Montgomery’s Bohdan Biekietov holds the ball at the top of the key in the Friends of South Amboy Tournament against St. Joseph-Metuchen on December 21, 2024. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)
Heading into holiday tournament season, a number of Central Jersey Sports Radio coverage area teams from the GMC and Somerset County have hit the ground running, with several off to excellent starts, and six still unbeaten.
From bigger schools to small, Colonia, South Plainfield, Metuchen and Timothy Christian all have perfect marks in Middlesex County, while Ridge and Gill St. Bernard’s are perfect over in Middlesex.
Here’s a closer look at some of those teams – and more – as holiday tournament week begins.
Gill is back, with a vengeance:
After an uncharacteristic 11-16 season last year for Mergin Sina and company – having had the challenge of a good chunk of roster turnover, more than their fair share of injuries, and close losses too numerous to count – the Knights bring a ton back, including sophomore Dorsett Mulcahy, and seniors Kobe Closeil and Stanley Njekwe, among others.
Closeil and freshman guard Connor Junker have been the leading scorers thus far, both averaging just under 15 points a game.
They’ve opened with wins over Franklin and Phillipsburg, then topped St. Benedict’s by two in the Brick City Showcase last Saturday, and headed into Christmas with a 60-51 win over Seton Hall Prep at home back on Monday. They visit Paramus Catholic Friday at 1 pm.
As for where they’ll stand against last year’s SCT finalists, they play Rutgers Prep once this year – in Somerset January 9th – and don’t play Montgomery. And the Cougars and Argonauts don’t play until January 30th, three days after the Somerset County Tournament seeding meeting.
It could set up an interesting battle for the top-seed between the three throughout the year.
Speaking of Montgomery, Cougars pick up where they left off…
Call it a blip on the radar, a bump in the road – whatever – Montgomery got past a four-point season-opening loss in the nightcap of their own Tip-Off Classic showcase to win three straight heading into the holiday break, with the most recent win coming Saturday against St. Joseph-Metuchen in the Friends of South Amboy Tournament.
Ukrainain Bohdan Biekietov returns, and point guard Ethan Lin as back from breaking his ankle in early February last year, and the Cougars look good. They can get up and down the floor, score and play defense.
After losing that close one to Hudson Catholic in the opener, they pulled out a pair of close ones, 51-47 over Pingry, and 59-53 at Immaculata.
They’re back in action in their own Cougar Holiday Tournament with Princeton Friday at noon and Bridgewater-Raritan coming in Monday at 2 pm.
Colonia’s consistency has Patriots unbeaten…
There’s not much Colonia hasn’t done in the last few years under Jose Rodriguez. They’ve won three straight sectional titles, and are the defending GMC Tournament champions.
This year, they’re off to a 3-0 start, and they got it going with a bang with a 46-40 win over a very good St. Peter’s Prep team in the New Jersey Basketball Coaches’ Tip-Off Showcase at Montgomery.
They followed it up with an 80-61 win at Piscataway last Thursday, then beat Woodbridge by 20 on Monday to head into the break unbeaten.
Now, they’ll host three in their own LeGrand Tournament: Westfield Friday, Scotch Plains-Fanwood Saturday and Franklin Monday, all 1 pm starts.
Aiden Derkack scored his 1,000th point in that game against Piscataway, and is averaging 22.3 points per game to lead the team. But this is more than a one-man show: the supporting cast of Zach Smith, RJ Wortman and Dylan Chiera are averaging around seven points per game each, making the Patriots a tough out every night.
Ridge’s best start in nearly a decade…
The last time the Red Devils won four straight to start a season was their amazing 2014-15 season. That year, coach Brian Feath led Ridge to a 22-4 year. They were finalists in the Somerset County Tournament, and went to the North 2, Group 4 final on a wild, nearly-buzzer-beating win over Columbia at home in the semifinals.
At 4-0, only one win – against Bridgewater-Raritan – has come by single digits. That was a 55-48 victory on December 19th.
We were on hand to see the Red Devils take on Summit Monday afternoon, and they didn’t disappoint: after giving up the first two points of the game, they scored the next 16, took a 28-10 lead into halftime, and won 52-20, allowing no more than seven points in any single quarter (the second).
Senior Luke Kreitz pumped in 19 points, 14 of which came in the decisive first half, and he had seven on that 16-0 first-quarter run. He inished with three triples.
Fellow senior Quinn Dashefsky also scored 13, while sophomore Gabe Kielb added 10.
Ridge plays in the Whitey Dukiet All-American Holiday Classic up at Livingston High School, where they’ll play Morris Knolls Friday and the host Lancers on Saturday, both at 1 pm.
Tigers yet to be tamed…
South Plainfield – a GMC Tournament and NJSIAA sectional semifinalist last season, bowing out in both tourneys to Colonia – is off to a 3-0 start for the second time in three years.
The Tigers beat Hillside, Perth Amboy and Carteret in the span of a week, and will host their own Anthony J. Cotoia Tournament this week, with McNair – a magnet school in Jersey City – first up on Friday.
Senior guard Jordan Jones has led the way, averaging 21 points per game – along with an amazing 21 steals in three games! – while some young bucks have been chipping in, too. Freshman Andrew Bena is averaging almost eleven per game, and sophomore Justin Vaca another seven per.
Bulldogs bully through first three…
The season opened up with a bang for Metuchen, which took down a Spotswood team that has very high hopes coming into the season, beating the Chargers 63-52 in their opener back on Friday. They then beat Piscataway Magnet 42-41, and Governor Livingston 69-44.
They get JP Stevens in holiday tournament play Saturday afternoon in North Edison.
Senior forward Jason Woods is averaging 18 points per game, with junior Cameron Durina scored another 14 per, making a potent 1-2 punch for coach James Cardillo’s squad. Senior Danny Galligan has five treys in the early going for the Gold Division leaders.
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