South Brunswick boys ready for a stretch run

BY GEORGE ALBANO
Staff Writer

The South Brunswick High School boys basketball team hopes it has one last run left in it.

If it does, the Vikings could provide a very happy ending to the 2003-04 season.

South Brunswick won 12 of its first 13 games this season, including 10 straight victories. But then the Vikings stumbled and lost their next five games.

They regained their winning form on Tuesday night, however, when they posted a thrilling 42-39 win over rival East Brunswick to improve their record to 13-6.

"We’ve had a season of runs," head coach Dave Turco said after Tuesday’s win. "I’m just happy we were able to get back on the winning track tonight."

Hopefully, it’s the start of another run, which would be just in time as the Vikings get ready to enter the postseason. After two more regular-season games — Thursday at home against J.P. Stevens on Senior Night and Saturday afternoon against Old Bridge, also at home — South Brunswick heads into the Greater Middlesex Conference county tournament. After that, the Vikes go to the Central Jersey Group IV state tournament.

Turco certainly knows a thing or two about playing your best basketball when the postseason rolls around. Prior to coming to SBHS last season, Turco spent six years at Carteret High School, where he compiled a 116-36 record and won the 2000 Central Jersey Group II state championship.

In his first season at South Brunswick last year, he led the Vikings to a 13-11 record, with six of the losses by six points or less. They were seeded 15th in the GMC tournament and knocked off No. 18 Carteret, Turco’s alma mater, 43-39 in the opening round before falling to No. 2 seed New Brunswick in the second round. South Brunswick then lost to Old Bridge, 44-40, in the first round of the state tournament.

Turco hopes this year’s team can advance further in both tournaments. A year older, he believes the Vikings are definitely more resilient this season.

"Even when we won 10 in a row, we trailed in a lot of those games," he said. "We actually came back in six or seven out of those 10 games in the fourth quarter."

They followed a similar blueprint in Tuesday night’s win over East Brunswick. The cold-shooting Vikings trailed 25-15 at halftime before rallying in the second half. They were still down 39-37 late in the game when Caron Short nailed a big jumper to tie it.

Amin Gillespie then hit a free throw with 38 seconds to go to give South Brunswick a 40-39 lead, and Short came up with a steal and fed Tommy Hill for a layup with five seconds to go to seal the victory.

"We changed our philosophy for tonight’s game," Turco pointed out. "Usually our philosophy is to play hard 32 minutes a night. But I told the kids before tonight’s game, ‘Let’s forget 32 minutes and let’s just go eight minutes at a time and win every quarter.’ Unfortunately, that didn’t work in the first and second quarters, but in the second half we just turned it up a notch. Everything started to click."

Cliff Breese, a 6-foot-5 senior wing player, has been clicking all season and leads the Vikings in scoring with 14.7 points a game.

While Breese has provided the offense, Danny Stonkus has excelled on the defensive end. The 6-9 junior center is averaging 13.4 rebounds and an amazing 9.1 blocks a game.

"He has quite a few double-doubles this season, too," Turco said of Stonkus, who is already drawing a lot of interest from colleges.

Meanwhile, Hill, a sophomore point guard, is the player who makes the offense go.

"He plays 32 minutes a game," Turco said. "But he’s no longer a sophomore in our eyes, not after 18 games. He does a great job running the offense and we have a lot of confidence in him."

Then there’s Gillespie, a 6-3 senior guard/forward whom Turco calls "our little-bit-of-everything guy. He’s our defensive stopper, he covers the other team’s best offensive player, he can bring the ball up if we need him to, and he can post up. Tonight he had 20 points, and 16 of them came inside."

Turco has been rotating four different seniors in and out of the fifth starting position "depending on the opponent and how we match up that day," he said.

One of them is guard Mike Sexton, a senior guard, who Turco says "is more of a defensive stopper. He jump starts our offense with his steals which lead to easy baskets."

Another senior who has given the Vikings a spark offensively has been 6-2 forward Derryl Pratt.

"Of our 18 games, I’d say he’s been our leading scorer in probably six of them," Turco noted.

Alex Persaud, a 5-11 guard, is another big offensive threat for South Brunswick.

"He can knock down the outside shot," Turco said. "He stretches the other team’s defense, which gives Danny [Stonkus] room to work down low."

The fourth rotating starter is Nana Ampim, a 6-3 guard who Turco calls "another defensive stopper. He can also relieve Tommy [Hill] at the point and give us some scoring."

Short, a junior guard, is always one of the first players off the bench and often in the game late, as he was Tuesday when he drilled his game-tying jumper and then made the key steal.

"He’s a slasher, a combination defensive stopper and offensive threat for us," Turco said.

Add it all up and you have a South Brunswick team that goes nine-deep, and one that Turco feels can make some serious noise this postseason. All the Vikings need is another run. Maybe Tuesday night’s win was the start.

"Let’s hope so," Turco agreed.