Top four girls’ teams hold court in Preseason Bellamy & Son Paving Girls’ Basketball Top Ten, but a huge league opener could change that

Though a handful of teams have played a smattering of games this week, the high school basketball season in New Jersey will open up much more this weekend, and in earnest by next Tuesday.

And one of those matchups – a game you can hear live on Central Jersey Sports Radio – could very well alter the top of the Top Ten.

That’s Tuesday’s Skyland Conference opener for No. 1 Rutgers Prep and No. 3 Gill St. Bernard’s, which will be played in Somerset that evening at 6:00. Join us for pregame at 5:45 pm with Mike Pavlichko and Dom Savino on the call; click here to listen.

Rutgers Prep lost four starters from last year’s 24-5 squad that won its fourth straight Somerset County Tournament title, including Mikayla Blakes, Chloe Escanillas and Zahra Alexander. Blakes is leading the nationin scoring down at Vanderbilt, while Escanillas is at Marist and Alexander is at LIU. Gigi Battle moved to Florida, and Leah Crosby, who transferred in from St. Thomas Aquinas last year, has transferred back to the North Edison school.

That leaves junior Ava LaMonica as the lone starter back, but she’ll have support from several key backups who played smaller roles last year, including returnees like Hannah Fraser, Logan Squeri and Cali McCoy, along with newcomers Hailey Benbow and Ava Frith.

Gill St. Bernard’s is just the opposite. UConn-bound post Gandy Malou Mamel is back along with Sidney Quinn, Maya Abramson and Tessa Lozner, and that crew should challenge Prep this season, as they did in last year’s SCT final. The Knights had a halftime lead on the Argonauts, the first Skyland Conference team to do so since Franklin did it in the 2019 championship game, which was also their last loss to a Skyland team.

Prep has won 64 straight against Skyland foes, 51 in a row against Somerset County opponents, and has been the only girls team in the history of CJSR (dating back to the 2021 season) to be ranked No. 1, holding that spot for a 38th straight week, including these rankings.

In between them, at No. 2, is St. Thomas Aquinas, which is also loaded coming off a 22-8 season, and its fourth straight full GMC Tournament Championship. As mentioned earlier, Leah Crosby returns after a year at Rutgers Prep, and Gianna Chuffo, Jordan Barnes and Trista Whitney all are back as well for second-year head coach Tim Corrigan.

Checking in at No. 4 is Hillsborough, which returns all of its key pieces as well. Though they got knocked out of the SCT in the semifinals by Gill last year, the Raiders won their first-ever sectional title in 2024, beating Elizabeth in the North 2, Group 4 title game at home before falling to Morristown in the Group 4 semifinals.

Up a spot to No. 5 is South Brunswick, which finished 16-12 a year ago. And though they lose key starters like Meher Vig and Leilani Pinder, return Avery Jenne and Alexis Lease-Springer.

Moving up from ninth to sixth is Somerville. The Pioneers were 23-5 last year and Mountain Division champions in the Skyland Conference, and bring back just about everyone. The only significant contributor lost to graduation was Emily Kolodziej, the team’s third leading scorer. Top scorers Charlotte Taylor (senior) and Kaylee Lauber (junior) are back, along with Amaya Miller and Lilly Taylor.

Up a spot to seventh is Middlesex, which went 17-14 last year and is expected to improve even more this season. The biggest piece returning is star Jess Devine, who is likely to crack the 2,000-point mark late this season. She had 1,576 career points after scoring 723 last year. She’s the second-highest scoring returnee on the girls’ side in the state this year, and only one returning boys’ player – Alex Grospe of South River – scored more than her.

Down one spot to No. 8 is Monroe. The Falcons were 18-10 last season, but lose a significant amount of scoring in Avery Labaska, Halley Cottrell and Nicole Turco, but new head coach Brian Hinz – who replaces Leigh Vogtman – does have second-leading scorer Evangelina Francisco back. She’s a three-point threat, who also led the team in steals and assists, while junior Sophia Rivas returns as well.

Up one place to ninth is JP Stevens, which was 020-6 a year ago, but graduates four of its five top scorers in Katherine Bogutskyy, Cassidy Gesualdo, Trisha Nair and Genilah Singleton.

And new to the rankings this year at No. 10 is Spotswood. Vinny Vizzi’s squad was 21-6 a year ago – their best record under his six year tenure – and ran the table at 14-0 to take the GMC Blue Division title with a young team that just had one senior. The Chargers could work their way up the rankings with top scorer Lizzie Calandruccio back for her senior year, along with Gabby Hill – now a sophomore – and a solid supporting cast.

The only team not in the preseason rankings that finished last year ranked is Colonia. While the Patriots were 22-9 and made the GMC Tournament finals, they have lost two all-time leading scorers in two seasons to graduation: Matti Chiera graduated in 2023, and Taylor Derkack finished her senior season last year. Derkack scored 727 points last season – almost half her teams total, and Mya Patino and her 287 points will graduate as well.

Here’s the full Preseason Bellamy & Son Paving Girls’ Basketball Top Ten: