{"id":570,"date":"2011-01-25T19:01:18","date_gmt":"2011-01-26T00:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/?p=570"},"modified":"2011-01-25T19:01:18","modified_gmt":"2011-01-26T00:01:18","slug":"mccoy-leading-cougar-boys-toward-tourney-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/archives\/570\/","title":{"rendered":"McCoy leading Cougar boys toward tourney time"},"content":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/www.centraljersey.com\/articles\/2011\/01\/25\/the_princeton_packet\/sports\/doc4d3de93427cad006934955.txt<\/a><\/p>\n

Senior fills up stat line for MHS basketball<\/div>\n
Tuesday, January 25, 2011 9:07 AM EST<\/div>\n
By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/div>\n

The Montgomery High boys basketball team had won five straight games before facing Linden on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And despite coming away with a 64-44 loss, the Cougars felt the experience was well worth the trip.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201dI was talking to my assistant coaches after the game and I told them I hope the kids realize one day the magnitude of this game,\u201d Montgomery coach Kris Grundy said. \u201cLast year when I called (Linden coach) Phil Colicchio for the game I got his voicemail and figured I wouldn\u2019t get a call back. But he called right back and said he definitely wanted to play us.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201dHe said we were the defending CJ IV champs and a strong program. It made me realize how far Montgomery basketball has come. We were playing one of the best public school teams in the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Cougars are a perfect 8-0 and sit on top of their division in the Skyland Conference. But the test they received against Linden will help them more than most of those earlier wins.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201dWe went up there and competed,\u201d Grundy said. \u201cWe lost by 20, but we got more out of that game than we did the last five games we had won. We got better from that game and it will help prepare us for the Somerset County Tournament and the state tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Cougars received 12 points apiece from Ryan McCoy and Matt Mignon in the loss. McCoy continued his solid play this season. The Manhattan College-bound senior is averaging 12.9 points, 10.4 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 4.2 blocks a game for the Cougars.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201dThey were a good team and it made us better playing against that competition,\u201d McCoy said. \u201cWe have been playing a pretty tough out of conference schedule this year. We\u2019ve played a lot of tough teams to help us prepare for the states and the counties. We want to go out there and play the toughest competition we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Having a solid player like McCoy helps the Cougars no matter who they play. The senior can fill a stat sheet and is part of a solid mix for Montgomery.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201dHe is doing it all,\u201d Grundy said. \u201cPeople see that he is a Division I scholarship player and I think they expect him to score 25 points a game. But that is not what he does for us. He handles the ball and for a 6-foot-7 kid he\u2019s the best passer I have ever seen. He\u2019s also our best rebounder and he blocks shots and plays great defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0McCoy is just one piece of the puzzle for the Cougars, who have their sights set on doing well in the Somerset County and Central Jersey Group IV tournaments later this season.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201dWe have four guys that on any given night can drop 20 points on you with Mignon, McCoy, (Mike) Reynolds and (Colin) Geary when he gets going,\u201d Grundy said. \u201cWe have a lot of balance, which is nice with this team. People focus on Ryan and they should because he is such a talented player. But we have a lot of kids that can play.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Cougars came into the week with a conference title within reach. And they\u2019ll also be looking to repeat in CJ IV.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201dI think when we came into the season we expected to be good,\u201d McCoy said. \u201cWe lost some players from last year, but we thought we still had a good team. Matt, Mike (Reynolds) and Jon (Lott) played a lot last year, but we also have new guys like Tim Maloney and Colin Geary who have helped us this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0McCoy is playing a different role this year, being counted on more to rebound than he did last year after much of the frontcourt was lost to graduation.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201dI\u2019ve been pretty happy with how I have been playing so far,\u201d said McCoy, who is among the players nationally selected as nominees for the McDonald\u2019s All-America game. \u201cI am not scoring as much, but I am doing the little things. Last year we had three other guys who were 6-5 or taller. This year I\u2019m the biggest guy so I have to do more rebounding than I did last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0McCoy has certainly been doing his share this year. And beyond this year he\u2019ll look to do the same things at Manhattan.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201dIt takes a lot of pressure off me not having to worry about schools,\u201d McCoy said of his decision to head to the Jaspers. \u201cI can just concentrate on this season and it has been a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/www.centraljersey.com\/articles\/2011\/01\/25\/the_princeton_packet\/sports\/doc4d3de93427cad006934955.txt Senior fills up stat line for MHS basketball Tuesday, January 25, 2011 9:07 AM EST By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor The Montgomery High boys basketball team had won five straight games before facing Linden on Saturday. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And despite coming away with a 64-44 loss, the Cougars felt the experience was well worth the trip. […]<\/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-570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570","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=570"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":572,"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570\/revisions\/572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mhsbasketball.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}