Gill St. Bernard’s had plenty of re-tooling to do.
That’s to be expected when losing a senior class with as much talent and accolades as that previous class. But the Knights (21-5) trusted the development of their younger players ready to shine, and the trust was reciprocated as those same players stuck around, even in a reduced role, with the hope of starring on the floor in the near future.
The future has arrived.
Top-seeded Gill St. Bernard’s heads into the Non-Public North B final against second-seeded Saddle River Day with a versatile and dangerous group that’s also finding its stride right when it needs to. You can hear the game on Monday at 7 pm, with pregame coverage starting at roughly 6:45, as Alec Crouthamel will call the action. Click here to listen.
Addy and Kaity Platt get the primary attention — as they should, as two of the team’s top options on both ends of the floor — but it’s been a full team effort for the Knights all year long.
Other contributors, such as junior point guard Melina Miller — who paces the team with nearly six assists per game — and junior wing Sadie Finn had to wait their turn and work behind the scenes. What the rest of the public didn’t see, Gill St. Bernard’s coaching staff did. They knew they had depth waiting in the wings and it has paid off at the right time.
The Knights are playing some of their best basketball of late, working through their first two games of the sectional tournament with ease in dominant wins over Pioneer Academy and Villa Walsh.
The Rebels (19-9) present a new challenge in the sectional title. While not the deepest team, Saddle River Day does have the top-end talent to compete. 88 percent of the Rebels’ scoring comes from their top four options, and they all have stepped up to the task as a dangerous team rebounding the ball and shooting it from the perimeter.
This won’t be the first time they’re featured on Central Jersey Sports Radio, as they fell to St. Thomas Aquinas on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in January, but their go-to stars have only gotten more dangerous. Point guard Harper Cohn has fully re-acclimated to action after missing the early weeks of the season due to injury, and sophomore guard Grace Darling has turned up the heat scoring the basketball.
Both teams come into the matchup with plenty of tradition and history — Saddle River Day as one of Bergen County’s top programs, and Gill St. Bernard’s the same in Somerset County recently — but only one will come out victorious.
The Knights look for their first sectional title in 12 years, without now-closed Montclair Immaculate in the fold, who had defeated Gill in three of the last four years.
The bracket’s top two seeds have met the task all year long, and each have one more with a sectional title on the line.
Click below to hear a preview interview with Gill St. Bernard’s head coach Mark Gnapp and Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Alec Crouthamel:
