By Jeff Appelblatt
Last year, Woodbridge High School’s boys’ basketball team struggled out of the gate. It lost low-scoring games to Colonia High school and J.P. Stevens High School to start the season 0-2. But using the losses as motivation, the Barrons snapped into action and went on to win 20 of its next 23 games.
But forget the start. Forget the finish. Woodbridge’s coach, Matt Gigliello, doesn’t want to think too much about last season, even though the team won 20 of its 26 games.
“We didn’t win anything,” Gigliello said about that team, with full memory of the team’s Greater Middlesex Conference (GMC) Tournament loss to Saint Joseph High School of Metuchen and its first-round loss to East Orange Campus High School in the NJSIAA North Jersey, Section II, Group IV playoffs.
Woodbridge’s coach just wants to see what his guys are capable of doing, and he’s sure they are ready to show what they can do.
“They’re highly motivated and very excited for the season,” Gigliello said.
With all of their top players back from a year ago, the coach sees no reason why the Barrons won’t be a contender.
“We have 10 guys back from our team a year ago,” he said. “Our goals are the same — hopefully we could compete for the White Division title, for the GMC [title], and then see how far we could get in the state [competition].”
While Woodbridge will need everyone who steps onto the court to contribute, the Barrons and opponents alike will know who to look out for when the ball is in Woodbridge’s possession.
Last season, Quran Robinson scored 11.6 points per game for the Barrons. Quassim Glover chipped in about 10 per game each of the last two years. Keshaun Henry poured in 10 a game last year. Harry Rutkowski added on another nine points. Then the other 10 baskets or so Woodbridge scored each game went to Curtis Nesbit, Hura Blaine, Kemari Persol and Khalil Brown.
Just like that, Woodbridge put up more than 63 points per game in its 20 victories. Scoring has always been the key to success for the Barrons. They only won two games a year ago when they failed to sink 50 points.
Woodbridge will first attempt to come out and show its score-and-score-often attitude at 7 p.m. Dec. 16 at Edison High School. The Barrons thumped the Eagles three times last year, but both sides would likely agree that no longer means anything.
