Monroe and Middlesex make rare foes in GMC Tournament semifinals Tuesday night

One team has been to three GMC Tournament finals. Not a lot, but more than many.

The other has never been to one.

And the two rarely meet.

But they will Tuesday night, when second-seed Monroe will play on its own floor against third-seed Middlesex for a trip to the GMC Tournament finals this Friday.

You can hear it as part of a semifinal doubleheader on Central Jersey Sports Radio – presented by the George Street Playhouse in downtown New Brunswick – with pregame at 4:40 pm, and tip-off at 5:00, followed by the second game at 7 with top-seed St. Thomas Aquinas and 13-seed North Plainfield. Click here to listen.

Monroe (16-7 overall, 9-5 in the GMC Red, 2nd place) is 0-3 in county finals all time, with appearances in 2015, 2016, and 2020. In 2021, however, they won the Somogy Family Pod at the end of the abbreviated COVID season. It was the de facto GMC title, and they beat St. Thomas Aquinas, but it wasn’t the full tournament.

Middlesex (19-6 overall, GMC White Champions at 12-2) has never been to the title game, but they might have just as good a shot at getting there as Monroe.

That’s because the Falcons – while they may be deeper and/or more balanced – don’t have Jess Devine. She’s the all-time leading scorer at the school – girls or boys – and seemingly on the scoring end of every steal or errant pass that ends up generating transition basketball, which happens for Middlesex… let’s say “a lot.”

The Blue Jays have over 270 steals this season as a team, more than eleven per game.

Monroe’s top scorer is actually averaging more points per game at the moment – Evangelina Francisco, at 22 per contest – than Devine, who’s scoring at a 19 point per game clip. But it’s how Devine scores that deflates the opposition. And those points come in bunches.

Francisco has more threes on the season, with 52, as well, and the rest of the cast balances out nicely. Sophomore Kiera Longo is second on the team at 10 points per game, with Zoe Wilcher and Sofia Rivas both around six.

Both teams can get up and down the floor, though, and this should be a good matchup of the second-place team in the Red and the White Division champs.