Boys basketball: South Plainfield transfers provide boost in win over North Brunswick
SOUTH PLAINFIELD — South Plainfield High School boys basketball coach John Greco has been saying that as well as his team has been playing, it will get even better when his transfers become eligible.
He wasn’t kidding, and their impact was immediate.
Dante Dupiche came off the bench midway through the first quarter and promptly deposited 11 points, adding eight more in the second quarter and finishing with a game-high 24 as South Plainfield hammered North Brunswick, 91-65, on Saturday.
“It felt amazing,” Dupiche said of his return to the court. “I was waiting for a long time and I just wanted to get out there and share the moment with my teammates. It was wonderful.”
The victory leaves South Plainfield (9-3) atop the GMC White Division with a 7-1 record, while North Brunswick (8-4) fell to 5-2 in the league with its second loss to the Tigers.
South Plainfield also got another terrific outing from its frontcourt consisting of Abdul Adebule (20 points, 8 rebounds, 8 blocks), Ikenna Ibeku (8 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 blocks) and Matt Nigro (13 points, 6 boards).
“Our bigs are leading us,” Tigers coach John Greco noted. “Ikenna is our captain and Abdul is just learning how to play basketball and, I know he’s a big, but I look at him as a guard. Actually, Matt Nigro is our second big and he gets more rebounds. We have some depth and we have some versatility to do a lot of things.”
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The Raiders scored first on a putback by Brandon McCain but South Plainfield took the lead for good with an 8-0 run, six by Adebule. Dupiche entered the game midway thorough the period and promptly drained a 3, adding two more treys and a layup as the Tigers closed out the quarter on a 13-8 run, 11 from Dupiche and the other two from fellow Piscataway transfer, Naim Mouzon. That advantage swelled to 47-24 at halftime behind Dupiche’s 19 points.
“(Greco) told me to shoot, everybody told me to shoot, and that’s what I did,” Dupiche said of his first-quarter barrage. “I felt really comfortable. Today my teammates were able to find me and I was able to knock down shots.”
“It was no surprise,” Greco offered on Dupiche’s five 3-pointer outing.
North Brunswick opened the second half with an 8-0 burst, fueled by four points apiece from McCain and Deshawn Burgess, to cut the deficit to 47-32, but the Tigers closed the period with a 20-12 run to bump the lead back to 67-44.
North Brunswick got as close as 73-57 with 3:30 remaining but South Plainfield answered with another 9-0 spurt, five by Adebule, to remove whatever doubt lingered.
Mouzon, the Tigers’ other transfer, contributed 13 points and fit right in.
“When you come in to a new school, you’re finding your way, you need to mesh,” Greco said. “They came to practice every day for a month and made us better, and never complained. And not playing for a month must be so hard, and, obviously, they were ready to go.”
Brandon McCain powered North Brunswick with 21 points and 12 boards.
South Plainfield can’t celebrate the victory for too long, with a noon date with Westfield on Sunday at Kean University.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ Boys basketball: South Plainfield transfers provide boost in win
