As Somerset County’s top two girls’ teams get set to square off, Rutgers Prep and Gill St. Bernard’s recent alums are flying high at the next level

Two of the biggest ways of measuring success of any high school sports program are by wins and championship, and placing your student-athletes in the best college program they can find for themselves.

When the top-ranked Rutgers Prep girls’ basketball team entertains No. 2 Gill St. Bernard’s Tuesday night in the Knights’ season opener, and the Argos’ home opener, it will be a meeting of two programs who have several alums on the national scene in women’s college basketball.

Click here to listen to Tuesday’s game at 6 pm live on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

The biggest from Gill is Caileigh Walsh, who originally hails from Sparta in Sussex County. She’s averaging 9.7 points and 3.7 rebounds per game for the 5-4 Wildcats of the Big Ten.

Walsh is also a two-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree. In high school, she scored 1,312 points at Gill St. Bernard’s, but was limited to just a dozen games her senior year, the COVID-shortened season.

Mikayla Blakes, meanwhile, is flourishing at Vanderbilt, having graduated from Rutgers Prep just last year. She’s second on the team in scoring at 20.4 points per game, and is second on the Commodores with 29 steals.

The 2024 McDonald’s All-American has been named Rookie of the Week in the SEC three times already this season, and it’s not even the New Year, her most recent accolade coming on December 10th.

But they’re not the only ones having success at the next level.

Two other Prep starters who graduated after last season are making an impact in college, as well. Zahra Alexander is at NYU, currently the top-ranked team in the nation in Division 3. She’s averaging 8.5 minutes per game and 3.5 points, but she’s also got a former teammate with her who’s lighting it up: Belle Pellecchia is second on the team in scoring at 15.4 a contest. She’s been starting since she was a freshman, and has started in 84 of 86 games she’s played.

And Chloe Escanillas, who was a three-point sharpshooter for the Argonauts the past several years, also is getting her feet wet at Marist, where she’s played in four of their first nine games, averaging 5.4 minutes and 1.5 points per game. She’s taken eight shots, all from behind the arc, and has hit two of them.

While Rutgers Prep lost four starters from last year’s squad, Gill has a ton back when they meet the Argonauts on Easton Avenue Tuesday evening. But they’ll be in a similar boat next year, as seniors Tessa Lozner, Sidney Quinn, Maya Abramson and Gandy Malou-Mamel will be graduating and moving on to the next level.

Abramson is headed next to Stevens Institute of Technology, where she’ll join Rutgers Prep alum Leyla Castro (’22), who’s averaging 4.9 points a game, and is scoring over 16 per this season, her junior year.

Quinn is going to Navy, Lozner to Johns Hopkins, and Malou-Mamel will be headed to UConn to play for Geno Auriemma. All made it official on the November signing day.

Brooke Baisley – a thousand-point scorer for the Knights – graduated last year, and has played in two games at Boston University this season.

A number of others for both sides also are seeing significant time in college. Gill St. Bernard’s alum Ella Fajardo is scoring just under six points a game and averaging 22 minutes per contest at Iona, while Prep’s Christina Dalce – who started her collegiate career at Villanova – is now in the Big Ten at Maryland. The Terps (10-0) are ranked No. 8 in the nation, and Dalce is averaging 9.8 points and 8.2 rebounds a game.

And don’t forget about Antonia Bates, who’s down the road at Rutgers. She played at Prep only during the 2021-22 season, having transferred in from Pennsylvania for her senior year before joining the Scarlet Knights.