Trenton Catholic looks to bounce back among locals in BCSL
For the first time in a long time, Trenton Catholic boys basketball was a nonfactor in Mercer last season as the Iron Mikes were not selected to the county tournament (they lost in the first round of the consolation bracket) and finished nine games under .500.
That was mostly due to graduations, transfers and a last-minute coaching change. Now after time to gel and bring in more players, Trenton Catholic should have a better chance to compete in the Burlington County Scholastic League’s Liberty Division and make a run at an MCT spot.
The Iron Mikes’ projected topthree players are sophomores. 6-foot guard Isaiah Gore (11.7 ppg) and 6-foot-3 guard/forward Javion Cesar Jones (5.1 ppg) played significant minutes as freshmen and showed potential, while 6-foot-4 forward Marjon Skillman has entered the mix as well.
“We’ll have a young team made up of mostly underclassmen,” head coach Eric Elliott said. “We return three starters from last year with a good mix of transfers. We’ll look to compete for conference and county titles.”
Meanwhile, Bordentown aims to build on a 14-win season with several key players back along with some exciting youth coming up.
Senior Andrew DaCosta (15.8 ppg, 6.1 rpg) is a long, athletic forward. Senior Myles Hansford (12.2 ppg) is a terrific scoring guard, great defender and team leader with a football background. Junior guard Max Martin is one of the top varsity newcomers as an excellent shooter who plays intelligently and with great pace.
“We are going to be a team that tries to get up and down the court with speed,” head coach Steve Perry said. “We have three returning starters and a couple of young players that will certainly help. Freshman class coming in is very strong with a number of players playing both JV and varsity. We expect to compete for our division title and make a sectional title run.”
Northern Burlington has been going through a transitional period after taking lumps last winter in a 5-20 campaign.
6-foot-3 senior forward Mike Udodi (8 ppg) and 5-foot-10 junior guard Tarun Aravind (10.6 ppg) have starting experience and were among the team’s three leading scorers last year.
“The players have been working hard and are willing to do whatever is necessary to improve the team,” head coach Gene Darling said. “We have lost four starters to graduation and varsity experience will be lacking early in the season. We are looking to improve on last year. We will still be a young program looking to compete every night.”