South Brunswick 6B Basketball Team Wins Championship

The  South Brunswick Vikings 6B PAL basketball team won the Mid Jersey Basketball League West Division Championship with a hard fought win over the MSC Ivory Hawks (7-3) on Sunday at the Monroe Sports Center.

The Vikings entered the playoffs as the top seed and the Hawks were the number two seed. After both teams handled their semifinal opponents on Saturday, they faced off at high noon on Sunday to decide the league championship.

The game was well played and close throughout, with no team taking more than a 7-point lead. Brad Allen started the scoring off for the Vikings with the game's first two baskets.

Anthony Ramos contributed throughout the game with timely drives to the hoop. But the Vikings were carried, as they were all season, by game MVP, Vinayak Iyer. 

The Vikings got offensive and defensive contributions from Arnav Batra, Manav Shah, Nick Campigotto and Tanmay Gera. Abhishek Pandya, Amman Mohapatra and Raj Patel were fierce on the boards. But even so, the game was tied with less than 4 minutes left.

That's when point guard Seth Gleason drained two clutch threes and the defense really clamped down. Down by three with less than a minute to go, the Hawks started to foul, sending Vinayak to the line twice. They didn't realize he can also shoot free throws, and the Vikings pulled away to win 41-35. 

"None of these kids played for South Brunswick PAL travel basketball before, so for them to come so far, improve so much and actually win a championship is amazing," said Coach Ken Gleason. "And they're a great bunch of kids too, which makes it a lot more fun for the coaches."

--South Brunswick PAL