{"id":1087,"date":"2013-12-30T20:41:38","date_gmt":"2013-12-31T01:41:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/?p=1087"},"modified":"2013-12-30T21:39:20","modified_gmt":"2013-12-31T02:39:20","slug":"mhs-wins-tournament-beating-piscataway-72-53","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/archives\/1087\/","title":{"rendered":"Unbeaten Montgomery runs past Piscataway"},"content":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/www.mycentraljersey.com\/article\/20131230\/NJSPORTS0150\/312300063\/Boys-basketball-Unbeaten-Montgomery-runs-past-Piscataway<\/a><\/p>\n

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MONTGOMERY<\/strong> \u2014 For years, Montgomery High School boys basketball succeeded by grinding down foes with defense and making the most of deliberate half-court possessions.<\/p>\n

This Cougar team is different. This one can light you up from end to end, as Piscataway learned on Monday. With senior Greg Tarca\u2019s 23 points leading the way, Montgomery throttled the Chiefs 72-53 in the final game of the Cougar Holiday Classic.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone\u2019s gears were going today \u2014 shots were falling, guys feeding off each other\u2019s energy,\u201d Tarca said. \u201cIt just shows what we\u2019re capable of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Montgomery improved to 4-0, with quality wins over Sayreville and Bridgewater-Raritan under its belt, and looks like a contender for big prizes come February and March.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a good group of guys who know each other and share the ball well,\u201d Tarca said.<\/p>\n

Senior standout Justin Kovacevich tallied 16 points and seven rebounds, drawing much of the defensive attention so his teammates could do damage. Guard Alex Miller scored 14 points off the bench, connecting on all four of his 3-pointers, junior forward Darron Wallace netted 10 points and senior guard Tim Youraneff scored seven.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone knows how much of a threat Justin is. It does open up shots for other people,\u201d Tarca said. \u201cAs you saw today with me and Miller, everyone can hit shots here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Piscataway (2-2) was paced by seniors Joe Hines (13 points), Rachid Shimou (12 points), Najee Lucky (8 points) and Maranus Tavernier (7 points). The Chiefs fell behind 27-16 after one quarter and never recovered.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re 2-2 and we\u2019re not even in a bad spot, but I don\u2019t want to get into a bad spot,\u201d Piscataway coach Antoine Allen said. \u201cOur biggest thing is working on basketball IQ. I\u2019ve said to the kids, \u2018Piscataway needs basketball players, not a player in basketball.\u2019 That\u2019s a constant for us every day \u2014 teaching these kids how to play. You see it in flashes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allen has the pedigree to make it work; he rebuilt New Brunswick into a contender before taking over the Chiefs last winter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all in the microwave age here and you want things done right now,\u201d Allen said. \u201cIt took three years to get New Brunswick fixed, but I want to get Piscataway rolling in the right direction now, not next year after these kids graduate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Montgomery is clearly rolling in the right direction. It took some reflection for head coach Kris Grundy to embrace pushing the ball, but like any smart skipper, he adjusted his system to fit his personnel.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something I had to become comfortable with,\u201d he said. \u201cI told my coaches, \u2018We like to keep (opposing) teams around 40 (points),\u2019 and they were like, \u2018Kris, you can\u2019t have it both ways. You can\u2019t speed up the game and push the ball in transition and also keep teams to 40 points because there are too many possessions.\u2019 I had to become used to letting the reins go because of who had we from a skill standpoint.\u201d<\/p>\n

So far everyone is enjoying the ride.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Staff writer Jerry Carino:\u00a0jcarino@njpressmedia.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/www.mycentraljersey.com\/article\/20131230\/NJSPORTS0150\/312300063\/Boys-basketball-Unbeaten-Montgomery-runs-past-Piscataway MONTGOMERY \u2014 For years, Montgomery High School boys basketball succeeded by grinding down foes with defense and making the most of deliberate half-court possessions. This Cougar team is different. This one can light you up from end to end, as Piscataway learned on Monday. With senior Greg Tarca\u2019s 23 points leading the way, Montgomery […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1087"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1089,"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1087\/revisions\/1089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}