Tag: Timothy Christian

by Mike Pavlichko

St. Joseph holds off upset-minded Timothy Christian in GMCT quarters

For a while, it looked like Timothy Christian had St. Joseph-Metuchen on the ropes. 

Forget looked like. They did.

The top-seeded Falcons were having trouble with the ninth-seeded Tigers’ height advantage. It was on display on both ends of the floor in one second quarter sequence, where Joe’s had a shot blocked, then Myles Dickerson hit a foul line jumper over a smaller defender.

The other issues was St. Joe’s wasn’t hitting shots away from the basket.

But with the Falcons owning a three-point halftime lead after trailing much of the first half, they came out to an 8-0 run and went ahead by as many as 13 late in the quarter, as senior Jeremy Clayville heated up, scoring nine in the period on a trio of treys. 

St. Joseph built to an 11 point lead, and though Timothy Christian would get it to five by the end of the third, they couldn’t hit enough shots to come back.

Falcons escape, 83-68. Survive and advance.

Clayville finished with 25, 4-of-4 from the foul line in the fourth quarter, and as a team, St. Joe’s hit 11 times from downtown. Tyler DiGraci had five of them, at least one in each quarter, to finish with 17, while Alijah Murphy added 13 and Owen Griffin scored 11.

The Falcons (18-7) now move on to Wednesday’s GMC Tournament semifinals against either 4th-seed St. Thomas Aquinas, a game that can be heard live on cjsportsradio.com.

Timothy Christian (15-8) was led by Myles Dickerson and Jalen Fleming with 24 points apiece.

Click below to hear postgame reaction from Mike Pavlichko with St. Joe’s senior Jeremy Clayville:

by Mike Pavlichko

With co-champs in GMC Blue and Gold Divisions, who will get coveted a coveted top 8 seed?

Different leagues seed their county tournaments different ways.

In Somerset County, all the coaches make a pitch for their team, vote on a paper ballot, points are tallied, and the tournament is seeded.

In the GMC, it’s a mix of athletic directors, coaches and league officials. But they vote team-by-team. And unlike the Skyland Conference, where there’s no “conference” tournament – Somerset does its thing, and Hunterdon and Warren teams join Sussex County and do their thing – each division winner is guaranteed a top eight seed in the mammoth bracket.

But what happens when there are ties?

That’s the case in two of the GMC’s four divisions, where South Plainfield and Woodbridge are White Division Co-Champions, and Spotswood and Timothy Christian are Blue Division Co-Champions.

That doesn’t mean all four are guaranteed a top eight seed. The way the GMC seeding works is, all the teams are listed by division, in order of finish. Before the actual seeding begins, all ties are broken, so there is a clear order. No team can be seeded ahead of a team it’s behind. So, if Team A has two division losses, both to Team B, which is behind it, but has three losses, they don’t jump. Team A is first and Team B is second. Teams must come out of each division in order.

So, who will get the guaranteed top eight seeds from the Blue and White? (Keep in mind, however the tie is broken, they are still co-champs and will still raise a banner. The tiebreak is just for seeding purposes. Let’s take a closer look.

GMC White Division: South Plainfield vs. Woodbridge

Both teams finished 12-2 in the division. Woodbridge dropped a pre-Christmas game a home to South Plainfield 76-64, but then returned the favor on the road, with a 70-62 win a week ago, heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio. That’s one loss each.

Woodbridge lost by 14 at Sayreville on January 18th, but since then the Barrons finished strong, with six straight division wins, including the return trip win against the Tigers, then the division leader all on their own. 

South Plainfield’s other loss was by 12 to Edison in the opener of their Anthony J. Cotoia Holiday Tournament.

Based on margin of victory head-to-head, South Plainfield would have a slight edge. Based on each team’s other loss, Woodbridge would have the edge. Sayreville will finish third in the division, while Edison is in the basement.

On overall records, South Plainfield is 15-6, Woodbridge 14-5. So the Barrons have one fewer win, but one fewer loss

What about crossovers? 

Woodbridge lost 60-34 to Old Bridge (12-8) out of the Red in the finale of the Huskies Holiday Classic at Matawan, the only team they played “up” to. South Plainfield only “played up” once, too: they lost to East Brunswick (9-12) by nine in the second game of the season.

On the balance, Woodbridge lost by more but to a better team.

Verdict: This one may be too close to call, as there’s no overwhelming stat or result in favor of one or the other. We’re going to give the slight edge to Woodbridge here. Both head-to-head games were tight and within a few points of each other, overall records are similar, and neither beat their Red Division crossover opponent. But, Woodbridge had the “better” division loss.

GMC Blue Division: Spotswood vs. Timothy Christian

This one appears even closer than the White Division race.

Both teams finished 12-1 in the division. They also split their regular season meetings, with Timothy Christian winning 78-70 on January 3rd, while Spotswood won the rematch at home, 84-76 in overtime last Friday night. Though the Chargers’ win took overtime, the margins are the same: each beat the other by eight points.

No edge there, necessarily.

And since their only division losses came to each other, there’s no “better” loss like there was with Woodbridge and South Plainfield.

On overall record, Spotswood is 15-5 (.750 win percentage), while Timothy Christian is 12-6 (.667 win percentage). 

How did they do in crossovers?

Spotswood played “up” to the Red Division, but took a 68-51 loss at Monroe (14-5) on January 22nd. Timothy Christian took on two White Division teams, but lost both: to North Plainfield (6-13) 59-58 in the finale of the Butch Kowal Tournament over the holidays, and to South Plainfield (15-6) back on Monday, 74-69.

Verdict: With all of those crossovers “playing up” being losses, again nothing sticks out, there are no other division losses to compare for better or worse, and each team beat the other by the same margin head-to-head. But based on overall wins, and the Chargers having the more recent win, we think Spotswood will have the slight edge.

Follow us tomorrow at @cjsportsradio as Mike Pavlichko will have live updates from the GMC seeding meeting, which begins with the girls’ tournament at 9 am and the boys to follow.

One last metric…

If you want to take the Born Power Index to examine these teams, keep in mind that it favors teams that win by higher margins. It’s not accounted for by the GMC, of course, so it wouldn’t necessarily encourage blowouts.

In the White, South Plainfield is rated 54.8, while it’s a 50.7 rating for the Barrons.

In the Blue, Spotswood is rated a 57.5, and it’s a 48.8 for Timothy Christian.

Note: The Born Power Index was website says its ratings were updated on February 1st, but it’s unclear if it includes games played on that day, or was updated earlier based on Thursday’s games.

by Mike Pavlichko

Spotswood earns hard-fought win over Timothy Christian, and chance to split GMC Blue title

The Spotswood boys’ basketball team got a revenge win Friday night when the Chargers beat Timothy Christian at home, 84-76 in overtime. 

The Tigers led by seven at halftime, but Spotswood came back with a strong second half before doubling up TCS in overtime, 18-6, for the win.

Four Chargers scored in double figures, and they needed all of it to counter senior Jalen Fleming’s 30 pint night, while Myles Dickerson and Dylan Spivey added 14 apiece.

Spotswood was led by Kiye Walker’s 22 points, while Zeyad Elshazly added a career-high 18, Daniel Yarus scored 16 and Luc Aquaviva chipped in 14.

The win leaves the Chargers one full game behind Timothy Christian in the GMC Blue Division standings. Both are 11-5 overall, and both now have one division loss – to each other. But Timothy has played two more games and is 11-1 in the division, while Spotswood is 9-1.

Saturday morning is another critical game for Spotswood, as arch rival South River rolls into town for a 10 am game you can hear on Central Jersey Sports Radio, with pregame at 9:45. Mike Pavlichko will call all the action. Click here to listen.

by Mike Pavlichko

Seventh heaven? Seven area boys’ hoops teams head into Christmas Break with perfect records

As things wind down for a few days for Christmas – with holiday tournaments just beyond – there are seven boys’ basketball teams from the Central Jersey Sports Radio coverage area with unblemished records, and a few more still unbeaten in divisional play.

Of those, five are in the Greater Middlesex Conference, with two in Somerset County.

Cougars, Warriors still perfect…

Perhaps the most notable unbeaten from Somerset is Montgomery, which is 4-0 so far, 2-0 in the Valley Division, with wins over Pingry and West Morris on the road to start the season, then a pair of home wins over Delaware Valley and Morris Knolls. It’s their best start since the COVID-shortened 2021 season, went they went 6-0 to start, and finished 10-4. Senior Steve Donahue is leading the way with 14 points per game for the Monty, which hosts its own Cougar Holiday Classic this week. They host North Hunterdon at 2 pm Wednesday, following Bridgewater-Raritan and Princeton at noon, while the Cougars and Panthers will play each other at 4 pm Friday.

Watchung Hills is the other Somerset County team not to lose yet. The Warriors are 5-0 overall, 3-0 in the newly-configured Raritan Division. Justin Salton’s club has only played two county opponents, and three from the Skyland. They have wins at Bound Brook and over Bridgewater, while they beat Phillipsburg in their opener. Out-of-conference wins have come over Morris Knolls and at Clifton. Junior Zack Patette (16.4 ppg) and senior John Kelly (15.4 ppg) are the top scorers leading a fairly balanced attack. They also play in a Cougar Classic this coming week, this one up at Chatham. It’s a three-game, four-team event, playing the host school Tuesday night at 7, New Providence Wednesday at 3 pm, and Cranford out of Union County on Friday at 1:30 in the afternoon.

GMC’s five have some usual suspects, some not…

The undefeated teams in the Greater Middlesex Conference are somewhat of a mix. On the one hand, there’s St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Joseph-Metuchen in the Red Division, which doesn’t surprise anyone. The other three? South Amboy and Calvary Christian in the Gold, and Timothy Christian in the Blue.

We’ll start with Timothy, as we broadcast their season-opener, a win against JFK in which senior Jalen Fleming eclipsed the 1,000-point mark. The Tigers followed that up with wins at Carteret, South River and Metuchen. They are scoring 73.3 points per game, with an average margin of victory a shade over 23 points. Fleming, of course, is a big reason why, averaging 22.3 points a game, but then there’s junior Myles Dickerson After dropping 20 in the opener against Kennedy, he scored 25 against the Ramblers, 32 against the Rams, and 35 against the Bulldogs, for a tidy 28 points per game. And as Nigerian transfer Chukwudi Raphael Mamah gets more comfortable with the American game and contributes more, the Tigers will be a tough out. Their schedule hasn’t been the best, but it’s not the worst either, but it could get tougher this week. They’re in the Butch Kowal Tournament at Rahway this week, playing the host Indians at 7:30 Wednesday night. If they win, they would likely play Rumson-Fair Haven (currently 31-) in the final Friday night at 7:30; the consolation tips at 6.

Myles Dickerson (#5 in black) runs the offense against JFK in a GMC Blue Division home game in Piscataway on December 15, 2023. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)

The Gold has South Amboy and Calvary Christian, but at least one won’t be undefeated for long. That’s because they face each other on January third in Old Bridge. 

But first, the Governors are in the Middlesex/Shore Holiday Tournament at South River this week, taking on Henry Hudson at 11 am Wednesday, before Keansburg and the homestanding Rams play each other at 12:30 pm. The consolation takes place Thursday at 11, followed by the championship at 12:30. South Amboy is led by senior Jake Eberle with 16.6 ppg and 7.8 rpg, while fellow senior Gavin Pelkey is averaging 15.8 points per game.

Calvary Christian will be out at the University of Valley Forge in Pennsylvania at the Patriot Holiday Invitational. They play Thursday against Baptist Regional at 4 pm, then will get either Mount Airy Christian (PA) or Coventry Christian (PA) in the 12:30 consolation or the 3:30 final the next day.

And then, of course, the GMC Red Division, with standbys Aquinas and Joe’s. They will play each other twice this season, but the first of those meetings doesn’t come until January 16th in North Edison. They’ll rematch January 30th in Metuchen.

The Trojans are 5-0 despite turning over their entire roster save for one player, Davon Grant, who had all of 23 career varsity points entering the season. GMC wins have come over JP Stevens, South Brunswick, and Old Bridge, with the victory over the Knights’ being by almost the slimmest of margins, 54-52. They also have wins over New York non-publics, St. Joseph by the Sea on Staten Island and Monsignor Scanlan out of The Bronx. Newcomer Aiden Ur, a junior, leads the scoring with 16.4 points per game, while seniors Paris Papadatos and Rinelson Dilone are adding 14.8 and 14 points a game, respectively. In fact, Dilone is cleaning up on the glass, too, nearly averaging a double-double, with 9.8 boards per contest. Aquinas plays St. Elizabeth (DE) on the Varsity Viking Invitational on Wednesday (time TBA), the are in the Boardwalk Basketball Classic at Wildwoods Convention Center down the Shore, taking on Middle Township of the Cape-Atlantic League at 1:15 in the afternoon on New Year’s Eve.

As for St. Joe’s, they’ve been without senior Jeremy DeCaro, a major piece, but fellow senior Jeremy Clayville has been lighting it up. He’s averaging 26.8 points per game, twice scoring more than 30 points. He had 35 against JP Stevens last Thursday night in a 30-point win, a week after piling up a mammoth 43-point effort – a career high – in a season-opening ten point road win over Piscataway. Fellow seniors Owen Griffin and Dave Caruso also are averaging a shade over 10 points a contest. The Falcons are in the Whitey Dukiet All-American Holiday Classic at Livingston High School this Wednesday, where they’ll take on Morris Knolls Wednesday at 1, before Ridge and Livingston Square off at 3 pm. The consolation game is noon Friday, while the final tips at 2:00.

by Mike Pavlichko

WATCH: Timothy Christian’s Jalen Fleming cracks the 1,000 point milestone against JFK

With 20.4 seconds remaining in the first half of their season opener against JFK, Timothy Christian’s Jalen Fleming corralled a long outlet pass after a Mustang turnover and put in an easy, uncontested layup that put him in the 1,000 point club.

Fleming – a junior – came into the game needing 23 points for the milestone with a total of 977. He got his 24th point of the night on that basket, and finished the game with 26 points for 1,003 in his career.

Click below to watch Fleming reach the milestone and celebrate with his team and family, with play-by-play by Mike Pavlichko on December 15, 2023 from Piscataway:

by Mike Pavlichko

Fleming cracks 1,000 point plateau as Timothy Christian clicks on all cylinders in season opening win over JFK

Junior Jalen Fleming missed the last game of his sophomore season with a concussion, leaving him 23 points away from 1,000 for his career for the 22.6 point per game scorer. So you could forgive him if he has been thinking about it for the last ten months or so.

He won’t have to think about the next major milestone for a while, as his layup on a fast break with 20.4 second left in the first half of Timothy Christian’s season-opening 66-41 win over visiting JFK gave him 1,001 for his career.

Timothy Christian junior Jalen Fleming’s layup with :20.4 to go in the first half got him past the 1,000 point mark for his career in a GMC Blue Division game against JFK in Piscataway on December 15, 2023. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)

It was the only real drama in Piscataway Friday night – in a game heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio – as the Tigers got out to a hot start, a 12-0 run over the first six minutes of the game. Fleming finished with 26, ending his night with 1,003 career points.

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It was also the debut of Chukwudi Raphael-Mamah, a junior who comes in from Nigeria, playing his first varsity game in the states. He finished with ten points, including a pair of mammoth two-handed flushes on fast breaks, while fellow junior Myles Dickerson added 20, including a jam and a trey.

Fleming had three triples in the game.

Timothy Christian led by as many as 32 in the fourth quarter, before Kennedy shrunk the lead a bit with both benches emptied.

JFK sophomore Grant Lorentzen had 13 points in defeat – including a trey – a career high for the sophomore, who – at 2.5 points per game last year – was the leading scorer available for Kennedy. 

The Mustangs found out last week they’ll be without their two top returning players through at least mid-January. Junior Marcus Bullock – the top returning scorer at 9.9 points per game – had surgery last Friday on his knee after his known injury turned out to me more serious than originally thought. And senior Matt Cook fractured his pinkie in gym class.

Click below for postgame reaction from Mike Pavlichko, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

Timothy Christian junior Jalen Fleming
Timothy Christian head coach Dennis McNulty
by Mike Pavlichko

JFK boys will have to adjust on the fly as it opens season down two key starters

Coming off a 7-16 season, the bright side for the JFK boys’ basketball team entering 2023-24 was the return guards Marcus Bullock and Matt Cook.

Bullock averaged a sliver under ten points a game last season – and was the second leading scorer on the team – while Cook saw limited action a year ago but was expected to see much more time.

But those hopes were dashed last week, officially, when both had surgery – Bullock for a knee injury that initially wasn’t thought to be as serious, and Cook for a fractured pinkie he suffered in gym class.

Click the link above to check out Kingdom Kidz at their two locations, in Somerset and Piscataway. Christian-based childcare in Central Jersey!

Yes, they’re student athletes, and don’t just get hurt playing their chosen varsity sport.

And so, it’s back to the drawing board somewhat, and next man up for the next four to six weeks in their absence. Because right now, for their opener Friday at Timothy Christian, their active roster will return just 3.6 points per game.

On the bright side, there’s Grant Lorentzen, who at least drilled 12 treys in 15 games last season, to give the Mustangs a fighting chance against the Tigers, in a game you can hear on Central Jersey Sports Radio. Tip-off is set for 5:30, with pregame at 5:15. Mike Pavlichko will call all the action; click here to listen.

Click below to hear JFK coach Sebastian de Voogd talk about the Mustangs’ early season challenges and their opener against Timothy Christian:

by Mike Pavlichko

Timothy Christian opens season vs. JFK with high hopes of taking GMC Blue

In his first four seasons as head coach of the Timothy Christian boys’ basketball team, the Tigers have won no fewer than 12 games under head coach Dennis McNulty, and that was a 12-3 campaign during the COVID-shortened season.

This could be the year they break through, though, after moving up from the GMC Gold to the Blue Division. South River graduated a ton, but will still be there. Spotswood will be in the mix as well. And probably others.

Click the link above to check out Kingdom Kidz at their two locations, in Somerset and Piscataway. Christian-based childcare in Central Jersey!

But this year could be something special at the tiny school hidden alongside Ethel Road in Piscataway.

There’s the return of sharpshooting specialist Myles Dickerson, who averaged 16 points a game and led the team with 45 threes last year in his first season at TCS. Jalen Fleming already is just 23 points away from becoming a thousand-point scorer, and he’s only about to start his junior year. A 22.6 point per game scorer for his career, he averaged 21.8 points a game last season and was second on the team with 47 steals.

And then there’s Chukwudi Raphael Mamah, who comes to Piscataway via Enugu, Nigeria. He’s 6-foot-7, can stretch the floor, shoot, and pass. McNulty says his biggest challenge will be adapting to the physicality of the game here.

Friday night, the season opens for Timothy, when the Tigers entertain JFK in a GMC Blue Division game you can hear on Central Jersey Sports Radio. Mike Pavlichko has the call with pregame at 5:15 pm, and tip-off at 5:30. Click here to listen.

Click below to hear Timothy Christian head coach Denis McNulty talk about the Tigers’ 2023-34 season:

by Mike Pavlichko

INSTANT REPLAY: East Brunswick Magnet 16, Timothy Christian 4

East Brunswick Magnet sent 25 hitters to the plate in the first two innings and scored a combined 15 runs, jumping on Timothy Christian early en route to a 16-4 road win on Opening Day, in a GMC Gold Division game heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

Click below to hear Mike Pavlichko and Dennis McNulty call all the action from Piscataway, NJ, on April 3, 2023.