Hamilton West’s Malik Snead dribbles upcourt during the Hornets’ 85-42 loss to Ewing in the Central New Jersey Group III Championship March 10, 2015. (Photo by Albert Rende.)
The seeds to one of the greatest seasons in Hamilton High School West boys’ basketball history were planted deep in the muck of one of the Hornets’ roughest campaigns.
This year’s team went 22-6 and reached the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group III finals before losing to Ewing on Mar. 10. The squad came within one win of tying the school record set by the 2006 state champions, and it stands alone with the second most victories in West history.
It’s almost hard to believe that the core of the team was also a big part of a 4-20 campaign two years earlier. But that nucleus of sophomores from the 2012-13 season will always be known as the gang that just kept getting better. Hamilton improved to 17-8 and won the Bordentown Christmas Tournament and Colonial Valley Conference’s Valley Division title last year, while reaching the CJ III semifinals before falling to Ewing in a heart-breaking overtime loss.
This year’s squad—with 2012 holdovers Tyleer Wrenn, Freddie Simmons, Kevin Smiegocki, Malik Snead and Alex Cruz comprising the starting lineup—won another Christmas tournament and division title, got to the Mercer County Tournament semifinals and reached the sectional finals for the first time since 2006. Reserve forward Mo Manuel was also a part of the team two years ago.
The squad felt the frustration nearly every game, said Snead.
“It got rough,” he said. “You’re playing good teams with upperclassmen and we’re just all sophomores, it got hard, it got tough. But we ended up having a great run.”
Wrenn, the Hornets leading scorer, had a slightly different take on it.
“I wouldn’t say it was frustrating; it was us just growing,” said the first-team Coaches All-CVC pick. “We were a bunch of inexperienced sophomores, we had to go out as a team and learn how to play with each other for the first time.”
Cruz was a bit uncertain about the future after that season.
“Being 4-20 that year, we didn’t think we would come this far,” he said. “There were a lot of doubts, especially from our school. But we definitely improved our junior year. We just went hard at practice and pushed each other and wanted it. We worked as hard as we possibly could. Losing to a good team but making it this far, it means everything because 20-win seasons, not everybody can say they did that in high school.”
For his part, Snead felt that the frustration of losing as sophomores never translated into discouragement where the future was concerned.
“We did believe we’d get better,” he said. “Being sophomores at the time, we had three guys who had varsity experience, everybody else was JV and freshmen. We played hard, we competed with teams but at the end we lost games. We realized after that summer we had to put in the hard work and the dedication into it to have successful seasons.”
That is exactly what the Hornets did, despite basketball being much of the group’s secondary sport. Snead, Manuel, Simmons and Wrenn—who only started playing hoops at his grandmother’s insistence—are football players first. Smiegocki and Cruz are baseball players.
But they came together and worked toward a common goal in basketball, and gave head coach Jay Malloy what he termed “my best two years of basketball” over the past two seasons. While he said the 2012-13 year is a season he tries to forget, he does remember how his players never complained at practice and always looked forward to the next opportunity to win.
“We knew we had athletes, but we were young and inexperienced,” he said. “They took their beatings, they used that as fuel last year, they learned to play well together and that’s what that year kind of did for them. They were able to learn the speed of the game, they were able to kind of figure out what worked, what didn’t, and they just carried it over.”
The fuse was lit last season when the Hornets won the Bordentown Tournament after falling to Nottingham in the finals the previous year. Momentum continued to build during the season as Hamilton improved its record by a whopping 13 victories. The team had one senior starter in Dan Garcia, along with senior reserves Anthony Fulmore and Daryl Hardee.
The quick turnaround suprised Malloy a little bit, but not as much as this season’s did. Last year, Hamilton returned four starters, but this season, the squad lost significant senior experience in Garcia, Fulmore and Hardee.
“To be honest, I was a little more surprised at the improvement this year,” Malloy said. “To go from 17 to 22 wins, I don’t know if I really expected that. I’m not shocked by it, because of just how good these kids are. The sophomores came in and did a great job, plus the seniors got even better.”
Indeed, 10th graders Mark Bethea and Cosby Paul were both valuable members of the rotation, providing strong perimeter shooting off the bench. Sophomore Reidgee DiManche would have contributed as well, but he sat out the year due to a football injury.
As for the seniors, Wrenn and Snead were the main scorers and solid rebounders and defenders, Cruz was a 3-point threat, Smiegocki did all the dirty work, Simmons blocked shots, hit jumpers and grabbed rebounds and Manuel provided a physical presence off the bench. Seniors Jordan Bryan and Jamir Williams also chipped in.
“I would never have thought this, a 22-win season is hard to do in high school, and we can say we did it,” Wrenn said. “It’s incredible how hard we worked, in the gym, out of the gym, in the classroom, outside the classroom. Just being good people to everybody. I’m just proud of the way we’ve grown as a team and as a family.”
“Family” is a key word in describing the Hornets’ success. Just as important as their talent was the chemistry that developed over four years.
“I love everybody on the team, every single one of these guys,” Snead said. “I wish the best of luck to the lower classmen. I had the best season this year. Last year, I thought I had the best season, but this season I enjoyed every game, every practice. And to the players coming up, I tell them don’t take off. Enjoy every practice, every game. You never know when it will be your last. Right now, I’m missing every single day of it.”
Cruz felt this year’s Hornets will always be known for their special brand of toughness, which helped the team go 13-0 at home, including some incredible comeback wins.
“I’m just proudest of the way we stuck together, not giving up in tight games,” he said. “You go back to wins over Hightstown, Lawrence, Hopewell. We pushed all the way to the end, just like we did against Ewing. We just didn’t get the W but as long as we played hard that’s all I could ask.”
This year’s seniors will always represent a special bunch for Malloy, since they came in as freshmen during his first year as head coach.
“I’m just proudest of how they’ve grown as people and as athletes,” he said. “They’re all great kids and that’s what made this job so easy. I was always looking forward to going to practice, looking forward to the games. Obviously basketball-wise they were fun to watch and I had people tell me that all the time. They enjoyed watching my guys and that makes me proud of them in all aspects.”
Unfortunately, this group of seniors was bedeviled for two straight years by Ewing’s Trey Lowe, a 2,400-point scorer who will go down as the one of the greatest players—arguably the greatest—in CVC history.
“Yeah, you run into him two straight years, it’s bad fate, like it wasn’t meant to be,” Malloy said. “But these guys had to learn to battle adversity. They’ll get over this and every one of them will be better people and better athletes because of the experience the last two years.”
In the end, it was Wrenn who probably best summed up the Hornets mindset as a whole.
“It was just a great season,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to play with anybody else but these guys.”
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