St. Thomas Aquinas sophomore Gianna Chuffo looks to pass against Monroe in the GMC Tournament semifinals on February 14, 2023. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)
Every soul wearing a purple practice jersey this week in the southern extremities of Middlesex County is doing their damnedest not to allow a coronation on their home floor Friday night.
And while the players may be different, besides the talent on the court, one could maybe look to some history between the teams to find some hope.
St. Thomas Aquinas – the five-time defending GMC Tournament champion, going back to when they were Bishop Ahr in 2019 – has been utterly dominant all season long, winning GMC Red Division regular season games by an average of 45 points. They haven’t lost in 66 overall games – regular season or post – against Middlesex County teams.
But the last team to beat them in either was Monroe. Their meeting on January 20th, 2022, was the last time Aquinas lost a league game. And their last postseason loss also came to Monroe, the year before, in the 2021 GMC Somogyi Family Pod, during the COVID year, giving the Falcons the de facto league title.
There haven’t been too many thorns in STA’s side of late, but if anyone has, it’s been Monroe.
That doesn’t make this year’s task any easier.
You can hear Friday’s GMC Tournament championship doubleheader exclusively on Central Jersey Sports Radio Friday night, starting with the 6 pm girls’ opener, followed by the boys’ championship 8:00 between top-seed and defending champion Colonia and second-seed Piscataway. Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel will call all the action, with pregame starting at 5:45 for the girls’ game. Click here to listen.
Our tournament coverage is presented by the George Street Playhouse in downtown New Brunswick, and during the broadcast, we’ll have a chance for fans to win family four-packs of tickets to the LeBron James play “King James,” running March 18th to April 6th.
While the Trojans have won eight straight in the series dating back to 2023, this year has seen the widest margins of victory. Between these two teams, Aquinas won three matchups in the 2022-23 season by 19, 13 and 28 points, the last of those coming in the GMC Tournament semis. In 2023-24, the Trrojans won by 10 and 22, then by just two in the semifinals.
This year’s margins were by 29 – in a 58-29 double-up loss on January 4th – and 57, in their most recent meeting, a 90-33 Aquinas victory on January 25th.
MORE ON THE GMC TOURNAMENT GIRLS’ FINAL:
(1) St. Thomas Aquinas (21-6) vs. (2) Monroe (17-7)
When: Friday, 6 pm
Where: Monroe Township High School
Broadcast Team: Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel (LISTEN HERE)
COACHES:
St. Thomas Aquinas: Tim Corrigan, 2nd season (43-14)
Monroe: Brian Hinz, 1st season (17-7)
PREVIEW INTERVIEWS:
HOW THEY GOT HERE:
St. Thomas Aquinas: To say the Trojans haven’t been tested in the tournament would be an understatement. They’ve won three games by an average 60 point margin, none closer than 52. That came when they dropped 16-seed North Brunswick in the first round, 94-42, and the margins get bigger from there. They took out 9-seed Carteret in the quarterfinals, 88-23. And on Tuesday, in the semis at Monroe, they put up what very well may be a school record: 108 points in a 108-46 win over 13-seed North Plainfield. If you combined the three point totals of their opponents and put that in the semifinals, they would have just outscored Aquinas, 111-108.
Monroe: The Falcons, on the other hand, have been tested. They squeaked out a ten-point win over 15-seed South Plainfield, 46-36, in the round of 16, then won a low-scoring overtime quarterfinal over Edison, 32-21, before topping third-seed Middlesex by seven in the semifinals on their home floor Tuesday evening, 49-42 to get to the championship.
TOP SCORERS:
St. Thomas Aquinas: Leah Crosby (16.4 ppg, 4 treys), Trista Whitney (13 ppg, 31 treys), Gianna Chuffo (10.3 ppg, 47 treys), Jordan Barnes (10.1 ppg, 6 treys)
Monroe: Evangelina Francisco (21.8 ppg, 53 treys), Kiera Longo (10.5 ppg, 7 treys)
TOP REBOUNDERS:
St. Thomas Aquinas: Leah Crosby (8.3), Leah Kearney (7.8), Trista Whitney (6.1), Jordan Barnes (6.0)
Monroe: Kiera Longo (8.0), Zoe Wilcher (5.9)
MISCELLANEOUS:
St. Thomas Aquinas: Lauryn Downing (134 assists), Leah Kearney (44 blocks), Trista Whitney (73 steals)
Monroe: Evangelina Francisco (62 assists, 69 steals), Kiera Longo, Zoe Wilcher (13 blocks)
RECENT MEETINGS: Aquinas has won eight straight in the series, including both games this year, and two regular season meetings plus a semifinals meetup each of the last two seasons. Monroe’s last win came in the 2021-22 regular season, a 55-41 Falcon victory on January 20th, 2022. They also beat St. Thomas in the de facto 2021 COVID year GMC championship, with a 46-40 win in North Edison to take the Somogyi Family Pod.
GMC TOURNAMENT HISTORY:
Monroe (0-3):
- 2015: (1) Piscataway 77, (2) Monroe 74 (OT)
- 2016: (2) East Brunswick 42, (1) Monroe 31
- 2020: (1) St. Thomas Aquinas 64, (3) Monroe 41
- 2021: (3) Monroe 46, (2) St. Thomas Aquinas 40 (de facto championship: Somogyi Family Pod)
St. Thomas Aquinas (also previously known as Bishop Ahr) (8-5):
- 1984: (1) Bishop Ahr 52, (2) St. Peter 49 (MCT)
- 1985: (1) St. Peter 40, (2) Bishop Ahr 21 (MCT)
- 1986: (1) Hoffman 55, (2) Bishop Ahr 52
- 1987: (1) Hoffman 74, (2) Bishop Ahr 46
- 1994: (2) Bishop Ahr 51, (1) East Brunswick 36
- 1996: (2) East Brunswick 50, (5) Bishop Ahr 43
- 2001: (5) Bishop Ahr 55, (2) East Brunswick 43
- 2014: (2) Piscataway 50, (12) Bishop Ahr 45
- 2019: (1) Bishop Ahr 47, (2) Edison 32
- 2020: (1) St. Thomas Aquinas 64, (3) Monroe 41
- 2021: (3) Monroe 46, (2) St. Thomas Aquinas 40 (de facto championship: Somogyi Family Pod)
- 2022: (1) St. Thomas Aquinas 64, (7) South Brunswick 58
- 2023: (1) St. Thomas Aquinas 49, (3) Colonia 42
- 2024: (1) St. Thomas Aquinas 71, (2) Colonia 52
OTHER NOTES:
Milestone: As soon as the game tips off, senior Evangelina Francisco will reach a milestone: her 100th game played. A four-year varsity player, Francisco played in 21 games her freshman year, along with 27 her sophomore year and 28 last year. This will be her 24th game this season. She has scored 1,235 points, and is averaging 12.5 points per game over her stellar career.
Injuries: While head coach Brian Hinz says it’s “next girl up,” Monroe is hurting a bit with the loss of junior Sophia Rivas to injury. She got hurt on February first against North Plainfield, and has been out since. While she won’t play Friday, she could return for the state tournament if Monroe puts together a nice run. They earned a two-seed in Central Jersey Group 4, and will host 15-seed North Brunswick in the opening round. The top seed in that section is Hillsborough, which won it’s first-ever state sectional title last year, but in North 2, Group 4. Meanwhile, the status of Gianna Chuffo is uncertain. She only missed the semifinals Tuesday night, but may or may not be back against the Falcons. It clearly didn’t hurt much against North Plainfield, but even if she doesn’t play Friday night, they would love to get her back in the states, in a section that includes St. Rose, St. John Vianney, Red Bank Catholic, among other powerhouses.
The names may change… The last four St. Thomas/Bishop Ahr girls’ coaches have all won championships for the Trojans. Current mentor Tim Corrigan won his first last season, which followed two titles under Joe Whalen. Before that, Britney Griffin won a pair of titles in 2020 as Aquinas, and 2019 as Bishop Ahr. Her predecessor, longtime coach Kevin Harper – one of the winningest girls’ coaches in New Jersey history, with 722 victories at Piscataway Tech, Ahr and Middlesex – took them to four finals, winning in 1994 and 2001.
Most dominant season: St. Thomas – which has assembled a roster worthy of a county all-star team – and got a boost when Leah Crosby returned after spending her sophomore year at Rutgers Prep, though she had to sit out 30 days due to it being her second transfer – is winning by its biggest margins of this recent string of success, by a mile. In 14 Red Division games, they won by an average 45 points. That’s almost double last year, when they beat the other seven Red teams by an average 25.4 points – with Monroe getting as close as ten; the Trojans also beat Colonia by just five and South Brunswick by only nine. (This year’s slimmest margin was a 29 point win over Monroe.) In 2022-23, they won by an average 29.4 points in 14 Red games, with two single digit wins (by eight over South Brunswick and Old Bridge). And in 2021-22, they went 15-1 against the eight other Red Division teams. There were three single-digit wins – two over East Brunswick and one over Old Bridge – and one loss, to Monroe, by 14. They’re average winning margin was 28.4 points, and their overall divisional point differential was 25.8, including the loss to the Falcons.
Second Win: Tim Corrigan is seeking his second GMCT win as a head coach, a feat 11 other coaches have done (also counting the MCT from 1975 through 1985), including two from his school – Kevin Harper and Brittney Griffin. The others are Reggie Carney of East Brunswick, who has the most titles at seven, followed by Ernie Cajda of now-defunct St. Peter’s-New Brunswick with five. Piscataway’s Pat Mayo won five in the 2000s at Piscataway. Andy Eng of JP Stevens and Bev Hall of Piscataway each won three times, while George Hosea (South Brunswick), Corey Floyd (Piscataway), Pat Daly (New Brunswick) and Paul Kumlin (Piscataway) all have won two. Four different Piscataway coaches have won multiple titles over the years.
Streaking: St. Thomas is third on the list of consecutive finals appearances, making their sixth in a row this year, winning all previous five. They also have won more consecutive games in the GMC Tournament than any other school in history, 23 and counting, four each in the past five tournaments, and three this year.
How the seeds fare: In 47 championship games, the top seed has won 30 times, while the second seed has won nine times. When it’s No. 1 vs. No. 2 in the title game, which has happened only 23 times, the top-seed is 18-5.
1-2, 1-2: Since the dawn of the GMC in 1986, this is the eighth time both the girls’ and boys’ title games have featured the 1 vs. the 2 seeds. The last time was in 2016m when the top-seeded St. Joe’s boys beat South Brunswick, and the 2nd-seeded East Brunswick girls beat Monroe. It also happened the year before, in 2015, when the second-seeded Colonia boys beat St. Joseph, and top-seed Piscataway topped Monroe on the girls’ side. Other double 1 vs. 2 years include 2010, 1998, 1994, 1992 and 1989.
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