Samar Abdullah – Central Jersey Sports Radio

Somewhere in the middle of the first full season of high school basketball in three years (2019-20 ended short, ’21 was truncated by design) the St. Thomas Aquinas ascended to the No. 1 spot in the Bellamy & Son Paving Top Ten.

To be precise, it was Week Four, after its first of three wins – the most recent in the GMC Tournament final – against Colonia. Sure, Gill St. Bernard’s was ranked higher in the state, and eventually they would play each other, with Aquinas right behind the Knights in those rankings.

After that Saturday night at Roselle Catholic, the state rankings flipped. The Bellamy rankings stayed the same: Aquinas was still No. 1.

Tonight, – after an opening round bye – the 2nd-seeded Trojans open their state tournament journey against 7th-seed St. John Vianney in the Non-Public South A quarterfinals. A win would put them in the semis against Rutgers Prep, the only one of the other elite teams in Middlesex/Somerset Counties that they haven’t faced.

But one thing at a time.

The journey began prior to the pandemic, before masks and constant sanitization of basketballs were a thing.

This is head coach Bob Turco’s fourth season at the school formerly known as Bishop Ahr (which was also formerly known as St. Thomas Aquinas, for those keeping score at home). He’s now 79-18 in that time, but has had great success at his two other coaching stops: Monroe (97-42) and Notre Dame in Lawrenceville (148-46), not to mention a goodly number of years as an assistant with his younger brother Dave. (You might have heard of him.)

*Junior forward Jalen Pichardo goes up for two of his 14 points against Colonia in a GMC White Division game on February 3, 2022. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)*

And that’s where the journey began: with the four-year veteran Samar Abdullah, followed by the team’s undisputed leader now, Adam Silas, and then the newcomer who may very well be one of the faces of the program next year, Jalen Pichardo.

Click below to hear their story:

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: