Tall task ahead for North Plainfield girls, as Canucks take on powerhouse St. Thomas Aquinas in GMCT semifinals

The St. Thomas Aquinas girls basketball team is the No. 1 seed in the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament for a reason, and it’s not just because they were the first place team in the Red Division.

They were, of course. They were the best team in the league by far all year, defeating fellow Red Division foes by an average of 45 points in 14 games, winning all of them. In fact, the Trojans haven’t lost to a GMC foe from any division since January 2022, a string of 65 straight games.

Now, it’s up to anyone to prove them wrong.

That’s the job that awaits North Plainfield Tuesday night, when the 13th-seeded Canucks (8-16, 4-10 in GMC Red, 7th place) take on Aquinas (20-6, 14-0, GMC Red Champs) in the second of two GMC Tournament semifinals at 7 pm.

You can hear the game live on Central Jersey Sports Radio – presented by the George Street Playhouse in downtown New Brunswick – with Mike Pavlichko and Vin Ebenau on the call, immediately following the 5 pm game between second-seed Monroe and third-seed Middlesex. Click here to listen.

North Plainfield’s big star is Layla Gutierrez, who’s averaging 14.8 points per game and leads the team in assists with 74. But there’s an up-and-comer right behind her in freshman Jordyn Patrick, who’s scoring 13.7 points per game, averaging 6.5 rebounds, and has a team best 74 steals.

But they’ve also had their share of injuries, leaving them without Amaliyah Jean-Louis, a 5′ 10″ sophomore averaging almost six rebounds per game, out for the rest of the year with a knee injury. And the status of Liaha Paynter (5.5 ppg) is also in question for the remainder of the season, though she won’t suit up Tuesday night either.

That’s not great news considering how deep St. Thomas is. The Trojans have won the last five county tournaments, and while they’ve done it as a young group in the past, they have even more experience now.

One big addition had been a subtraction the year before: Leah Crosby, who transferred after he sophomore year to Rutgers Prep, is back in North Edison, and leading the team with 16.5 points per game and 7.9 rebounds.

The rest reads like a laundry list of stars: Junior Trista Whitney (12.4 ppg), senior Gianna Chuffo (10.3 ppg, team-best 47 treys), and Jordan Barnes (9.9 ppg, 5.9 rpg). And there are four more players averaging at least five points a game.

North Plainfield coach Derek Eatman – in his third season, coinciding with the arrival of Gutierrez and the school’s move from the Skyland Conference to the GMC in 2022-23 – says defense will be the key, limiting STA’s possessions, if they can. They want to keep the score down.

Easier said than done, but that’s why they play the games.

The Canucks will be playing for their first-ever trip to a county final. Besides their first two years in the GMC, they never made the Somerset County Tournament final since the event moved to one tournament in the late ’80s.