournament is seeded.

Click below to hear St. Thomas Aquinas head coach Bob Turco talk with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko about the Trojans’ season so far, and Thursday’s matchup with Colonia:

by Mike Pavlichko

No. 3 Aquinas stays unbeaten, holds off No. 1 Colonia in GMC White battle

In a highly-anticipated matchup Tuesday night, St. Thomas Aquinas exacted a bit of revenge for a loss on its very own floor to Colonia in last year’s top GMC pod championship game.

The stakes weren’t as high, to be sure, but the third-ranked Trojans got by No. 1 Colonia on the road 64-52, improving their record to 10-0. The Patriots (5-2) have lost two straight.

But don’t tell senior guard Adam Silas the stakes weren’t as high. All he did was pour in a career-best 28 points in an inspired effort. Last year’s game was fresh in his mind,

READ MORE: Third-ranked Aquinas puts unbeaten mark on the line against No. 1 Colonia, the last team to beat them

And then there was the defensive effort Aquinas gave against the Greater Middlesex Conference’s leading scorer, Saivon Pressley. The senior guard was held to just eight points in defeat; Billy Anderson paced the Patriots with 14.

The game was close at halftime, with Aquinas leading by just four points, but Silas’ contributions and a steady defense helped quickly build a double-digit lead the Trojans maintained most of the second half.

Click below to hear Mike Pavlichko talk with St. Thomas Aquinas head coach Bob Turco about the win against Colonia, and the team’s 10-0 start: