Classic wins encourage MHS

”People want to talk about the Bridgewater game and it was a great win for us,” said Montgomery coach Kris Grundy, whose team is 4-2. “Bridgewater was coming off a win over Gill-St. Bernards and they were ranked 18th in the state. We were down two at the half came out in the third quarter we came out and played well and pushed the lead to 11. But they battled back to cut it to two. Zach DeVincenzo hit a clutch three and Brandon had some clutch free throws. Defensively we held them to 40 and they had just put a 70-spot on Gill two nights prior.”

In the Cougars’ second game in the tournament, which was played at Bridgewater, they faced a very talented Medford Tech team and pulled out a second impressive win.

”Medford Tech isn’t as well known being from South Jersey, but they went to South Jersey Group II final last year and had everybody back. They were 4-1 and crushing teams. Their only loss was to Atlantic City, which won Group IV last year. They beat Piscataway and Bordentown both by 30-plus. So it was a real nice win.”

Grundy came into the season knowing he had a talented team and he wanted to make sure the Cougars would be tested during the season. They have already taken on several good teams and have an impressive start under their belts.

”We have a lot of guys back and I wanted to see how good we are and want us to be battle tested by the time the tournaments come around,” Grundy said. “That’s why we’ve played Elizabeth. We have Lenape on Saturday which is a team ranked in the state. By the time the season is over we’ll have played eight or nine teams in the top 20 in the state.

”We’re the typical Montgomery team that plays very solid and aggressive defense. That is our hallmark, that we’ll defend every night. Offensively we have a nice motion offense. We won’t have a kid score 40, but it will come from different players.”

That was the case in the two games in Bridgewater, where the Cougars spread around the scoring.

”We know what we’ll get from Rubayo and Kovacevich,” Grundy said. “(Zaryab) Ayub had a big second half against Medford Tech where he took a charge and played unbelievable defense against their best kid. It can be anybody on any give night.”

Next on the agenda for the Cougars is battling for a fourth straight conference championship, which became a bit tougher this year with the addition of Ridge and North Hunterdon to the Skyland Conference Raritan Division.