Newly state-ranked Hillsborough seeks first sectional finals berth when top-seeded Raiders host Jackson Twp. in CJ4 semis

The 2013-14 Hillsborough boys’ basketball team will be remembered as one of the greats in school history, going 22-3 and beating Gill St. Bernard’s to win the Somerset County Tournament championship.

But the 2014-15 team was a pleasant surprise.

While they didn’t get close to winning the SCT that year, they made an improbably run in the state tournament, stunning Freehold Township on the road in the Central Jersey Group 4 championship game. Their record at the time was 15-12, and they were knocked out in the state semifinals a few nights later by Cherry Hill East.

Tuesday night, the Raiders – the top seed in Central 4 this season – will look to get back to a title game for the first time since 2015 when they play fifth-seed Jackson Township out of the Shore Conference. You can hear that game live on Central Jersey Sports Radio, with tip-off set for 5:30 and pregame starting around 5:15. Click here to listen.

Hillsborough (21-7) picked up its first state ranking in years last week, checking in at No. 20, and this week is up to 19. They have a signature win over Rutgers Prep, which came late in the season, on February 10th, right after losing at Montgomery in the Somerset County Tournament quarterfinals.

That’s a Montgomery team they could face again in the finals, but one game at a time.

The Raiders are led by sophomore Aaron Feath, who’s averaging nearly 19 points per game, while his older brother Derek, a senior, keeps adding to a school record for three-pointers in a single season, now at 77 and counting.

Meanwhile, Jackson Twp. (18-6) began the season in a unique situation, with the talents of the district’s two former schools, Jackson Liberty and Jackson Memorial coming together. Declining enrollment led the announcement last spring the two schools would merge this year, and use the Jackson Liberty campus.

That left Jackson Memorial coach Randy Holmes taking on some Liberty players, as well as head coach Don Connor, who’s an assistant. But the starting five is essentially Memorial’s starting five from last year. The Jaguars are led by senior George Boley – a two-time transfer who started out at Roselle Catholic, then followed Dave Boff to College Achieve before coming back home last year for his junior season. – who’s averaging 17.8 points per game. Senior Jimmy Pappalardo is second in scoring at ten a game, with a team-best 45 treys.

The winner moves on to Friday night’s championship game against either third-seed Montgomery or second-seed Marlboro.

Click below to hear preview interviews with both head coaches and Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko: