St. Thomas Aquinas takes on Monroe in the GMC Tournament Championship Game at Monroe Township High School on February 21, 2025. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)
Believe it or not, the regular season in high school basketball is well past the halfway point, seemingly speeding its way to the county tournaments, and after that, it’ll be the states.
The St. Thomas Aquinas girls basketball team is playing some really good basketball right now, and will continue to challenge itself Monday morning when the second-ranked Trojans welcome Saddle River Day to their brand-new court in North Edison.
The two will square off in an 11 am game on Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, and you can listen to it all here on Central Jersey Sports Radio. Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel will bring you all the play-by-play, with pregame set for 10:45. Click here to listen.
After starting the season 6-1, then dropping two games in the Coaches Choice Holiday Classic up at FDU in Madison over the break, Aquinas (14-3, 10-0 GMC Red National) has won eight straight. And their point production in the latter part of that span has been tremendous, averaging a hair under 81 points per game in their last five, winning by an average of 37.6 points per game.
And while some really good seniors graduated – top scorer Leah Crosby and three-point specialists Gianna Chuffo and Adrianna Summerset – there’s a ton of experience back.
Senior forward Jordan Barnes has taken over the main scoring load, averaging 17.6 points per game, while junior Leah Kearney is cleaning up on the boards, and Lauryn Downing is lighting it up from three. Trista Whitney and Kayla Navarro round out a group of five who are all averaging at least 10 points per game.
The matchup also is an intriguing one as it features two former Greater Middlesex Conference standouts. While St. Thomas Aquinas coach Tim Corrigan is a St. Joseph-Metuchen grad (who later played at Kean), Saddle River Day is led by first-year head coach Corey Taite.
His name would be familiar to GMC fans in the early and mid-2010s. Taite was a point guard at Sayreville, playing under current head coach John Wojcik, and scored 1,176 points in his career, making him the first 1,000-point scorer at the time in 15 years. (Three more have joined the club since, including current players Sam Jones and Chidi Chukwuri.)
Taite played collegiately ate Goldey-Beacom College in Wilmington, Delaware before heading overseas to play pro ball in Ireland. When he came back to the States, he got into coaching and liked it so much he decided his playing days were over.
Three years ago, he joined the Saddle River Day staff as an assistant, and now leads the program.
The Rebels are one of the top girls’ basketball programs in the state, and have won nine straight Bergen County Tournament titles. This year, they’ve struggled to an 8-5 start (4-1 in the NJIC) due to injuries.
Sophomore Olivia DiGiovanni – a projected starter – won’t play this year due to an ACL injury, freshman Jackie Sarkar is out with a bone bruise, and senior Madison Minicucci is out the rest of the year, too.
Even Harper Cohn – a transfer in from Mahwah with 752 career points – sat out the first three weeks or so of the season, finishing her recovery from her own ACL injury. But she’s a key part of the operation now, third on the team in scoring at 10.6 points per game. Another junior, Emily Mattson – who comes in from Union Catholic – is scoring at 12.6 per game, and also is close to joining the thousand-point club, with 813.
Sophomore Grace Darling leads the team with 19.5 points per game, 35 treys and 36 steals.
Click below to hear previews of Monday’s game with both head coaches:
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