Colonia will need to snap long streak tonight at Aquinas to win GMC Red crown

Colonia controls its own destiny, as they say.

A win for the third-ranked Patriots (10-1) at top-ranked St. Thomas Aquinas (11-1) Thursday night would give Colonia the GMC Red Division title outright, and very likely the top overall seed in the league tournament next month.

But to do it, they will need to stop a very long streak.

To be clear, it’s not necessarily one of their own.

While the Trojans won all three meetings between the teams last year, Colonia did beat STA in the finale of the GMC’s Karl-Anthony Towns/Jay Williams Pod in 2021, the top mini four-game pod in the COVID-shortened season.

No, we’re talking about the St. Thomas streak of 52 straight wins in divisional play, which has continued this year despite a move up to the GMC Red Division, along with Colonia.

This will be the first meeting between the teams this year, and it could be the only one of their two games to count toward the Red Division title, thanks to a one-year pilot program approved last spring by the GMC. That pilot only mandates one game against every divisional foe, with a second matchup optional. And only the first go-round through the schedule will be considered to determine the division champion.

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Since Colonia already beat St. Joseph in triple overtime back in December, a win tonight would clinch the division. Should Aquinas win, they could win outright Tuesday if they beat St. Joseph in Metuchen. If Aquinas wins tonight, but St. Joe’s wins Tuesday, all three would be co-champs, making things a little more complicated, as the second matchups would then come into play at the seeding meeting in a few weeks.

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Tonight’s game on Central Jersey Sports Radio, with Mike Pavlichko and Justin Sontupe calling all the action. Pre-game starts at approximately 6:35, with tip-off at 7:00. Click here to listen to the live broadcast for free.

Nonetheless, Colonia has been having a fine season. The Patriots’ lone loss came out-of-conference to Westfield in the LeGrand Holdiay Jubilee. But they won their last two games in that tournament between Christmas and New Year’s, and have won six-in-a-row since that defeat.

Balanced scoring has been the name of the game for Colonia, which has four players – Jaeden Jones, Noah Taylor, Anthony Gooden, and freshman Aiden Derkack – scoring between 10 and 16 points per game, with Jones – the football team’s quarterback this past season – leading the pace with 15.5 points per contest.

Derkack has been a big plus, leading the team in steals (27) and pulling up right behind the starting point guard, Jones, with 43 assists; Jones has 47.