Ava Catanho – Central Jersey Sports Radio

We get asked a lot about our process for naming a Player of the Year. It starts out that they have to be really good, of course, but there are a lot of very good ball players out there.

So, our next criteria is the value to their team. A team is just that, never one player, but sometimes, there’s one star who stands out, without whose contributions the success of that season might very well not have been possible.

For East Brunswick, that’s sophomore Ava Catanho.

Sure, senior Julianna DelosSantos-Branson had a huge impact, nearly averaging a double-double, with 64 steals, and no one really knew what she might be able to do this year coming off an ACL injury. Juniors Sophia Tannura and Zoey Alexio could hit the three, with 50 each. And sophomore Ave Krzywdzinski dished the ball to the tune of 161 assists with the best of them.

But without Catanho – the team’s top scorer with 543 points (18.7 per game) and a team-best 61 treys, and now a member of the 1,000 point club (at 1,011 and counting) – East Brunswick doesn’t reach the GMC Tournament finals, nor do the Lady Bears get to the CJ4 semis.

And for that reason, Catanho is our 2025-26 GMC Girls’ Basketball Player of the Year.

Catanho also has the athletic lineage: her mother, Kara (nee Motusesky), is an assistant under Travis Retzlaff, who was named CJSR Coach of the Year in the GMC as well, and was a thousand-point scorer at East Brunswick when she was in high school. Her father is Alcides Catanho, a standout football player at Elizabeth and Rutgers who spent two seasons in the NFL with New England and Washington.

“I’ve been shooting since I was in the crib,” Ava says.

And she’s still going to be shooting for years to come.

Click below to listen to East Brunswick sophomore Ava Catanho – with additional comments from head coach Travis Retzlaff – with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko:

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Jordan Barnes, St. Thomas Aquinas: Barnes finishes a four-year career in North Edison with 1,385 points and 746 rebounds, good for career averages of 11.6 points and 6.3 rebounds per game. This year, she averaged 16.2 points and 5.6 boards in helping lead STA to its record seventh straight GMC Tournament championship, and next year, she’ll be playing at Rider.
Trista Whitney, St. Thomas Aquinas: The senior – who played her first year at Edison – also has been a huge factor in the last three championship seasons for the Trojans. This year, she averaged 11.8 points and 5.2 rebounds per game, and next year, will play at Maryland-Eastern Shore.
Angel Smith, Woodbridge: The senior was consistent for the Lady Barrons, scoring double figures in all but four games this year, while also registering 15 double-doubles. She hit for 15.7 points per game and 11.2 boards, helping Woodbridge flip the script this year, going 17-9 coming off a 6-19 campaign a year ago.
Layla Gutierrez, North Plainfield: Finishing her career with 1,289 points, the senior was one of the league’s most prolific scorers the last three seasons. She even dropped 50 in a GMC Tournament game this season against New Brunswick, less than a month after scoring 42 against South Brunswick. And she opened the season with 30 against a solid Piscataway team.
Gabrielle Hill, Spotswood: Though her scoring was down a tad from last year (15.4 to 13.8), the junior more than doubled her rebounding numbers from a year ago, grabbing 6.4 a game this year. She also got to the foul line 24 more times and hit 34 triples on the season for the Chargers.

The East Brunswick girls’ basketball team last won the GMC Tournament title in 2016.

Ten years later, that team could have another reason to celebrate.

That’s because the 2026-26 Lady Bears – the tournament’s second-seed are going back to the finals for the first time since, after a 52-38 win over third-seed Piscataway in the semifinals at Monroe Twp. High School Tuesday night, heard live on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

The Chiefs got the first basket of the game, but 2-0 was the only time they would lead. East Brunswick (21-4) went on a quick 9-0 run to take a seven-point lead, and though it would get closer at various points in the first half – even just 22-18 at halftime – the lead grew and shrunk, in double-digits most of the second half, but never changed hands again.

Thanks to Piscataway Township and Mayor Brian Wahler for sponsoring tonight’s game!

The Chiefs have been a team with great three-point range all year, but the shots just weren’t going in. Otherwise, it might have been a different game. Every time Piscataway would come up with a stop, or a mini-run, East Brunswick was there to counter back.

And while Piscataway – now 15-8 – has had a fine season with a starting five made up entirely of sophomores, it was another soph who was the difference for East Brunswick, as she has been the entire season.

Ava Catanho finished with a team-high 13 points for the Bears (20-4) and had one triple. Sophia Tannura had tow and finished with six points, but each seemed to come at big moments with Piscataway trying to get back in the game. Sophomore Violet Azcona of Piscataway was the game’s high scorer with 14 points.

Coming into the game, Piscataway was 17-0 when holding opponents to 54 points or less. Tuesday night was the exception, as the Bears won it with just 52 points.

Now, East Brunswick is going back to the title game in the GMC Tournament, where they’ll be back at Monroe Friday night at 6 pm against six-time defending champion and top-seed St. Thomas Aquinas, which was a 76-56 winner over fourth-seed Colonia in the nightcap semifinal.

The Bears will be looking for their sixth GMC Tournament championship, and seventh county title overall.

Click below for postgame reaction with East Brunswick sophomore Ava Catanho and head coach Travis Retzlaff with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen: