Tag: Mark Motusesky

by Mike Pavlichko

Longtime East Brunswick boys’ hoops coach Mark Motusesky steps down after 13 years leading the Bears

Coming off one of the program’s most successful campaigns in over a decade, East Brunswick boys’ basketball coach Mark Motusesky has stepped down as head coach after 13 seasons at the helm.

Motusesky made the announcement Friday afternoon.

“It was a very difficult decision,” Motusesky wrote, “but ultimately it was the right one to be made. My daughter is going to be a freshman, and I know I would regret not being there.”

That’s his daughter Ashley, who will be on the freshman team this coming school year. And, the girls’ program is somewhat of a family affair.

Sophomore Ava Catanho – the reigning CJSR GMC Girls’ Player of the Year – is his niece, and his sister Kara is an assistant in the program under head coach Travis Retzlaff. The Lady Bears were a GMC Tournament finalist this year, and also reached the semifinals of the Central Jersey Group 4 section in the state tournament.

Under Mark Motusesky, the boys won the GMC’s Red National division this past season, going 8-0 in their division and finishing 21-7 overall.  They reached the GMC Tournament quarterfinals, and made it to the Central Jersey Group 4 semifinals in the state tournament, where they fell to Jackson Twp., 63-58.

Motusesky was 180-145 during his decade-plus tenure as head coach, but more than that, he was an East Brunswick lifer.

He was a standout for the Bears on the hardwood, graduating in 1988 with a GMC title the team won in 1987.

Nearly a decade later, he coached the eighth grade girls for two years in the late 1990s, then switched to the boys’ side, spending 14 years as an assistant to longtime varsity head coach Bo Henning, and won four JV tournament titles as that squad’s head coach.

He was named head coach by then-Athletic Director Frank Noppenberger for the 2013-14 season, taking the team to the GMC Tournament finals his very first year, just after going toe-to-toe in a double-overtime title game loss to St. Joseph-Metuchen in 2013.

Click here to listen to Mark Motusesky talk about his decision to step down as East Brunswick boys’ basketball coach with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko:

by Mike Pavlichko

Late rally sends No. 7 East Brunswick past Sayreville, 48-47, on key Mikulka FTs, as Bears sweep season series from Bombers

The all-time leading scorer in East Brunswick boys’ basketball history already had 24 points when he headed to the free throw line for the first time in the game with under a minute to go in a tight game at Sayreville.

But down the stretch, he made two of four – including the winner with 2.9 ticks left on the clock – to help the Bears rally from an 11-point halftime deficit for a 48-47 GMC Red National Division game in Parlin, heard live on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

Out of an East Brunswick time out with 38 seconds to play, up 46-44, Mikulka got fouled and headed to the charity stripe for the first time. He missed the first, but made the second to put the Bears up by three.

Sayreville came down the floor and got Sam Jones a look at a three for the tie. He missed short from the wing, but the Bombers got the rebound and head coach John Wojcik called his last time out to allow the offense to more easily reset.

Off the break, they found Jones on the right wing again, and he swished it with ten seconds to go to tie it at 47. But Mikulka brought it up the floor, drove to the basket from the right wing, and drew a blocking foul on Joseph Lewis with 2.7 seconds remaining.

Mikulka hit the first free throw, and EB coach Mark Motusesky called a time-out to set the defense. Miklulka missed the second shot, Sayreville got a rebound, and Jones couldn’t get a three-quarter court prayer to get anywhere near the basket.

WATCH: Here’s the final sequence of No. 7 East Brunswick’s wild win Saturday over Sayreville

East Brunswick (11-1, 6-0 GMC Red National) rallied thanks in large part to Mikulka’s scoring, but maybe in larger part due to their second-half defense. Down by as many as 13 in the second quarter, the Bears held Sayreville to just one field goal in the third, and outscored the Bombers 10-4 in the period, down 35-40 heading into the fourth.

Mikulka finished with a game-high 26, balanced throughout the afternoon, and hit three triples. Cam Vick added 13.

Sayreville (7-4, 3-3) got team-highs of 20 each from Sam Jones and Chidi Chukwura, with Chhukwurah – a 55 percent free throw shooter coming in – hitting eight of nine in the game, including six of six in the second half, four of four in the fourth quarter. That could have been the difference-maker for the Bombers, had they been able to score otherwise after halftime.

Sayreville managed just four second half field goals, an and-one in the third by Andrew Provenza,who missed the free throw, and a pair of twos and the triple to tie with ten seconds left by Jones.

Click below for postgame reaction from East Brunswick senior Matt Mikulka and head coach Mark Motusesky with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

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
by Mike Pavlichko

Red-hot East Brunswick, now ranked, is off to best start since 2012, with no sign of letting up

It was thirteen years ago, the last time East Brunswick got off to a start like this.

That one got off with a bang, as the Bears won their opener at rival St. Joseph-Metuchen, beating a Falcon squad with a young, spindly freshman named Karl Towns. (There was no “Anthony” yet, at least not publicly.)

That team won its first 15 games of the season, beat St. Joe’s again, lost to them in their third meeting – an epic double-overtime donnybrook in the GMC Tournament final at Rutgers – then went on to win the Central Jersey Group 4 championship, falling to Atlantic City in the state semis.

Current East Brunswick coach Mark Motusesky was an assistant on that team under legend Bo Henning, and he’d sign up for all of that today if he could.

He might not have to, though.

The Bears are off to a wonderful start, 5-0 for the first time since that magical season of 2012-13. And they’re doing it with a senior laden group that took some lumps early last year, then picked up some steam as the season went on. It’s been a steady progression from last March to this December, and they’ll head into the Christmas break perfect.

Matt Mikulka – East Brunswick’s all-time leading scorer with 1,469 points after Tuesday’s 75-70 home win over Franklin – is pacing the Bears with 23.2 points a game, while the Bears are getting serious contributions from several others. Fellow senior Cam Vick is averaging 16.8 per contest, and by the way, he hit a nearly full-court heave at the end of the first half Tuesday night in a play that should end up on SportsCenter. (Watch it below.)

But really, it’s the defense that has impressed Motusesky, and this team’s ability to find ways to win.

The schedule hasn’t been easy. After opening with a win at the Outerbridge Crossing Challenge over New Dorp (NY) and another over Monroe the following Tuesday, they had three big challenges: Sayreville, South Plainfield and Franklin – all at home.

They won the first two by five each – Sayreville was a GMCT semifinalist a year ago – and beat Franklin by four Tuesday behind 2 from Vick – including 7-of-10 at the line – 18 from Andrew Caruso, and 17 from Mikulka.

All in a day’s work.

Motusesky and the Bears hope there are many more like it to come.

Click below to hear East Brunswick boys’ basketball coach Mark Motusesky talk about the Bears’ red-hot start to the season with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko:

East Brunswick will be back in action over the break in the Buc Classic at Red Bank Regional, opening up against Shore Conference opponent Ranney on Saturday at 2 pm. They’ll face the winner of Howell and Old Bridge on Monday afternoon.

by Mike Pavlichko

East Brunswick holds off rival Old Bridge to advance to GMC Tourney quarterfinals

Just like their season, 12th-seed East Brunswick got off to a slow start Thursday night in its Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament first round game at fifth-seed Old Bridge.

But just as the Bears are playing their best basketball late in the season, according to head coach Mark Motusesky, they rallied and held on to beat the Knights in an old-fashioned “Battle of Route 18,” 51-50, to advance to Saturday’s GMCT quarterfinals.

Times for Saturday’s games – all to be played at Piscataway High School – will be determined after all of Thursday night’s games are done, as the league plans to stagger times for schools whose boys’ and girls’ teams are both in action that day.

Cam Vick finished with 18 for East Brunswick – including two key foul shots down the wire – while Matt Mikulka added 16, including three treys. 

The win makes it four straight victores for East Brunswick (12-12), which now faces 4-seed St. Thomas Aquinas (13-9) Saturday. The Trojans won the only meeting between the teams this year, 66-47, back on January second.

Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko talk with East Brunswick coach Mark Motusesky about the Bears’ GMCT first-round win:

by Mike Pavlichko

East Brunswick looks to get over the hump against rival St. Joe’s when No. 4 Falcons come to town

In the mid-2010s, East Brunswick and St. Joseph-Metuchen engaged in some epic battles. It all came to a head in the 2012-13 season, when one team, with a heady point guard, beat the other, with a future top pick in the NBA Draft, twice in the regular season, but lost to them in the county finals in double overtime.

The days of Amir Bell and Karl Towns (before he really used the Anthony in his name) are long gone, but the rivalry and hard-fought games remain: The fourth-Falcons (4-2) have beaten East Brunswick (3-2) by a sum total of 11 points in their last three matchups, bookended by a pair of three point wins.

The two will square off Thursday night in East Brunswick on Central Jersey Sports Radio, with Mike Pavlichko and Dom Savino calling all the action. Tip-off is at 7; coverage begins at 6:45 with the pregame show. Click here to listen live.

Despite losing Devin Kennedy’s 13.4 points per game, and not returning much in that department, ninth-year head coach Mark Motusesky says his team has a bit more athleticism and perimeter shooting than a year ago.

Click below to hear Mark Motusesky talk with Mike Pavlichko about the season so far, and the matchup with rival St. Joe’s: