Highlander’s big second half helps lead No. 1 Gill St. Bernard’s to emphatic win over No. 3 Pingry – and likely the SCT’s top seed

When you think of Gill St. Bernard’s basketball, you think uptempo, flying across the floor, and plenty of victories.

Through one half against No. 3 Pingry, those three factors were present at times, but not enough with a 21-15 lead.

Once both teams emerged from the locker room for the second half of play, things changed.

The Knights (11-2, 5-0) raced out of the gate and never looked back, pulling away for a 69-38 win, outscoring the Big Blue (7-3, 3-0) 48-23 in the final 16 minutes of play.

Fresh off a 33-point, ten-rebound performance in a thrilling win over Rutgers Prep on Saturday, Gill St. Bernard’s forward Prosper Highlander led the way once again, with a 20-point, 12-rebound follow-up performance. After scoring just two points in the first half, he came alive with 12 points in the third quarter with an array of drives to the basket and a three-pointer.

Oh, and he also picked up the tough assignments on defense, stuffing the stat sheet with three steals and two blocks.

Pingry controlled the tempo early on, scoring the first five points of the game and keeping close for much of the first half. Even after the Knights responded to the opening run with ten unanswered points of their own, the Big Blue ended the quarter with six unanswered to stay within a point at 12-11.

That momentum continued into the second quarter. Even as Gill St. Bernard’s appeared to be on the verge of pulling away, Pingry continued to stack up timely buckets to stay within arm’s reach, as head coach Jason Murdock and his team looked to build off the momentum of back-to-back wins over Immaculata and Rutgers Prep last week.

But the Knights’ intensity and pace on both ends of the floor eventually became too much to overcome. They methodically built up their lead as the third quarter went along, turning defense into offense plenty, before the lead eventually ballooned to 17 points to end the third quarter, and 31 points by the end of the game.

Gill St. Bernard’s standouts Connor Junker and Dorsett Mulcahy kick-started the offense in the opening quarter with six points apiece for all of the Knights’ scoring in the opening eight minutes. Junker finished with ten points with two three-pointers, while Mulcahy finished second on the team with 17 points and eight rebounds.

Dylan Cowell led Pingry with a 13-point, 10-rebound double-double to go along with three blocks, and was the Big Blue’s only double-digit scorer.

With the win, Gill St. Bernard’s now puts itself in an excellent position for the top seed in the upcoming Somerset County Tournament, as the Knights look to defend their title from a season ago. Last week, they won their only matchups before the seeding meeting with Montgomery and Rutgers Prep, with the Argonauts also having lost to Pingry.

Amid a schedule head coach Mergin Sina calls one of the toughest in the state, Gill St. Bernard’s passed yet another test as the calendar flips to 2026.

Click below for postgame reaction from Gill St. Bernard’s senior forward Prosper Highlander and head coach Mergin Sina, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen: