South Brunswick nips North Brunswick in boys’ hoops

By george albano
Staff Writer

VERONICA YANKOWSKI South Brunswick’s Amin Gillespie tries to shoot over a pair of North Brunswick defenders during Saturday’s game in South Brunswick.

For Dave Turco, it was something new. For Ed Breheney, it was old hat. But whether you’re new or a longtime follower of the North Brunswick-South Brunswick rivalry in boys’ basketball, last Saturday’s 51-50 thriller, eventually won by the host Vikings, was certainly one for the ages.

The two local schools wrote yet another memorable chapter to their storied history on the hardwood in a game which featured just about everything between two equally matched 5-5 teams.

It was a game that saw South Brunswick build an 18-point halftime lead, only to see North Brunswick stage a furious second-half rally and finally go up 49-48 on a steal and layup by senior guard Joe Celmer with 23 seconds to go.

The Vikings, however, would go back up 51-49 on a three-point play by sophomore center Danny Stonkus with 10 seconds to go, but the Raiders went to the free throw line with 2.3 seconds left and a chance to tie.

Aaron Carter made the first to cut the lead to 51-50, but missed the second.

The ball, however, went out of bounds off South Brunswick, giving North Brunswick one final chance with 0.9 seconds left. The Raiders got a good look at the basket, too, but Celmer’s potentially game-winning shot at the buzzer hit the back of the rim and bounded out as the Vikings held on for the exciting victory.

Just another day in the North-South rivalry.

"It’s my first taste of it," said Turco, in his first year as head coach at South Brunswick after six seasons at Carteret High School, his alma mater. "Our big rival when I played and coached there was Perth Amboy. But this is the first time I was a part of the South-North rivalry."

Breheney, meanwhile, is in his 13th season at North Brunswick and a veteran of these neighborhood wars.

"We used to play twice a year," he pointed out. "But then they moved up to the large division so now we only play once a year. But we’ve had some exciting games over the years."

This latest edition certainly measures up as both teams left it all on the floor to the delight of the large bipartisan crowd in the South Brunswick gym.

The game resembled anything but a nail-biter at the outset, though, as the hot-shooting Vikings raced out to a 31-13 halftime lead behind a balanced scoring attack. They did it without leading scorer Cliff Breese and his 17.5 average as the junior forward missed the game because of illness.

But the 6-foot-8 Stonkus, who would finish with 15 points, 13 rebounds and eight blocks, had eight points at the intermission, while Joe Kannampuszha, Nana Ampin and Amin Gillespie had five points apiece.

"It was a combination of us playing some good defense and getting some hot shooting in the first half," Turco said.

Some early cold shooting by North Brunswick didn’t make it any easier for the Raiders.

"We got good shots, but we just couldn’t convert the shots we got," Brenehey said. "We didn’t turn the ball over. We were just cold shooting the ball."

But the Raiders, after falling behind by as much as 20 points, heated up in the second half and were able to cut the deficit to 42-30 after three quarters.

"In the second half they heated up and we got cold," Turco said. "We were still getting shot opportunities, but they were just not dropping in. Plus they did a great job defensively."

"It started with our defense," Breheney agreed. "We got a couple of steals and scored off our defense and sometimes that’s all you need. A couple of steals and a couple of easy baskets and it started to snowball the other way. It was a story of two halves."

The snowballing continued into the fourth period until the Raiders had outscored the Vikings 36-17 in the second half to take a 49-48 lead on Celmer’s steal and layup with 23 ticks left.

"Even after we took the lead, we knew we had to make one more stop to finish the job," Breheney said. "We knew it was far from over."

He was right. Stunned but undaunted, South Brunswick came right back at the other end as sophomore guard Kyle McKendrick drove to the basket and dished off to Stonkus, who made the go-ahead basket and the free throw to make it 51-49 with 10 seconds left.

The excitement wasn’t over yet, however, as Carter got fouled for North Brunswick with 2.3 seconds left and the junior forward made one of two to cut the lead to one. Then Celmer, who scored 11 of his game-high 17 points in the final period and 11 of the Raiders’ 20 fourth-quarter points, would get one last chance, but his three-point attempt at the buzzer just fell short.

"With no timeouts left, the kids got the ball in on their own and we got a good look, it just back-rimmed out," Breheney explained. "With 0.9 seconds left, that’s as good a look as you could ask for."

"It was right there," Turco agreed.

The 32-year-old Turco, who went to Carteret High School from 1984-88 and helped lead both the basketball and baseball teams to state sectional titles, compiled a glossy record of 116-36 during his six years as basketball coach there. But he and his assistant coaches, brother Bob Turco and Mike Zirpolla, came to South Brunswick this season looking for a new challenge.

"We had won the Central Jersey Group II state sectional title and the state championship, and last year we won the county," he said. "But we wanted to try coaching at a bigger school in Group IV and see if we could do it there, too."

Turco took over for Hayward Vereen, who stepped down as head coach at South Brunswick after only one season in which the Vikings went 21-3, including an 18-1 regular-season mark and their first-ever Greater Middlesex Conference Red Division championship.

"They graduated their top eight players from last year, so we’re young in experience and in grade," Turco said. "We have six seniors, but only one (captain Chris Brown) had varsity experience. So we’re pretty much where we thought we would be at this point and we hope to make the state tournament. We need nine wins by Feb. 7 so we have to win three of our next six.

"It’s tough, especially for the seniors who have had three coaches in four years. They’ve had to learn a whole new system and that takes adjusting. Plus we were hired late so we didn’t have an off-season in the summer to get a system in place. When you try to put a system in the day after Thanksgiving, it’s difficult."

But Turco has also had to make some adjustments.

"When I coached at Carteret, when we played teams from the Red Division it was a big game. It was like a tournament game against the big boys. Now every night is like that."

And then there’s nights like last Saturday when you play your rival and it doesn’t matter how big or small your school is. Just ask Ed Breheney.

"Our coaching staff was very thrilled the way we came back, down by 20 in the third quarter," Breheney concluded. "We were very proud of our effort and the fact that as a group we didn’t give up. It was a great game."