Still plenty of girls’ basketball to be played in Somerset County before seeding time

The boys’ and girls’ Somerset County Tournament seeding meeting is two weeks from Monday, and there’s still a lot to be decided when some of the best squads in the area face each other over the next couple of weeks.

So how are things shaping up?

It’s been this way for a while, but the Rutgers Prep girls are clearly the class of Somerset County right now. They have won 36 straight games against county opponents, including six tournament games, two “pod” games in 2021, and an NJSIAA game in 2020. Their last county loss came in the 2019 SCT finals to Franklin, which again is not its usual self this year.

But the Lady Argonauts still have some work to do. Should they beat Gill. St. Bernard’s at home Tuesday afternoon (3:45 on Central Jersey Sports Radio) they will pretty much wrap up the Delaware Division, with only one more division game left against Bridgewater-Raritan, a team they beat at home eleven days ago by 47.

Should Gill St. Bernard’s win, it would force a tie atop the division, but the Knights lost 74-46 to Prep at home back on January 5th. Even with a co-championship, you’d have to put Mary Klinger’s squad first, because they likely would have beaten Gill by more (i.e., there’s no way Gill is beating Prep by 28 points).

Either way, these two teams would very likely be the top two seeds, but the third and fourth places could get interesting. And if you’re third, you potentially avoid Rutgers Prep until the finals. That said, Watchung Hills is 6-0 against the county at 11-4 overall heading into the weekend, while Bernards (11-3) is 4-0 vs. Somerset opponents and doesn’t play anyone else from the county before the seeding.

Generally, it’s likely it would go to the larger school, but Bernards also hasn’t lost to anyone in the conference, with defeats at the hands of Madison, Governor Livingston and Hanover Park. Watchung Hills counts a loss to Mount St. Mary among its four defeats – the others are to Union City, Chatham and Scotch Plains-Fanwood. Does that bump Mount up and drop Watchung to the five? Good question.

Mount St. Mary has challenged itself out of conference, with losses to Red Bank Catholic, St. John Vianney (which recently knocked off the No. 1 team in the country, Long Island Lutheran), Middletown North and Staten Island Academy, but they’ve also lost a division game to Warren Hills.

They also play Franklin the Saturday before the seeding. And while the Warriors aren’t in their TOC championship form, they’re still a solid top-division opponents, and a win could impress the coaches.

It seems like there are the top teams, and then the rest this year, less of a gradual drop-down, so-to-speak. In the Delaware Division, after Rutgers Prep and Gill at 10-3 and 11-3, respectively, coming into the weekend, you have Franklin at 6-7 and Hillsborough 7-6. That’s probably not good enough to merit consideration before Bernards, Watchung Hills, or even Mount St. Mary, a small school in a small division that challenges itself.

Same thing in the Raritan after Watchung Hills. The next best team in the division is Ridge at 7-7, and after Phillipsburg (not in Somerset County) it’s Immaculata, also 7-7.