Sandy Burgos is 95 points short of 1,000 for his career. William Paterson athletics photo

The William Paterson men’s basketball team boasts just three losses on the season. Two of those three, however, have come at the hands of archrival and conference foe Richard Stockton.

Perhaps it’s unfair to say any NJAC squad has an archrival, since every conference game is a real struggle. “In our league, almost always, the team that plays the hardest wins,” says Stockton coach Gerry Matthews. Matthews has helmed the Ospreys for 29 seasons and for 20 of those years he’s stared down the sideline at Jose Rebimbas in front of the Paterson bench.

These coaches have shared a lot of years together and have nothing but mutual respect. “[Rebimbas] has been the best coach in our league since he’s been here. They’ve had a lot of success,” says Matthews. The Pioneer coach returns the favor, “Gerry has been a competitor of mine and also a mentor as well. When we have success he’s happy for us. When they have success I’m happy for him because I know how hard he works.”

Over the past decade, the NCAA Tournament has been more likely than not to feature one or both of these coaches and the teams they’ve put together. Each of them has been to the Final Four under the current NCAA Tournament setup, the only NJAC schools to do so. Despite this success, the second meeting between the two this year, a 61-57 Stockton win at Paterson over the weekend, saw both teams ranked in the Top 25 at the same time for the first time since 1999-2000.

That game lived up to the hype, with quick, back and forth action, both teams holding the lead in both halves, before Stockton looked to pull away late. Down 11 with four minutes to go, Paterson hit a number of clutch shots to cut the deficit to three and put a scare into Stockton with a minute remaining. Free throws secured the victory for Matthews’ crew, but, as expected, it was an exciting game from beginning to end.

Before the game Matthews remarked, “The first meeting was physical. They shot 3-of-20 from the three point line and we shot 2-of-21. It was god-awful ugly. I expect this game to be relatively similar.” A few more threes went down in the second meeting, but the teams combined for 37 turnovers as defense dominated once again.

Both squads feature a hard-nosed, physical style, led by senior guards, Sandy Burgos for William Paterson, and Josh Blamon for Richard Stockton. Despite the similarities, these schools approached the season in very different places. Paterson narrowly missed out on an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament, a snub that still stings Rebimbas. Bringing back the core of that 21-win team, their sights were set on not giving the committee a choice this year.

Richard Stockton made a Sweet 16 run last year, including a win at highly ranked Cabrini in the second round, then graduated seven seniors. Without enough returning players to even fill out a starting five, Matthews was uncertain what to expect from his talented group of newcomers. “We’ve had a lot of guys play better than we thought they would or could,” says the coach, who’s driven this team to a 17-3 overall record and a No. 17 national ranking.

It’s often said the NJAC is a tough conference to dominate, but Paterson and Stockton do find themselves three games clear with just a few to play. The Ospreys struggled following the loss of starting point guard Nate Pacius to injury, but have found a way to get on the same page and right the ship without taking too many losses. Thanks to winter weather, Remimbas’ squad looks forward to four games in eight days (three on the road) upcoming.

In the NJAC, as Matthews says, “You never take anything for granted.” These veteran coaches aren’t going to look beyond the next game. But for those of us watching from the outside, we can look forward to a likely third meeting in the conference finals. The Ospreys and the Pioneers just have to make sure they get there.

Skyline battle

The fight is thick on the women’s side of the Skyline this season. Mt. St. Vincent has the best overall record at 13-4, but picked up half those losses in conference, currently sitting behind Sage, with whom they’ve split the season series, and Farmingdale State, who’s yet to lose to a Skyline opponent. The Dolphins host the Rams Tuesday evening, hoping to throw even more turmoil into the top of the standings.

CAC happenings

Christopher Newport was ranked in the d3hoops.com preseason poll, which took some of the thunder from St. Mary’s co-selection (with CNU) as the Capital Athletic Conference coaches’ pick to win the league. The Seahawks then lost two, unimpressive early road games to fall further off the radar. Marymount started 14-2 and garnered a lot of attention. Now the dust has settled, St. Mary’s has won five in a row (13-4 overall) and finds themselves atop the CAC standings once again. CNU is still lurking ahead, but for right now, Chris Harney’s men find themselves right where they want to be.

Eastern rising

Defending national champs, FDU-Florham get all the attention, but the Eastern University women are also making short work of the Freedom Conference. Senior guard Meghan Nowak leads the eagles in scoring, but three players average double figures and sophomore guard Emily Lavin won her second Freedom Conference Player of the Week honor (Nowak also has two). Eastern is ready for the challenges ahead, which will ramp up quickly; the Eagles get the undefeated, No. 1 ranked Devils at home on Feb. 7.

CSAC parity

It’s not going to do anything for their Pool C prospects, but the men’s teams in the CSAC are putting on quite a show this season. Two thirds of the way through the conference schedule, eight of ten teams are .500 or better in conference. Four teams have eight wins, two have seven, two have six. Only six teams make the conference playoffs, so the rest of the season will be something to watch.

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If you have any feedback or story ideas (especially approaching milestones, which are sometimes hard to discover), please pass them along at ryan.scott@d3sports.com or @ryanalanscott on Twitter.