Tag: John Wojcik

February 12, 2026February 13, 2026 by Alec Crouthamel

Sayreville comes from behind, grinds out GMC Tournament win over Perth Amboy for Wojcik’s 200th

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:

January 9, 2026January 9, 2026 by Mike Pavlichko

Rematch between No. 7 East Brunswick and Sayreville Saturday should have tournament feel

In their first meeting less than a month ago, the East Brunswick and Sayreville boys’ basketball teams played a tight game from wire to tire, won by the Bears, 58-53.

If that one is any indication, Round Two between the GMC Red National Division rivals should be very much the same.

They will meet with a lot on the line Saturday afternoon – in a game you can hear on Central Jersey Sports Radio – with an East Brunswick win giving them the inside track at the division title, with still a lot of basketball to be played.

A Bombers’ win would split the season series, and leave the two tied for first place.

With the GMC’s new divisional alignments come the tossing out of an age-old rule that division winners were guaranteed to get the top eight seeds (back when there were four divisions), or a top 12 seed when the league had five divisions, as it did the last couple of years. Teams can only get seeded, however, based on order of finish in their division, which puts even more importance on the game; the winner of the Red National Division will be the first team out of that division to be seeded in the GMCT.

You can hear Saturday’s game live with Mike Pavlichko on the play-by-play, starting with pregame at 12:45 and tip-off at 1 pm. Click here to listen.

The teams are actually pretty similar. While seventh-ranked East Brunswick is 10-1 overall, and Sayreville 7-3, each has two big scorers surrounded by more-than-capable supporting casts.

For the Bears, it’s Cam Vick, who just joined the 1,000-point club with 22 points Thursday night in a 72-40 rout of Monroe. The senior is averaging 16.9 points per game on the season, second only to fellow senior Matt Mikulka, and has scored in double figures in all eleven games this season.

Mikulka is the school’s all-time leading boys’ basketball scorer, with 1,585 points, and he leads the team at 21.1 points per game, and 27 treys. He set the program record last year, passing Rob Ukuwuba, who ironically played on the last Bears team to get off to this good a start. Current head coach Mark Motusesky was the top assistant on that team in the mid-2010s, working under legendary boys’ coach Bo Henning.

For the Bombers, senior forward Chidi Chukwurah is the top scorer at 21.7 points per game, and he has a team-best 40 assists, while senior guard Sam Jones is No. 2 at 19.8 points per game, including a team-best 22 triples.

For both squads, it’s been a slow, but steady, climb to where they are now. This East Brunswick program has had ups and downs – part of the cyclical nature of public school high school sports – but this group has played together for years, now seeing their hard work pay off.

Sayreville has been rebuilding in the program’s second stint under John Wojcik, now in his sixth year on his second go-round. He coached the Bombers for nine years before leaving after the 2017-18 season to be an assistant at Ramapo College, his alma mater, returning to the Parlin school two years later.

Click below to hear previews of the game with both head coaches and Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko:

East Brunswick head coach Mark Motusesky

Sayreville head coach John Wojcik

February 19, 2025February 19, 2025 by Mike Pavlichko

Resurgent Piscataway and rebuilt Sayreville to clash in GMCT semis Tuesday for trip to Finals

Calling the Piscataway and Sayreville boys’ basketball teams surprises this year might not be the most accurate way to describe them, so maybe a better phrase would be “pleasant surprises.”

When Bob Turco left St. Thomas Aquinas after six highly successful seasons and three GMC Tournament championships, no one was quite sure how the Chiefs would be, although everyone knew what kind of coach they were getting.

And everyone knows what kind of coach Sayreville has, too. John Wojcik has been at the school for 16 seasons, but they’re having their best year since 2016-17, when they went 22-8, and made it to the GMC Tournament final, falling to St. Joseph-Metuchen in the midst of their unprecedented run of nine county titles in ten years.

So, yeah, pleasant surprise, but maybe not really a surprise at all.

Tuesday night, the two will meet at Monroe High School in the GMC Tournament semifinals, the first of a doubleheader you can hear exclusively on Central Jersey Sports Radio, presented by the George Street Playhouse in downtown New Brunswick. Tip-time is 5:00, and pregame starts at 4:45 with Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel on the call. Click here to listen.

Piscataway (21-4) bonded in the off-season after Turco’s arrival, playing summer league games, and learning their new coach’s style. That style starts with defense. But the Chiefs can also score, to the tune of 1,805 points. They’ve scored the most points of anyone in the GMC Red Division, including division champ Colonia.

No one has off-the-charts numbers, but this is a team. Senior Nate Davis leads at 14.1 points a game – with a team-best 42 treys – while Donald Nwaigwe (pronounced “WEEG-way”) adds 11.5 points and a team-leading 6.4 rebounds per game – and Vaighn Turner and Josh Lima round out the double-digit scorers at 10.2 ant 10 points per game, respectively.

Sayreville (20-3) has been in a little bit of a rebuild the last two seasons, but playing current juniors Chidi Chukwurah and Sam Jones as freshman has “paid dividends” in the mind of Wojick.

Chukwurah is tops at 18 points per game and 8.4 rebounds per game. He’s also got a team-leading 13 blocks. Jones has a team-high 52 triples on the season, and is averaging 16.3 points per game. Christian Torres distributes the ball (107 assists, best on the team) and averages 7.1 points per game.

Torres is third in the GMC in assists, and the Piscataway Magnet transfer had to sit to start the season due to NJSIAA transfer rules, so he wasn’t in a Bomber uniform when they played the Chiefs on December 23rd, a 62-57 loss that easily could have gone differently otherwise.

Click below for pregame chats with both head coaches with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel: