Donnie Reid – Central Jersey Sports Radio

Midway through the second quarter, it appeared Sayreville basketball coach John Wojcik would be stuck at 199 career wins for at least another couple of days.

The seventh-seeded Bombers (15-9, 4-4 GMC Red National) trailed 25-13 to tenth-seeded Perth Amboy at home, as the Panthers (21-5, 12-0 GMC White American) controlled the physicality on both sides of the floor in the early goings.

But Sayreville rallied on its home floor and had to survive late in the game for a 59-53 victory in the GMC Tournament’s round of 16, giving a relieved Wojcik a milestone victory, and an extremely hard-fought one at that.

Senior guard Sam Jones — the school’s all-time leading scorer — finished the game with 23 points to lead all scorers. He knocked down a trio of three-pointers and hit clutch free throws late as the Bombers nursed a one-score lead in the final minute. Senior forward Chidi Chukwurah battled foul trouble all night long, including three first-half fouls, but scored all but one of his 19 points in the second half, even while dealing with four fouls for much of the half. It was an extremely physical matchup all night long, with both teams combining for 44 personal fouls (22 apiece). Eight players finished the night with at least three fouls.

Senior guard Ziyan Jones scored 14 points — including nine in the second half — to help make up nearly all of Sayreville’s scoring. Sophomore guard Trevor Yan knocked down a transition three in the second quarter — just his third basket and 13th point of the entire season — to help the Bombers weather the storm, and was the only Sayreville basket not from the trio of Sam Jones, Chukwurah, and Ziyan Jones.

Perth Amboy put together an impressive opening quarter with a 19-9 lead after eight minutes, led by a balanced scoring effort and hard-nosed play at the basket. Senior guard Bryham Paulino knocked down two of his five three-pointers in the opening stretch, and the Panthers got five and four points from Kasey Abreu and Yandel Susana, respectively. The Bombers struggled to consistently get into their half-court offense to start the game thanks to a hounding perimeter defensive effort from Perth Amboy, and the Panthers were able to get easy baskets early with their ball movement against the opposing zone.

Those trends continued into the second quarter, as the lead continued to grow. Ricardo Reyes scored three times at the rim and it appeared that Perth Amboy had Sayreville rattled on its home floor.

But the Bombers finally got going on defense, and started putting together productive drives at the basket to either score or set up an open shooter. Jones hit a three and a midrange jumper, as Sayreville put together enough momentum to trail 27-20 at the half.

And whatever Wojcik said at halftime worked pretty well.

The Bombers stormed out of the gate with two straight baskets sandwiching a forced turnover to bring it to a one-possession game, and Sayreville controlled the rest of the quarter. Chukwurah made his presence felt amid foul trouble, battling through double- and even triple-teams in the post and avoiding the eliminating fifth foul countless times. He added ten points in the quarter, and the Jones duo scored five apiece as Sayreville matched its first-half point total of 20 in the third quarter alone. It also held Perth Amboy to seven — all from Susana — and took a six-point lead into the final eight minutes.

The Panthers weren’t quite done yet, though.

Both teams turned up the pace as Perth Amboy knocked down big shot after big shot to prevent the Bombers from truly pulling away, led by a trio of threes from Paulino, each more critical than the last. Susana continued his savvy scoring with drives to the basket, and all of a sudden, Perth Amboy found itself back in the lead with under four minutes to play.

But just like the third quarter, both Jones’s hit timely shots as Chukwurah controlled the post, and by the end of the frenzy, Jones knocked down two critical free throws with 30 seconds to play to put the Bombers up by four, a lead they would not relinquish.

Sayreville moves on to the GMC Tournament quarterfinals, where it will travel to Piscataway and face the second-seeded Chiefs on Saturday, February 14th at 1 pm. They defeated 18-seed North Plainfield 95-40 on Thursday. Piscataway defeated the Bombers 73-62 in last year’s GMC Tournament semifinals.

Click below for postgame reaction with Sayreville senior guard Sam Jones and head coach John Wojcik in his 200th victory, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

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: