Defending and rebounding will be the rally calls this boys’ basketball season at East Brunswick High School.
East Brunswick coach Mark Motusesky believes his team can go far this year, but he admits it will need to outwork its opponents in order to be successful.
“I think we can beat anybody in the conference, but if we don’t defend really well and rebound, we can get beat by anybody in the conference,” Motusesky said. “I think a lot of the kids are thinking highly of what we can do, but it’s going to take a tough-minded group to defend and rebound every night because we’re not the biggest team, and our conference is going to be very, very difficult. I think a lot of us are going to be beating each other up in the Red Division.”
Last season, the Bears finished 14-12 and lost in the Central Jersey, Group 4 state tournament quarterfinals to Old Bridge High School, 38-36. The Bears had beaten South Brunswick High School, 53-42, in the first round of the tournament.
“We’re going to have to rebound and defend,” Motusesky said. “I think we were one of the better rebounding teams last year, so we expect it even more this year because we have better athletes. We’re going to have to share the ball more. There’s a lot of good guards that can score, but we will have to be unselfish to come together as a team and win.”
Motusesky will depend on some key veterans to lead East Brunswick.
“We return our point guard who’s a three-year varsity player and two-year starter in [senior] Jesse Perel,” the coach said. “He really keeps things glued together, and he’s one of our captains. [Senior] Joe Sampson is one of the better shooters in the area, and he’s really matured and become one of our leaders. He’s a captain at shooting guard. And Ryan Crocco is our starting senior center, who, again, is a leader on this team. We’re expecting him to lead by example and vocally. We also have a couple of underclassmen that have a lot of talent as well, so we’re really balanced.”
The players believe that winning the Greater Middlesex Conference (GMC) Tournament is priority No. 1 this year. Then the Bears can zero in on the state tournament.
“I expect to win GMCs this year,” Perel said. “Nothing less.”
“Win the GMCs and make it as far in the state tournament as we can,” Crocco said.
“We just need to improve throughout the whole season,” Sampson said. “Of course, we need to get wins.”
The players favor a fast-paced attack.
“I think our defense will be key this year,” Perel said. “We need to also get out and run a lot. We got some new guys, so it might take a little bit to gel at first, but at the end of the day, it’s just basketball, and we’ll figure out how to win together as a team.”
“We all need to be able to play together,” Crocco said. “We do have some new guys, but we’re going to pride ourselves in our defense this year. We lost a lot of height, so, we’re going to have to rebound as a team. We’ll score a lot on offense, so the defense will be key.”
“We did lose an all-conference center in Dante Ralph,” Sampson said. “We’re going to have to make up for that. To do that, we’re going to have to play defense and push the floor for easy baskets.”
