Boys’ Power Points Update in Central Jersey sections: Hillsborough appears to squeeze out Montgomery for top-seed in CJ4, while CJ1 is loaded with local schools

With playoff qualification in high school basketball closing Saturday at the NJSIAA cutoff, it looks like Hillsborough will be the only Central Jersey Sports Radio coverage area team getting a top seed, having wrestled it away from Montgomery in the final week.

Below is a look at all the area teams in the Central Jersey playoff brackets, based on NJ.com power point standings as of 2 pm on Sunday, February 15, 2026. It should be noted that the standings could change as the NJSIAA confirms records and details of the formula heading into Tuesday’s seeding meeting in Robbinsville, at which point the brackets will be announced. They become official (pending any discrepancies) as of noon on Wednesday.

First round action begins on Tuesday, March 24th.

Below is our analysis of the sections, and unofficial projected matchups, in the Central Jersey playoff sections. Click on the header for each section to visit the NJ.com standings for that section. Please note that unlike football, there is no “head-to-head” jump of teams, unless they are tied in power points, in which case head-to-head is merely the first of several tiebreakers.

Top eight seeds get first round home games, the top four are guaranteed the first two rounds, and top two get home court advantage through the semifinals.

Central Jersey Group 4:

When we run football playoff projections, we have our own spreadsheets and formulas to run scenarios with, and of course, it’s relatively easy to keep up with, since teams play one game every week, and most teams play every week. In basketball, teams pick up and cancel games last minute, and we operate with the numbers as posted online. With so many variables, wed some educated guess work, and in this case we were wrong. We believed East Brunswick (19-6) may have had a shot at Montgomery (20-4) – at least had they beaten St. Thomas Aquinas Saturday in the GMC Tournament quarterfinals – but as it turns out, the Cougars have been jumped, twice. Hillsborough (18-6) climbed to the top with 34.807 power points, with a narrow lead over Marlboro (18-4, 34.298). Montgomery ends up in third in the standings, as we look at it today, with 33.98 points, a difference of 0.827 points. Marlboro had a thrilling win Saturday over Howell in the Shore Conference Tournament quarterfinals, and Hillsborough had a big win over Rutgers Prep on Monday, a team Montgomery has lost to twice, most recently Saturday in the Somerset County Tournament semifinals. But let’s get back to that. Hillsborough has lost twice this season – by 15 and 16 points – to Montgomery, their neighbors to the south, including just last Saturday in the SCT quarterfinals. Montgomery has just four losses, and besides the two to Prep, one came to Gill St. Bernard’s and another to Linden, all in the span of a week in January, and all are Top 10 teams in NJ.com’s state rankings. Rutgers Prep is ninth, Linden No. 8 and Gill No. 3. From our vantage point, crunching the numbers, ‘Boro has more residuals, and more of its opponents have more wins, however, the new OOWP (Opponent’s Opponent Winning Percentage) is higher for Montgomery, meaning the teams Montgomery faced actually played better opponents than the teams Hillsborough faced, which would seem to indicate that the teams Hillsborough played had more wins, but lesser quality wins than the teams Montgomery faced. One remedy could be to increase the OOWP factor in the future, but more research and analysis on this is likely needed.

Be that as it may, we’ve got Hillsborough at No. 1, then Marlboro, Montgomery, and East Brunswick rounding out the top four. That’s followed by Jackson Twp., Trenton, then Sayreville (15-10) in seventh, up one spot from our analysis last week, with Freehold Twp. in eighth.

Franklin (10-14) looks like they finish ninth – right where we left them a week ago – while South Brunswick (14-9) gained two spots, rising from 12th to ten. Edison (11-12) holds in 13th, and the bottom didn’t change, meaning Old Bridge stays on the right side of the bubble at 8-16 in the 16th and final playoff spot.

Here are the projected first round matchups:

• (16) Old Bridge at (1) Hillsborough
• (15) Princeton at (2) Marlboro
• (14) Manalapan at (3) Montgomery
• (13) Edison at (4) East Brunswick
• (12) Hightstown at (5) Jackson Twp.
• (11) Hunterdon Central at (6) Trenton
• (10) South Brunswick at (7) Sayreville
• (9) Franklin at (8) Freehold Twp.

Central Jersey Group 2:

As expected, Wall (19-1) hung on to the top spot here, and Metuchen (21-3) – the only 20-game winner in the section – appears to have held on to the No. 2 spot by a decent margin, so we don’t expect anything to change. Ocean Township (17-9) and Delaware Valley (18-7) round out the top four. There’s a long way down to the next area team, Spotswood (14-10), which fell one spot to 13 in the final standings. But, it appears bubble-team East Brunswick Magnet (11-13) is out, dropping from 16 to 17 – the wrong side of the bubble – in the past week.

Here are the projected first round matchups:

• (16) Bordentown at (1) Wall
• (15) Delran at (2) Metuchen
• (14) Governor Livingston at (3) Ocean Twp.
• (13) Spotswood at (4) Delaware Valley
• (2) Roselle at (5) Manasquan
• (11) Monmouth at (6) Johnson
• (10) Pt. Pleasant Boro at (7) Rumson-Fair Haven
• (9) Robbinsville at (8) Holmdel

Central Jersey Group 1:

The top five did not change over the past week, even though the margin between one and two here got a bit closer. Still, Thrive Charter (17-5) – in probably its last year in this section based on the state’s new “success formula” that moves non-traditional public schools up based on playoff wins and championships – should be the No. 1 seed, followed by Point Pleasant Beach (18-7), Middlesex (16-8) in third, and Shore (17-5) rounding out the top four.

Then, there are three area teams in a row, Piscataway Magnet (17-6) holding in fifth, Manville (15-8) up a spot to six and South Amboy (16-7) up two spots to seventh, with Henry Hudson (16-8) rounding out the top eight.

Bound Brook (15-10) climbed up one spot and appears it will get the nine seed, and after New Providence, Roselle Park and South Hunterdon, Perth Amboy Magnet (10-10) hods on to the 15th spot and qualifies after a 2-0 week. Central Jersey College Charter dropped from 17 to 18, out of the running.

Here are the projected first-round matchups:

• (16) Keansburg at (1) Thrive Charter
• (15) Perth Amboy Magnet at (2) Pt. Pleasant Beach
• (14) South Hunterdon at (3) Middlesex
• (13) Roselle Park at (4) Shore
• (12) New Providence at (5) Piscataway Magnet
• (11) Dunellen at (6) Manville
• (10) Dayton at (7) South Amboy
• (9) Bound Brook at (8) Henry Hudson