Young Rutgers Prep, with slew of newcomers, hosts experienced Gill St. Bernard’s Tuesday

This is a bit of a role reversal for Rutgers Prep and Gill St. Bernard’s.

The third-ranked Knights open their season Tuesday night with four starters back, while the top-ranked Argonauts graduated three starters last year, and a fourth moved out of state.

Yes, Rutgers Prep is the less-experienced group.

You might not know that from their opener. Though they were slow out of the blocks, they eventually found their way, and rolled past Ewing 66-29, thanks to the Avas.

For the uninitiated, that’s Ava LaMonica – the lone returning starter from last year’s squad – and Ava Frith, a junior transfer in from public powerhouse Manasquan.

LaMonica scored 18 points and went 6-of-8 from the foul line against Ewing, while Frith scored a game-high 25, and added ten rebounds for a double-double.

For perspective, that’s more than half the points she scored in 29 games over two seasons at ‘Squan, where she scored six points in eleven games her freshman year, and 34 in 18 contests last year.

Rutgers Prep may need a lot more than that Tuesday, when they take on a star-studded, veteran Gill St. Bernard’s squad at home at 6 pm. You can hear that game on Central Jersey Sports Radio with Mike Pavlichko and Dom Savino on the call. Pregame starts at 5:45; click here to listen.

Both teams are 1-0.

While Gill graduated Brooke Baisley, who’s now at Boston University, it returns Maya Abramson, Sindey Quinn, Tessa Lozner and Gandy Malou-Mamel, who all signed their National Letters of Intent back on November 13th.

Abramson will be attending Stevens Institute of Technology, Quinn will be off to the Naval Academy, Lozner is going to Johns Hopkins, and Malou-Mamel has signed on to play for Geno Auriemma at UConn.

While the group has done many things, one thing they haven’t done is beat Rutgers Prep. The Argnoauts have won 23 straight in the series, with Gill’s last win coming over Prep in the 2014 Somerset County Tournament final, 77-47.

Since then, Rutgers Prep was won three state tournament matchups, and five in the county finals. Last year’s was the closest, a 58-55 win by the Argos, in which they trailed at halftime against a Skyland Conference opponent for the first time since losing to Franklin in the 2019 SCT title game.

Click below to hear Rutgers Prep head coach Mary Klinger talk about the team’s opening win over Ewing, and Tuesday’s home opener against Gill St. Bernard’s, with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko: