Who’s hot, who’s making moves in girls’ basketball as we head into holiday tourneys

The meat of high school basketball season is still in front of us.

A few teams took the opportunity from the NJSIAA to start early, and holiday tournaments will kick into gear later this week, after Christmas. Once January rolls around, it’s a sprint to county tournament seeding, then the season reaches a fever pitch with the GMC and the Somerset County tournaments, then the state playoffs.

But so far, so good, for a number of area teams. Today, we take a look at who’s hot as the weather gets colder.

Rutgers Prep no rebuilding, just reloading…

If you looked at the Argonauts when their season ended last year – with a loss in the Group B finals to Morris Catholic – you’d be forgiven if you thought this was going to be a bit of a rebuilding year in 2024-25 for Mary Klinger. After all, she’d be losing all-world guard Mikayla Blakes, along with three-point specialist Chloe Escanillas, and defensive stalwart Zahra Alexander to graduation. Later, she’d learn sophomore Gigi Battle would be moving to Florida with her family.

Down four starters, what’s a coach to do?

Well, Ava LaMonica – the only returning starter – is back as a junior, and playing he heart out, as always.

Natalia Valdez – seldom used last year except when a game was out of hand – has shown shooting prowess, scoring 13 against Gill St. Bernard’s Tuesday night, including three treys, all in the second half.

Then there are the newcomers. Junior Ava Firth is in from Manasquan, and another junior, Sophia Georgiades, is in from Ridge. She had eleven and three treys against Gill, and was named the MVP in their Shore Games She Got Game Classic win over Archbishop Molloy (NY) back on Saturday.

The Argonauts are just reloading. They may still be trying to find their identity. They didn’t press as much as they usually do, turning teams over repeatedly to go on big runs to bury teams early. That will come, but so far, they have answered the bell, off to a 4-0 start.

And so, Prep remains the No. 1 team in the Bellamy & Son Paving Top Ten, having held the position now for an astounding 40 straight weeks, the only CJSR-area team to hold that spot since our debut season in 2021.

Boro is back; Raiders still undefeated…

Last year was a historic one for the Hillsborough girls’ basketball team. They beat Elizabeth in March to win the school’s first ever sectional title in the sport, and brought back just about everyone, save for two seniors who combined to score just 22 points.

Two of them made even more history in the first week of the season. First, Francesca Schiro set the all-time Hillsborough girls’ scoring record in a 69-23 win over Linden last Saturday afternoon, topping Jinny Strawderman’s mark of 1,455 set in 1986. She now has 1,519, and could be within reach of 2,000 before things are all said and done. She averaged 20.6 points per game last year, but is scoring at a 22.3 clip through four games this year.

Then, back on Saturday, Mya Loniewski cracked the 1,000-point mark with a season-high 21-point effort in a 66-61 home win against Madison. She did it on a fourth-quarter free throw with the game well in hand.

And the Lady Raiders show no sign of slowing down any time soon.

Piscataway’s best start in years…

It’s early yet, but Piscataway is off to its first 2-0 start since they won the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament in 2018. That year, they finished 22-5 and won their first eight games with a balanced scoring attack led by LaNiya Miller, Ariel Jenkins, Yamirah Bennett and Saniya Myers.

This year’s team has beaten two Red Division opponents already. The Lady Chiefs opened Thursday with a 61-50 win at Colonia, then were 57-43 home winners over Old Bridge on Saturday.

First-year head coach Brian Truskan’s squad is led by Sarae Croley-Battle, who has poured in 43 points in just two contests. Caelyn Cook is averaging 11 points per game.

Piscataway hopes to keep things going against Edison (3-1) in their opener in the Woodbridge holiday tournament, where they’ll play the Barrons on the second day of the event.

One of these days…

It’s been a decade – going back to 2014 – since Gill St. Bernard’s has beaten Rutgers Prep. With the Argonauts having lost four of five starters, and Gill bringing four back, the opener might have been the best chance for the Knights to catch them.

Not so much, as talked about above, but then again, last year’s regular season matchups went pretty much the same way before Gill give Prep quite the fight in the Somerset County Tournament final, even though they wound up losing by three.

Take that game Tuesday night out of the equation, and Gill would be 3-0. Two of those wins have come against out-of-state competition: a 58-31 win over Albertus Magnus (NY) in their opener on December 14th, and a 75-58 win over Virginia Academy (VA) at the Shore Games of the She Got Game Classic at St. John Vianney in Holmdel.

They also have a 69-17 Skyland Conference win over Phillipsburg.

The bottom line here: Gill St. Bernard’s is still very, very good. And don’t count them out against Prep later this year either. They have one more scheduled meeting, up in Peacpack-Gladstone on January 16th, which just so happens to come a week-and-a-half before the Somerset County Tournament seeding meeting.

Bernards battles a couple out…

The Mountaineers are 3-0 and debuted in the Week 2 Bellamy & Son Paving Top Ten as they swept their opening week. The first two were close ones: a 47-39 win over Verona, in which they led by 13 at the half and won by eight, as well as a 42-38 win over a well-coached Bound Brook team. Both the Hillbillies and Crusaders are 2-1, and those will be good wins come state tournament time.

Junior Aletha Reynolds is averaging 17.3 points per game to lead the team, and she’s also tops in rebounds with 12 per game through the first week of the season.

At 15-8 two seasons ago, and 14-14 last year, head coach Brett Bisconti might have a nice rebound year on his hands.

Undefeated Governor Livingston (2-0) awaits Friday at 12 in the first round of the Metuchen Bulldog Holiday Tournament.

The Undefeated…

Here are the undefeated girls’ basketball teams in the Greater Middlesex and Skyland Conferences:

• Hillsborough (4-0)
• Rutgers Prep (4-0)
• Calvary Christian (3-0)
• Bernards (3-0)
• Pingry (3-0)
• Carteret (2-0)
• North Brunswick (2-0)
• Piscataway (2-0)
• Timothy Christian (2-0)
• Woodbridge Magnet (2-0)