SCT’s top seeds weren’t unexpected, but that doesn’t mean we know what to expect once things get underway

It’s a rule of life, or maybe of simple mathematics. No matter how many groups of teams you make, or how balanced they are, there’s always going to be a division champion, and there will always be a last place team. That’s the way it is.

But one look around Somerset County basketball this season and you realize just about anything can happen when it comes to tournament time.

Just ask last year’s Rutgers Prep girls’ team, which was 17-4 last season when they were bounced from the county tournament by eventual Group 4 champion Hillsborough. Not that it was a shock in its own right; we all know how good Hillsborough has been, now victors of two straight sectional championships and a state title in 2025, but it had almost come as a given Rutgers Prep would be in the finals.

In fact, they had won seven of the last nine SCT titles heading into last season – and lost to Franklin there in 2018 and 2019.

That said, could this year’s tournament be as wide open?

It certainly looks so on the boys’ side. While no one but Rutgers Prep or Gill St. Bernard’s has won a title since 2014 – the year late Ian Progin’s Hillsborough squad won its first-ever SCT – a number of teams might be able to pull it off.

Gill is the top seed on the boys’ side (see the full bracket and story here), but let’s take a look at who beat who:

Gill St. Bernard’s: The Knights haven’t lost to a Skyland opponent all year, and they’ve beaten all the top teams they’ve faced in Somerset County. That includes a 90-84 home win over Rutgers Prep back on January 10th. They won by eleven at Montgomery two nights before, and came back and beat Pingry by 31.

Rutgers Prep: The Argonauts beat Montgomery, 89-73, but then lost to Pingry and Gill, both by six, both on the road. Still, the coaches voted them the two seed, and it’s likely out-of-conference schedule and wins came into play here.

Montgomery: The Cougars’ only three losses have come to Prep, Gill and Linden in non-conference play. It should be noted that Montgomery, Gill St. Bernard’s and Rutgers Prep all have lost to Linden this year, but Ethan Lin and company came the closest, falling by two at the Warrior Classic down at Manasquan on January 3rd.

Pingry: The Big Blue got the fourth seed behind Montgomery and Rutgers Prep, even though Pingry beat Prep head-to-head, 64-58 back on January 8th. But Pingry also had the big loss to GSB, and a five-point loss at home to Hillsborough just a couple days later. Their remaining schedule strength may have played a factor as well, but that doesn’t mean you can count them out.

But they aren’t the only ones who can win this tournament.

What about Immaculata? The Spartans are 12-3, 4-1 in the Skyland Conference Raritan Division behind Pingry, which they only lost to by five earlier this month. They lost to Rutgers Prep by just six at home and play Gill St. Bernard’s tonight (Tuesday).

Or Bridgewater-Raritan? The Panthers started the year 8-0 before getting knocked off by Immaculata, 64-57, on January 8th. They also have losses to Prep by six, to Gill (74-46) and to Hillsborough by 18. They’ve lost four of their last seven, but there’s still time to right that ship, and the Saturday schedule in the SCT could benefit them.

The way the brackets go, with the top four-seeds getting first round byes, here’s how the quarterfinals would look if it all went chalk, with previous results:

• (8) Franklin at (1) Gill St. Bernard’s (will meet Feb. 10)
• (5) Immaculata at (4) Pingry (Pingry won 64-59 on Jan. 6)
• (6) Hillsborough at (3) Montgomery (Montgomery won 53-37 on Jan. 13)
• (7) Bridgewater-Raritan at (2) Rutgers Prep (Rutgers Prep won 72-56 on Jan. 13)

Over on the girls’ side (see the full bracket and story here) it could get interesting, too. Rutgers Prep got the top seed over Gill St. Bernard’s, with the two having pretty similar records (Argos 14-2, Knights 13-3) and having not met head-to-head yet. They’ll play Thursday, in fact, in Somerset at 5:30 pm, a game you can hear live on Central Jersey.

“Being named the No. 1 seed, I think there’s a lot of respect there,” said Argonauts’ head coach Mary Klinger. “But, at the end of the day, you’ve got to win games.”

Prep’s lone losses have come to Red Bank Catholic by three in the Kevin Williams Christmas Classic down in Toms River on December 29th, and by ten to Cardinal O’Hara (PA) at the Blue Star Invitational in Pennsylvania on January 4th.

Gill isn’t a total surprise as the defending champions, but considering they lost one of their top stars every in Gandy Malou-Mamel to graduation (UConn) as well as Sidney Quinn, Maya Abramson, Tessa Lozner and Cassidy Moore – 70 percent of last year’s scoring – the two-seed is quite an accomplishment indeed.

And last year? These two blew out each other, an oddity in their rivalry: Rutgers Prep 61-38 on December 17th, and Gill St. Bernard’s 64-27 in the rematch on January 16th.

But they’re not the only ones with a chance. There’s Hillsborough, despite losing the school’s all-time leading scorer – girls’ or boys’ – in Cesci Schiro, plus fellow starters Reghan Bice and Mya Loniewski, whose sisters are still on the team.

The Raiders were 26-6 last year, but through 16 games are a win better than last year, when they were 13-3 at this point; they’re currently 14-2. In fact, the only public school they’ve lost to the last two years is Franklin. ‘Boro’s other loss this year is to Gill.

We saw them last week in a solid win over probably the second-best team in the GMC, East Brunswick, and they look crisp, like they know what they’re doing. What they don’t look like is a team trying to figure it out after massive graduation losses. The epitome of picking up where you left off.

Which brings us to the fourth-seeded Warriors. They’re playing for their third coach in four seasons, after longtime mentor Audrey Taylor stepped down in 2023, Daryl Robinson took over the last two years, and Jimmy Kreie is now leading the program.

The Warriors have been pesky, but lost double-digit games each of the last three years. This season, they are 10-6, even after a rough 1-4 start the the season in which they lost to Rutgers Prep, Gill St. Bernard’s, Demarest (15-2) in the Shore games before the holidays, and Immaculate Heart in the Holiday Hoopfest (12-3) over the break.

But they’ve gone 9-2 since and beat Hillsborough 72-44 on the road back on January 6th, pulling away with a big second quarter.

If all went to chalk, here would be the quarterfinal matchups, with only one of them having met already; the other three haven’t, nor do they have a regular season matchup on the schedule:

• (8) Somerville at Rutgers Prep
• (5) Bound Brook at Hillsborough
• (6) Pingry at (3) Franklin (Pingry won 57-40 on Jan. 13)
• (7) Bernards at (2) Gill St. Bernard’s

Bound Brook-Hillsborough could be the most entertaining of the bunch. They haven’t played since 2023, and 82-69 Raider win.