It’s a GMC-Somerset clash when Monroe visits Hillsborough in Central Jersey Group 4 final

The Hillsborough girls’ basketball team reached the Somerset County final this year, for the first time since 2006, falling to Gill St. Bernard’s.

The Monroe girls’ basketball team reached the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament final this year, falling to St. Thomas Aquinas.

So, essentially, since they’re also the top two seeds in their section, Saturday’s Central Jersey Group 4 final – which will feature the Falcons and Raiders – could be billed as a battle for public school supremacy and bragging rights between Somerset County and the GMC.

Could, and should.

Top-seed Hillsborough (23-6) and second-seed Monroe (20-9) will play for the title at 1:30 pm Saturday, and you can hear all the action here on Central Jersey Sports Radio, with Alec Crouthamel calling the play-by-play. Pregame start at 1:15. Click here to listen.

The two don’t have much recent history, only meeting twice in the past ten seasons. Hillsborough won their last meeting, in the 2020 Central Jersey Group 4 quarterfinals, 45-41, but no one from those teams is still in school. Monroe beat the Raiders in the first round in 2015, 72-30.

‘Boro won its first-ever state sectional title last year, fueled by defense, and the ability to hit the three, attributes that are common to this year’s squad. While they were champions a year ago, the Raiders technically aren’t “defending” champs, as they were in the North 2, Group 4 last season. The NJSIAA’s new classification cycle moved them back to Central for this year.

Monroe, meanwhile, is back in the title game for the second time in three seasons. They made it in 2023, falling 53-45 to Jackson Memorial. They last won a title in 2016, going 26-4 and beating Hunterdon Central, 48-35, before falling to Lenape in the Group 4 semifinals.

That all happened under Leigh Vogtman, who stepped down after last season and was replaced by Brian Hinz, who had been an assistant under Jeff Warner on the boys’ team, but moved to the girls’ side as an assistant last year. So he was already well familiar with the squad.

The teams are remarkably similar. Each has a star guard – Monroe’s Evangelina Francisco and Hillsborough’s Cesci Schiro – and a solid supporting cast. Both can hit threes and get up and down the floor. Neither has tremendous height.

Schiro is the all-time leading scorer at Hillsborough – girls or boys – with 2,051 points, and counting. To put that in perspective, that’s already 161 more points than the Raiders have scored all year. She’s averaging 21.4 points per game this season, and 18 per in the states, including a 29-point, eight-rebound, six-assist game against Franklin in a 68-55 semifinal win, after the teams split their regular season matchups, Hillsborough winning by three, the Warriors winning by four.

Francisco is eerily similar, averaging an even 21 points per game this season, 17 per contest in the states. She’s scored 18, 14 and 19 in the three CJ4 games so far. She’s also gone perfect twice from the foul line shooting more than ten, including a perfect 10-for-10 against Middlesex in the GMCT semifinals, and 13-for-13 a few weeks earlier in a road win at East Brunswick.

Click below for preview interviews with both head coaches: