Last season, Spotswood head coach Steve Mate called newcomer Tyler VanLeeuwen a freshman sensation.
“I see big things for him,” said veteran head coach Steve Mate.
His sophomore year? He’s even better, and what’s best is he knows there’s still a lot of room for improvement.
VanLeeuwen scored 21 points Tuesday night – ten above his average and five shy of a career high he just set Saturday against JFK – in a 78-43 road win over Highland Park in a GMC crossover game heard live on Central Jersey Sports Radio.
And he did it almost entirely on two-point field goals, with one three, and a trio of foul shots.
The game was tight early, with two lead changes in the first half, and Highland Park had a three-point lead as they bombed away from three. Evangelinos Kambitsis had 12 first-half points, all from downtown, and of their eight first-half field goals, seven were from beyond the arc, many from two or more feet behind the line.
But Spotswood took an 18 point lead into halftime, 48-30, and never looked back, clamping down on defense in the second half. The Owls only had three triples the rest of the way as the Chargers extended their defense.
Se’mir Tolbert-Brimage finished with 18 and Leo Carone added 15, including three treys. Spotswood (8-6) now has won four straight, their best stretch of the year as they jockey for position in the Central Jersey Group 2 power point standings.
Kambitsis was high scorer for the Owls (4-12) with 16, while Cooper Ballentine added 11, chipping in three treys himself.
While the two former GMC Blue Division rivals hadn’t played in four years, it was the Chargers’ eleventh straight win against Highland Park, dating back to January of 2012.
The victory also was the 494th of Steve Mate’s 35-year coaching career. He was 34-49 in four years at Verona before landing in Spotswood for the 1995-96 season, amassing a 460-335 record. The Dean of GMC coaches is now 494-384 overall.
Click below for postgame reaction from Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko with head coach Steve Mate and sophomore Tyler VanLeeuwen, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen!