Rutgers Prep frosh Hailey Benbow makes a move to the basket against Hillsborough in the Somerset County Tournament semifinals on February 15, 2025 at Franklin H.S. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)
The only thing unfamiliar for the Bellamy & Son Paving Girls’ Basketball new No. 1 Rutgers Prep girls basketball team this year is how last year’s tournament season unfolded, missing the Somerset County Tournament final for the first time since 2014. Pretty much everything else — down to the players on the roster, with no outgoing seniors or transfers — has remained the status quo. And that’s a very high bar to maintain.
Meanwhile, for No. 7 Franklin, there is plenty of unknown to anticipate, with a new championship-winning head coach and players stepping into elevated roles, while developing the existing talent from the recent two years.
The teams will clash in an inter-township battle on Easton Avenue for the Warriors’ season-opener under new head coach Jimmy Kreie, who takes over for former coach and assistant Darryl Robinson, while the home Argonauts already have a game under their belt. That game will tip off at 5:30 pm from Rutgers Prep, and you can hear it live on Central Jersey Sports Radio with Alec Crouthamel calling all the action, and coverage starting at 5:15. Click here to listen.
The Argonauts come into this matchup at 1-0 on the year after a 52-40 win over Morris Catholic on Sunday in the NJBCA Tip-Off Showcase. That victory gave the Crusaders their first in-state loss in nearly three years, since a 76-44 loss to Paul VI and Notre Dame star Hannah Hidalgo in January of 2023.
The winning effort did not come without its fair share of adversity, either. Morris Catholic stormed ahead on a 12-2 run to open the game, and eventually ended the opening quarter up 12-4. Rutgers Prep hit back with its own response immediately after, however, going on a 16-2 run to head into halftime with a lead. The Argonauts ultimately pulled away to win by double digits, led by senior point guard Ava LaMonica’s 15 points and a 16-point, 16-rebound double-double from sophomore forward Hailey Benbow.
42nd-year head coach Mary Coyle-Klinger has plenty of talent at her disposal as per usual, all of which return from last year. That includes seniors Ava Frith and Sophia Georgiades — who sits just six points away from 1,000 in her career — and plenty of underclassmen contributors such as juniors Natalia Valdez and Hannah Fraser, as well as sophomores Maeve Hoebich and Brooke Bredeson, who Coyle-Klinger is “thrilled” to have on board after a breakout season for the Argonauts’ top-ranked soccer team.
The Warriors, on the other hand, open the season after an exciting summer, with scoring talent and athleticism all over the roster.
Leading the way is junior Aleah Sunkins, who finished as the team’s leading scorer and rebounder as a sophomore, and continued to improve over the offseason. She won’t do it alone, though.
Franklin’s senior guard trio of Kayla Duncan, Gianna Mattia, and Alissa Myers will all be trusted to handle the opposing defensive pressure late in games. Junior Alivia Stewart and sophomore Nola Bright will handle the grunt work, playing hounding defense and rebounding the ball, and junior Anaiyah Martin serves as the team’s “lightning rod of energy.”
Much like their opponent, the Warriors also have their fair share of strong soccer players who “never run out of gas,” according to Kreie.
Speaking of, Franklin’s new coach joins the fray after a Non-Public B title at now-closed Montclair Immaculate, including a defeat of upcoming Somerset County foe Gill St. Bernard’s in the semifinals. Kreie racked up an impressive 116-42 record in six years at the Essex County school, and has an even longer track record spanning nearly two decades in the AAU ranks.
Most important to Kreie? The community has fully bought into his new program, as he and Athletic Director Anthony Brito have been in lockstep since taking the job over the summer.
But all of that goes out the window once the ball is lofted into the air Monday night, as two talented teams in Somerset County will battle it out for early-season bragging rights.
Click below for previews of the Rutgers Prep-Franklin game in the opening game of CJSR’s girls basketball season with both head coaches, with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Alec Crouthamel:
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