Nottingham’s Raymond, Hopewell’s Vlasac are our CVC Co-Players of the Year
In what was another exciting season of Colonial Valley Conference boys basketball, two teams from one division reigned supreme.
Hopewell Valley and Nottingham each finished with 21 wins — at least three more than any other school — and clashed in the best defensive battle of the season Feb. 9 at Hopewell.
Nottingham emerged with a 39-35 victory in that game to seize the Valley Division title and later advanced to the Mercer County Tournament semifinals and NJSIAA Central Jersey Group III quarterfinals.
Hopewell, however, made deeper postseason runs to the MCT final for the second time in school history (2005) before falling to Pennington, and to the Central Group III semifinals before coming up short at Red Bank Regional.
For leading their teams in different ways as senior forwards, Nottingham’s Dom Raymond and Hopewell’s John Michael Vlasac are our CVC and Area CoPlayers of the Year.
Our Co-Coaches of the Year, meanwhile, go to Hopewell’s Matt Stein and West Windsor-Plainsboro North’s Luke Beesley.
Both led their teams to dramatic growth from the year before. Hopewell improved its win total by nine, while WW-P North jumped from a 4-19 record to 14-13 for the Knights’ most wins since 2017-18.
Ewing (17-11) was the only team besides Hopewell to make a sectional semifinal. First-year head coach Paul Jones’ Blue Devils came on strong at the end of the season with wins over Middletown North and Burlington Township before losing to Group III state finalist Freehold Borough.
Robbinsville (18-10) was the only other team to win a first-round game. Eighthyear head coach Conor Hayes’ Ravens advanced in Central Jersey Group III for the fourth consecutive tournament and made the MCT semifinals for the second time despite losing Player of the Year candidate Tyler Handy on Jan. 3 to a season-ending injury.
Notre Dame (14-13) and Hightstown (13-14) were Colonial Division co-champions, while Princeton (11-13) went 6-1 in division play and finished just short of the title in points.
Those schools along with Lawrence (12-14), WW-P South (8-17), Hamilton West (8-18) and Princeton Day School (7-16) also made the state tournament, giving the CVC a total of 12 postseason teams.
In the Burlington County Scholastic League, Trenton Catholic (17-11) Bordentown (13-13) each won a state tournament game in Non-Public B South and Central Group II, respectively.
TCPA had three sophomores score at least 300 points including forward Marjohn Skillman (14.2 ppg, 9.5 rpg), Isaiah Gore (12.1 ppg) and Tyler Hammond (11 ppg). Bordentown’s leaders were senior forward Andrew DaCosta (16 ppg, 6.3 rpg) and senior guard Myles Hansford (8.8 ppg, 3.2 apg).
Here is a closer look at the CVC’s best performers this winter.
Jordan Raba, Nottingham
The 6-foot-3 senior guard averaged 14.8 points, 3.7 assists and 3.4 rebounds as the primary floor general for the 21win Northstars. Raba made big plays all season after missing a chunk of his junior campaign with an injury. With Jordan and older brother Brandon on the team for the last seven seasons, coach Chris Raba’s Northstars posted a combined record of 136-52 including two sectional titles, one state title and one county title.
Jahan Owusu, Princeton
The 6-foot-2 senior guard led the Tigers with 16.4 points per game while displaying a relentless motor and clutch play-making ability in big games. Owusu scored at least 25 points five times and dropped 19 points in a 51-38 win at WW-P North to help Princeton land a spot in the MCT.
Hass Cannon, Hamilton West
The 6-foot-4 senior guard finished third in the CVC with 17.2 points per game along with averages of eight rebounds and four assists. Despite the Hornets struggling as a young team this season with only eight wins, Cannon was consistently one of the most talented players on the court and brought it virtually every night with double-figure scoring in all but two games including 20 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in a win over Lawrence during the Mercer County Invitational.
Yasin Elhossieni, Hightstown
The 6-foot senior guard did all the little things as the only Ram who previously had extensive varsity experience to lift this team to a co-division championship and MCT berth. Elhossieni averaged 14.4 points, 5.9 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 3.5 steals. In a Jan. 31 win over Nottingham, he had perhaps the best game of his career with 29 points, seven rebounds and six assists.
Dom Raymond, Nottingham
What the 6-foot-3 senior forward did in two seasons at Nottingham after transferring from Trenton Catholic was remarkable. Our Co-Player of the Year av
eraged 19 points and 9.4 rebounds while constantly hustling, dominating in the paint and drawing fouls and double teams. Raymond had nine double-doubles as a senior, and in two seasons overall he had 895 points and 495 rebounds.
John Michael Vlasac, Hopewell Valley
The 6-foot-2 senior forward was the leader of a cohesive unit with 16.9 points, 8.3 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 3.3 blocks per game. Vlasac, who was also a standout tight end and linebacker at the school, defended multiple positions well and constantly made his teammates better on both ends of the court. Our Co-Player of the Year finished with 707 points, 428 rebounds, 158 assists and 158 blocks in two full varsity seasons.
The 6-foot-3 senior wing became the Ravens’ do-it-all energy bunny after point guard Tyler Handy went down with an injury in January. Bunnell led the area with 20.8 points per game to become the only local player this year to eclipse 1,000 points for his career, finishing with the school record of 1,142. He also averaged 6.3 rebounds and frequently outhustled opponents on fastbreaks.
Joel Cineus, Ewing
The 6-foot-5 junior forward led a young Blue Devils team as one of the area’s top interior defenders. Cineus averaged 13.3 points, 6.9 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.9 blocks. He posted double-doubles in both of Ewing’s state tournament wins including a monster 18-point, 10-rebound, sevenblock performances in the sectional quarterfinals at Burlington Township.
Matt Stein, Hopewell Valley
Our Co-Coach of the Year, Stein
guided the Bulldogs to their second ever 21-win season, first MCT final since 2005, and first appearance in the sectional semifinals in at least 35 years. The eighth-year head coach draws up a motion offense with constant off-ball movement to make all five players a threat and keep teams off-balanced. The Bulldogs also played especially tough defense this season, holding opponents to fewer than 50 points in 18 of their 27 games.
Luke Beesley, WW-P North
An Illinois native and former college player at Southern Connecticut, Beesley led the Knights to a big turnaround in only his third season as a head coach to be our Co-Coach of the Year. His team played connected and unselfishly to rack up more wins (14) than it tallied in the previous four seasons combined (12) at a school that isn’t known for getting high-level basketball talent. North had a onepoint upset win at Ewing and made the Mercer County Invitational title game.