Hillsborough stuns Rutgers Prep, advances to SCT final for first time since ’06 with 58-54 win, powered by defense, three-point shooting

They say good defense fuels a good offense, when a team can get steals and get out in transition.

For Rutgers Prep, it’s almost the opposite. When they make baskets, they can set up their pressure. And once the second-seeded Argonauts did that Saturday afternoon against third-seed Hillsborough in the Somerset County Tournament semifinals, they started to take the game under control, and look like the team they were before losing four starters to graduation.

They built up a 14-point lead in the second quarter, and led 36-26 at the break.

But then a funny thing happened. In the third, second-seed Prep stopped hitting shots. Third-seed Hillsborough started making them, then turned on the pressure. And by the late third quarter, they’d wrested the lead back.

And in the end, the Raiders made more big shots than Rutgers Prep, including big threes in the fourth quarter from Reghan Bice and Francesca Schiro, who led all scorers with 23. It also helped that Hillsborough shot an excellent 11-of-13 from the foul line.

The result was a mammoth 58-54 win that will send shockwaves through the state rankings.

The win was the first for Hillsborough (18-5) over Rutgers Prep in 25 tries, dating back to at least 2008. It also sends the Raiders to the SCT title game for the first time since 2006, when they won their second of back-to-back titles, and their third of three overall.

For the Argonauts (17-5), they had won four straight SCT titles, but will miss the finals for the first time since 2014.

Hillsborough will face the winner of Saturday’s 2:30 pm semifinal between top-seed Gill St. Bernard’s and fourth-seed Franklin in next Saturday’s 1 pm SCT title game at Montgomery.

Click below for postgame reaction with Hillsborough’s Cesci Schiro and head coach Courtney Tierney, presented by the Sportsplex at Metuchen: