All top four seeds advance to boys’ GMC Tournament semifinals, as Colonia, Piscataway, Sayreville, Aquinas move on

It’ll be straight chalk Wednesday at the GMC Tournament semifinals at Monroe High School, as all top four seeds won their quarterfinal games on Saturday at Piscataway High.

That includes top-seed Colonia – the defending champion – second-seed Piscataway, third-seed Sayreville, and No. 4 seed St. Thomas Aquinas: the top three teams from the Red Division and the White Division champion Bombers.

Central Jersey Sports Radio will have live play-by-play coverage of both games at 5 and 7 pm Wednesday at Monroe, with Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel on the call. Bookmark this link to listen live the day of the game. Coverage presented by “King James” at the George Street Playhouse in Downtown New Brunswick.

Here are the recaps of all four Saturday quarterfinal games:

(1) Colonia 72, (8) Woodbridge 51: In a bragging rights game, Aiden Derkack poured in 33 points for the Patriots (21-4), who are a win away from getting a chance to defend their 2024 GMC Tournament title. Derkack added eight rebounds, while Jayce Rodriguez added 12 points, and RJ Wortman scored 9, while also grabbing nine boards. Derek Anderson led the Barrons (12-10) with 17 in defeat. Now, Colonia will play four-seed St. Thomas Aquinas (15-9) in the semis on Wednesday, a rematch of last year’s final.

(4) St. Thomas Aquinas 71, (5) Old Bridge 62: The Trojans (15-9) beat the Knights (14-10) for a third time this season, and now will try to advance to the county title game for a fourth straight time going back to 2020. (They also made the GMC’s top pod final in 2021, losing to Colonia.) They’ll face Colonia (21-4) in the second semifinal Wednesday in Monroe; the Patriots beat them twice in the regular season: 70-62 on January 7th and 69-53 on January 23rd.

(3) Sayreville 77, (6) South Plainfield 70 (OT): The Bombers (20-3) outscored the Tigers (16-8) by an 11-4 margin in the extra period after ending regulation tied at 66-all. Keithan Shuler led Sayreville with 22 – going 6-of-7 at the foul line – while Chidi Chukwurah added 18, and Sam Jones pitched in with 15 points. The Bombers will look to get back to the finals for the first time since 2017 when they face Piscataway Thursday in the semifinals. in Monroe.

(1) Piscataway 99, (10) Timothy Christian 61: The Tigers hung in for a half, down just one at the break, but a big third quarter in which the Chiefs (21-4) outscored Timothy Christian (14-8) by a 30-13 margin changed the trajectory for Piscataway. It’ll be new head coach Bob Turco’s fifth straight trip to the GMC Tournament semis, the previous four coming with St. Thomas Aquinas in 2020, and 2022 through 2024. (There was no full tournament in 2021 due to COVID.) They’ll face GMC White Champion and third-seed Sayreville in the opening semifinal Wednesday night in Monroe.