Montgomery and Rutgers Prep tip-off in the Somerset County Tournament final on February 17, 2024. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)
With high school basketball season upon us – and some schools opening up early in a “Week Zero” opportunity from the NJSIAA this year – Central Jersey Sports Radio is kicking off our coverage with the unveiling of our 2024-25 Broadcast Schedule.
This year’s regular season slate includes eleven regular season games – with some additional late-season contests to be added at a later date – plus postseason coverage of the Greater Middlesex Conference and Somerset County Tournaments, as well as the NJSIAA State Tournament.
Though South Amboy and Sayreville open the season tonight, most schools begin play this weekend, turning down the opportunity to start as early as December 9, because the NJSIAA option included the caveat that those who tipped off the season early could not go back to scrimmages once they started playing games.
Central Jersey Sports Radio will open the season with three big games next week.
First, it’ll be girls’ basketball on Tuesday, December 17, as Gill St. Bernard’s travels to Rutgers Prep. The Knights lost super-talented Brooke Baisley to graduation, but return a tone of talent, while the Argonauts return just one starter in Ava LaMonica, but have some new players to shore things up.
Thursday will feature a matchup of two rival GMC coaches, as Colonia travels to Piscataway. The Patriots are led by Jose Rodriguez, whose team won two titles last year – North 2 Group 3 in the states and the GMCT – the only CJSR coverage area school to do so last season. He’s the student in the student/mentor relationship with Bob Turco, who left St. Thomas Aquinas last year to take the head job with the Chiefs. Rodriguez played at Carteret when Turco coached there under his brother, Dave, who’s now head coach at Kean.
We’ll wrap up the first week with the finale of the Friends of South Amboy showcase at South Amboy High School, as Montgomery and St. Joseph-Metuchen square off at 8. The Cougars were a Somerset County Tournament Finalist last year, and won Central Jersey Group 4 in the states, while the Falcons were the top seed in the 2024 GMC Tournament.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL 2024-25 H.S. BASKETBALL BROADCAST SCHEDULE
The schedule resumes in January with Middlesex and Somerset County matchups on both the girls’ and boys’ sides.
We’ll have semifinals and finals coverage of the GMC Tournament, as well as the Somerset County Tournament Finals. Coverage of the SCT semifinals will be announced at a later date due to a change in scheduling; the event has moved back to it’s “Saturday” format after having the semis on a Thursday and finals on Saturday the past several years, more like the GMC.
The GMC girls’ semifinals will be on Tuesday, February 18, with the boys the next day and the finals on Friday, February 21. All games will be played at Monroe High School.
The SCT semis will be at Franklin on Saturday, February 15, and the finals will be at Montgomery the following Saturday, the 22nd.
We’ll also have live coverage and stories on the seeding meetings, with the Somerset County Tournament confab taking place on Monday, January 27; the GMC will seed on Friday, February 7.
The NJSIAA State Tournament begins Thursday, February 27th, with public sectional finals on Friday and Saturday, March 7 and 8. Non-Public sectional finals are Monday, March 10, and State Finals will be that weekend, with the Non-Publics at Rutgers on Friday, March 14, with Public finals there at Jersey Mike’s Arena on Saturday and Sunday, March 15 and 16.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL 2024-25 H.S. BASKETBALL BROADCAST SCHEDULE
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