Three of the four higher seeds advanced in Saturday’s GMC Tournament girls’ quarterfinals at Middlesex County College in Edison, setting the stage for Tuesday’s semifinals at Monroe High School.
In the early games, 3rd-seed Colonia beat 6-seed Middlesex 56-34 for the its 14th straight win, getting 21 points from Mattison Chiera and 19 from Taylor Derkack, the Patriots’ 1-2 punch all year long.
Then, 7th-seed South Brunswick upended defending 2021 de facto GMC champion Monroe – winner of last year’s top post-season pod – beating the Falcons 58-56 behind 16 points from Katie Rausch, 14 from Carla Seyfarth, and Meher Vig, who had 10.
AUDIO: South Brunswick girls pull off big upset in GMCT quarterfinals, knocking off Monroe
Colonia (22-2) and South Brunswick (17-6) move on to Tuesday’s 5 pm semifinal at Monroe.
In the later games, 5-seed East Brunswick topped 4-seed Old Bridge 58-42, avenging two prior defeats in the regular season. The Lady Bears got 15 points from Rebecca Perez and 12 from Tamea El, while three other players had at least 8 points.
In the finale, top-seed St. Thomas Aquinas was a 78-56 winner over 9-seed North Brunswick.
The Trojans (19-3) will play East Brunswick (15-7) in the 7 pm semifinal at Monroe. The Bears – who came into the GMCT on a three-game losing streak, but now have won two straight – kept it close with Aquinas twice this season, but lost both times: 61-53 on January 13th in North Edison, and 55-48 back on the fifth of this month. East Brunswick has lost five straight against Aquinas/Bishop Ahr, with its last win ironically coming in the GMC Tournament semifinals back in 2016, a 44-40 win that propelled the Bears to the GMC Tournament Championship, which they won 42-31 over Monroe.
Central Jersey Sports Radio will cover the GMC Tournament girls’ semifinals on Tuesday with Dom Savino at Monroe High School providing live updates on Twitter. He’ll also have postgame reaction and game stories on cjsportsradio.com. Follow @DominickSavino on Twitter for updates throughout the night Tuesday.