Aidan Carter scored a game-high 24 points while Joel Patrick grabbed 14 rebounds to send No. 1 seed St. Joseph-Metuchen to the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament title game for the first time since 2019, with a 63-51 win in the semifinal round over fifth-seed St. Thomas Aquinas.
Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko and Vin Ebenau call all the play-by-play from Monroe Township High School on February 18, 2026.
Donald Nwaigwe scored 17 points and grabbed seven rebounds, while Izayah Brown added 16 and went 10-of-11 from the charity stripe in a 64-61 win for second-seed Piscataway over third-seed Colonia, sending the Chiefs back to the GMC Tournament title game for the second straight year.
Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko and Vin Ebenau call all the play-by-play from Monroe Township High School on February 18, 2026.
You can hear the words coming out of Mergin Sina’s mouth: “It’s gonna be anotha wahhhr.”
No doubt about that.
For the fourth time in five seasons since the COVID year of 2021, it’ll be Gill St. Bernard’s and Rutgers Prep squaring off for the Somerset County championship.
Each team has won a pair since then, with the Knights beating the Argos in 2022 and 20205, while Prep beat Gill in 2023, and Montgomery in 2024.
You can hear Saturday afternoon’s championship game between top-seed and defending champion Gill St. Bernard’s and second-seed Rutgers Prep live on Central Jersey Sports Radio at 3 pm, following the 1:00 girls’ title tilt between top-seed Rutgers Prep and third-seed Franklin, with pregame at approximately 2:45. Mike Pavlichko and Chris Tsakonas will call all the action. Click here to listen.
Nearly every meeting between these two teams tends to be epic. In the last eleven meetings between the teams since the COVID-shortened 2021 season, Gill has won seven, Prep has won four. Each team has knocked the other off in the finals, Gill twice, Prep once.
This year’s meetings were both close, if different games entirely. The Knights won the first meeting by six, 90-84, on January 10th, then won the second by five, 73-68 on February 5th. Six of their last eleven meetings have been decided by ten points or fewer.
MORE ON THE SOMERSET COUNTY TOURNAMENT BOYS’ FINAL:
(1) Gill St. Bernard’s (23-2) vs. (3) Rutgers Prep (16-8)
When: Saturday, 3 pm
Where: Montgomery Township High School
Broadcast Team: Mike Pavlichko and Chris Tsakonas (LISTEN HERE)
COACHES:
Gill St. Bernard’s: Mergin Sina, 15th season (303-101)
Rutgers Prep: Matt Bloom, 8th season (170-57)
STATE RANKINGS:
Gill St. Bernard’s: #3 NJ.com
Rutgers Prep: #12 NJ.com
PREVIEW INTERVIEWS:
HOW THEY GOT HERE:
Gill St. Bernard’s: The Knights blew past 8th-seed Ridge in their opening game, in the quarterfinals following a double-bye, 71-55 behind 21 points from Prosper Sonkoua. (Yes, previously-known as Prosper Highlander, he’s now going by another part of his given last name.) He had a double-double 21 points and 11 rebounds, along with three treys in that game. Dorsett Mulcahy had 15 and seven assists, while Connor Junker added 11, with a pair from downtown. In the semis, they beat a very strong fifth-seed in Immaculata, 67-53, getting 26 points and seven rebounds from Dorsett Mulcahy, plus 16 points and six boards from Sonkoua.
Rutgers Prep: The Argonauts – behind a 31-point afternoon from Will Brunson, who nailed six triples in the game – topped seven-seed Bridgewater-Raritan in the quarterfinals, 85-58. Nicolas Nsenkyire added 12 and five boards in the victory. In the semis, Prep beat third-seed Montgomery, 65-57, with four players scoring in double figures, led by a 20-point, 11-rebound double-double from Brunson, who also dished out six assists. Nsenkyire added 15, Logan Franz 12 and Rocco Loomis another 10 points.
TOP SCORERS:
Gill St. Bernard’s: Dorsett Mulcahy (20.1 ppg, 57 treys), Prosper Sonkoua (15.8 ppg, 32 treys), Connor Junker (13 ppg, team-best 58 treys)
Rutgers Prep: William Brunson (23.1 ppg, 50 treys), Rocco Loomis (16 ppg, team-best 67 treys), Nicolas Nsenkyire
TOP REBOUNDERS:
Gill St. Bernard’s: Prosper Sonkoua (7.5), Niko West (6), Jahmal Dixon (5.7)
Rutgers Prep: William Brunson (8.3), Nicolas Nsenkyire (5.4)
MISCELLANEOUS:
Gill St. Bernard’s: Jahmal Dixon (111 assists, 81 steals), Prosper Sonkoua (22 blocks)
Rutgers Prep: Nicolas Nsenkyire (137 assists, 62 steals), William Brunson (29 blocks)
RECENT MEETINGS: These games have always been a battle, generally close and highly competitive. Gill won moth meetings this year – 90-84 on January 10th in Peapack, and 73-68 on February 5th down in Somerset. They also met in the 2023 and 2022 SCT finals. The Argonautus won 69-67 in ’23, while the Knights won the year before, 84-63. Gill also beat Prep in three prior SCT finals meetings in 2011, 2017 and 2018. All three years, Gill was the No. 1 seed; Prep was the two in 2011 and 2018, and the third-seed in 2017.
SOMERSET COUNTY TOURNAMENT HISTORY:
Gill St. Bernard’s (9-4):
Rutgers Prep (3-6):
OTHER NOTES:
Gill is Perfect Again: Last year, Gill hadn’t lost to a Skykland Conference opponent all year. Their four losses came to powerhouses like Don Bosco Prep in the New Year’s Jump Off, St. Peter’s Prep in the Big Jersey Basketball Showcase II, St. Rose in the Hoop Group Boardwalk Showcase, as well as Roselle Catholic and The Patrick School’s national team in standalone contests. This year, same deal, but with only two losses – one to St. Peter’s Prep out of Jersey City, 59-43, in the Big Jersey Showcase on December 20th, while also falling to Linden on December 29th at the Jingle Bells Jubilee, 73-52. That gives them a 27-game win streak against the Skyland Conference and 23 straight against Somerset County competition since their loss to Rutgers Prep in the 2024 SCT final. Back to the beginning of that 2023-24 season – in which they split with Prep in the regular season – Gill is 30-2 against Somerset schools, 36-2 against the Skyland Conference over the last three years.
Non-Publics Always In It: This will be the 17th straight season the Somerset County Tournament championship game will have at least one parochial school participating. The last time two public schools square off, it was 2008, when third-seed Watchung Hills beat fourth-seed Ridge for the title, 58-49. Since then, at least one parochial has been in it every year – all featuring Gill or Rutgers Prep except 2009, when top-seed Immaculata beat second-seed Ridge, 58-49. And in those 17 years, six of those meetings have seen the Knights and the Argonauts face off, including five of the last eight.
From One Finalist to Another: Junior Andrew Kretkowski was a big loss for Rutgers Prep in the off-season, as he transferred to St. Joseph-Metuchen. But he would have been just fine in Somerset, too. Both schools have made their respective conference/county tournaments, as St. Joe’s faces Piscataway Friday night at 8 pm in the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament final, which you can hear live on Central Jersey Sports Radio.
No sweep? Gill St. Bernard’s swept the girls’ and boys’ Somerset County titles last season, but with the girls knocked out in the semifinals this year by Franklin, we won’t get a chance at it again this year. Rutgers Prep swept in 2024 and 2020, while Gill did it previously in 2012, and Bridgewater-Raritan did it in 1995. There also was another quasi-sweep in 1998, with different high schools, but from the same district. The Bridgewater-Raritan West boys won the title that year, while the Bridgewater-Raritan East girls won as well.
Rare loss for Prep: When Rutgers Prep lost at Hillsborough on February 10th, 82-79, their lone game in between the Saturday-schedule SCT quarterfinals and semifinals, it was their first regular season loss to a Somerset County public school since 2019, when they lost to Montgomery twice. That snapped a 34-game win streak. Head coach Matt Bloom said of that game: “Any game in this league is tough. We have to have a short memory and get over it. Give credit to Hillsborough, they take advantage of our weaknesses.” Short memory indeed, as they bounced back with a 65-57 win over Montgomery in the county semifinals to get to Saturday’s championship against Gill St. Bernard’s
The St. Joseph-Metuchen boys’ basketball program hit its peak in the 2010s, making every GMC Tournament final in that decade, and wining nine of them, with just one loss – to Colonia in 2015.
Wednesday night down at Monroe Township High School, the top-seeded Falcons (24-1) will seek to get back to that game for the first time since 2019 when they take on fifth-seed St. Thomas Aquinas (11-3) in an all parochial school semifinal, immediately following an all-public matchup between Piscataway and two-time defending champion Colonia.
You can hear that game live on Central Jersey Sports Radio, with tip-off at 7 pm and pregame at 6:45 as Mike Pavlichko and Vin Ebenau call the action, immediately following the Chiefs and Patriots in their 5 pm opener. Click here to listen.
Both teams are intriguing stories this year. In the off-season, St. Joseph parted ways with Karl Towns, Sr., the father of Karl-Anthony Towns of the NBA’s Knicks. That reunion lasted one season, as Towns frequently missed Falcons’ games to watch his son play.
Enter Mark Taylor: a St. Joe’s alum, who later coached them and future NBA players like Jay Williams and Andrew Bynum. Following stops at Ridge and St. Benedict’s, he’s back in Metuchen, and with an influx of transfer talent like Aidan Carter (from St. Thomas Aquinas) and Andrew Kretkowski (from Rutgers Prep), the Falcons have had a nearly-perfect season. Their lone loss came to South Plainfield in a road stunner, 55-54. Still, they were the GMC Red American Division champions, going 8-0 in divisional play.
On the other side, Tom Weiler is the first-year head coach of the Trojans, and worked briefly as an assistant under Bob Turco during the COVID-season, when STA lost to Colonia in the league’s top postseason pod – there was no full GMC Tournament that year. Turco left for Piscataway after the 2023-24 season, and Weiler came on board following an awkward season where Austin Whitehurst was let go mid-year due to off-the-court issues, and Victor Verdecia finished out the year.
Weiler’s first job was changing the culture around the program, and it’s been a grind this year, to be sure. They’re two games below .500 and finished 2-6 in the Red American Division – fourth place out of five – with their divisional wins coming over Old Bridge.
They also have a transfer from the other school, Dan Jennings, who headed south down Plainfield Avenue last season. He and Albion Ahmetaj are the team’s top two scorers, at 14.1 and 14.2 points per game, respectively. Ahmetaj is a big with 53 blocks, and is thee team’s top rebounder at 10.7 per game. Then, there’s Zymere Weaver, a sophomore who’s also the starting quarterback on the football team, and has a team-best 70 assists and 33 steals.
St. Joe’s is led by Carter, the STA transfer, who had to sit out the first 30 days of the season. That’s one reason the Falcons opened the season as early as they could – and earlier than everyone else – with a 103-36 blowout of Wesley College from Australia, to start that 30-day clock as soon as possible. Once he stepped on the floor, the winning margins (minus that season-opening blowout) got larger and larger. Carter is averaging a double-double – 17.8 points and 10.2 rebounds per game – while Kretkowski is scoring 17 a game and has 22 treys. Junior Imaad Johnson has 33 to lead the Falcons, who are scoring about 12 more points per game on the whole than Aquinas.
Click below for preview interviews with both head coaches:
We’re officially in the thick of county tournament season in high school basketball!
Here in Central Jersey, Franklin High School will play host for the second year in a row to the Somerset County Tournament semifinals. Two boys’ and two girls’ games highlight a four-game extravangaza with the first tipping at 10 am, and the last at 4 pm. Winners will move on to next Saturday’s finals down at Montgomery High School in Skillman, with the girls’ final at 1 pm, and the boys’ title game at 3 pm, both of which can be heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio.
Meanwhile, the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament is in the quarterfinal stage, with all eight games – four on the boys’ side, four on the girls’ being played at the higher seeded school for the first time in ages. All will be played Saturday, with several doubleheaders.
Winners move on to next week’s semifinals, all at Monroe Township High School. The girls’ semis are at 5 and 7 pm Tuesday, and the boys’ semis are at the same times on Wednesday. The half of the bracket with the top seed will play the late game, regardless of who advances. The finals are on Friday night back at Monroe, with the girls’ title tilt at 6 pm and the boys’ championship at 8. Central Jersey Sports Radio will air all six of those games.
Here’s the chronological schedule of games for Saturday, along with coverage plans:
10 am
SCT Boys’ Semifinals: (2) Rutgers Prep vs (3) Montgomery (at Franklin H.S.) (LIVE on CJSR)
11:30 am
GMCT Girls’ Quarterfinals: (6) Woodbridge at (3) Piscataway
Noon
SCT Girls’ Semifinals: (1) Rutgers Prep vs. (4) Bound Brook (at Franklin H.S.) (LIVE on CJSR)
GMCT Girls’ Quarterfinals: (5) Spotswood at (4) Colonia
GMCT Girls’ Quarterfinals: (8) Middlesex at (1) St. Thomas Aquinas
GMCT Boys’ Quarterfinals: (5) St. Thomas Aquinas at (4) East Brunswick
1 pm
GMCT Boys’ Quarterfinals: (9) Metuchen at (1) St. Joseph-Metuchen
GMCT Boys’ Quarterfinals: (7) Sayreville at (2) Piscataway
2 pm
SCT Girls’ Semifinals: (2) Gill St. Bernard’s vs. (3) Franklin (at Franklin H.S.) (Follow Alec Crouthamel for updates)
GMCT Girls’ Quarterfinals: (7) Monroe at (2) East Brunswick
3 pm
GMCT Boys’ Quarterfinals: (6) South Plainfield at (3) Colonia
4 pm
SCT Boys’ Semifinals: (1) Gill St. Bernards vs. (5) Immaculata (at Franklin H.S.) (Follow Alec Crouthamel for updates)
With four Somerset County Tournament semifinal games on tap at Franklin High School this Saturday, it’ll be defending champion and top-seed Gill St. Bernard’s taking on fifth-seed Immaculata for a trip to the championship game next week at Montgomery in the last of the hoops extravaganza’s four games.
There was little doubt who the top-seed would be. The Knights are 22-2, their only losses coming to St. Peter’s Prep and Linden. They’ve beaten everyone they’ve played in the Skyland Conference and Somerset County, and are ranked No. 3 in New Jersey (one of three Somerset schools in the top ten, with Rutgers Prep nine and Montgomery at ten).
They are the team everyone is chasing.
The Spartans (17-5) are one of those doing the chasing. And they have their share of quality wins in the county this year. They handed Bridgewater-Raritan its first loss of the season when the Panthers were 8-0, and – if you believe in the transitive property of sports – beat a Pingry team in the quarterfinals last week on the road, one which they had lost to earlier in the season, but also which had knocked off Rutgers Prep.
Gill and ‘Lata will face off at 4 pm, and Alec Crouthamel will have coverage on Twitter, with a game story and postgame reaction presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen later at cjsportsradio.com.
Make no doubt about it, it’s a huge challenge for Immaculata. Gill is stacked, and that’s a fact. Senior point guard Dorsett Mulcahy is averaging 19.8 points per game with 57 treys, second only to sophomore Connor Junker, who has 58 and is scoring nearly 13 per contest; he was the hero of last year’s county final, with a game-high 15 points and four treys in the win over Rutgers Prep.
They fly up and down the floor, run half-court sets well, and play strong defense, all the ingredients needed.
Likewise, Immaculata plays with particular intensity as well. Their challenge will be having the depth, physicality, length and speed to match. The focal point of the offense is Riley Gorman and Tyler Burns.
Gorman, who scored his 1,000th point in the first round against Bernards, is averaging a whopping 22 points per game, and has hit 71 treys on the year for a team that has hit 183. (Gill has 219, third best in the state.) Burns is averaging a cool 15 points per game, with another 42 triples.
Immaculata is seeking its first trip to the finals since 2009, when they were the top seed and beat Ridge for the trophy. Gill is looking for its second straight trip, but has made 13 of the last 14 title games going back to their very first appearance in 2010.
Things went mostly in line with the seeds on Thursday night in the boys’ basketball GMC Tournament First Round, as seven higher seeds were victorious and moved on to Saturday’s quarterfinals.
The only upset was a mild one in terms of numbers, but a big one for the small schools, as 9th-seed and White National Division Champion knocked off 8th-seed Old Bridge on the road, 60-44.
After years of being held at neutral sites, the quarterfinals will be played on the home courts of higher seeded teams this Saturday, all on the same day, allowing for three girls/boys doubleheaders. That will include East Brunswick, Colonia, and Piscataway. And there’s going to be an “All-Brainy Boro” matchup as the public high school Metuchen, travels across town to take on St. Joseph of Metuchen, the GMCT’s top seed.
Scroll through for brief game recaps of Thursday’s first round action, followed by Saturday’s matchups, with some times still TBA.
(1) St. Joseph-Metuchen 86, (17) Monroe 49: St. Joseph (23-1) jumped out to a big lead in this one on a monster first quarter, 20-6, and they led by 25 at the break in a battle of the Falcons. Monroe (6-17) got 12 in defeat from Jaden Sangster.
(9) Metuchen 60, (8) Old Bridge 44: The Bulldogs (21-2) fell behind early, 19-4 after one quarter, but rallied in the second to take a 24-21 lead at the half, and never looked back. Cameron Hayes-Durina scored 24 points and was a perfect 3-for-3 from the foul line to lead Metuchen, while Matt Smith had 16 and Reece Osborn-Jones added 11 in the road win. Old Bridge falls to 8-15 with the loss.
(5) St. Thomas Aquinas 62, (21) JP Stevens 54: Two Trojans picked up double-doubles as Aquinas (10-13) pulled away in the third quarter. Up 27-26 at halftime, they outscored the Hawks (11-13) 22-10 to give them enough cushion to hold off JP Stevens in the fourth. Zymere Weaver had 21 points and 11 rebounds, going 5-of-6 at the line, while Albion Ahmetaj added 12 points and 10 boards, and went 4-of-5 at the stripe.
(4) East Brunswick 88, (13) Middlesex 53: The Bears (19-5) got a career high 30 points from senior Cam Vick and he Bears hit nine treys in rout to a dominant win over the Blue Jays (16-8). East Brunswick led by ten after one and 18 at the break, up 43-25. Triston Harvey added 13 while Dylan McLean scored a dozen and Matt Mikulka added 11. Julian Samuels led Middlesex with 21 points in defeat, including three triples.
(3) Colonia 62, (14) South Brunswick 34: The Patriots (15-8) won their ninth straight game as they continue to surge at the right time, getting 15 points from Jayce Rodriguez, while Desmond Rudanovic had just two points but grabbed 12 rebounds for Colonia. The Pats trailed 9-8 after one, but turned that into a six point advantage by the half, then pulled away on the strength of a 26-10 third quarter to keep the Vikings at more than arms’ length over the final eight minutes. Arjun Jadhav led South Brunswick (13-9) with eight points.
(6) South Plainfield 79, (11) Woodbridge 54: The Tigers (16-9) got 28 points from Andrew Bena in the win, including 2-of-2 at the line and four three-pointers. Aiden Noblecilla added 14, and was a perfect 4-for-4 from the charity stripe. The Barrons fall to 6-15 with the loss.
(7) Sayreville 59, (10) Perth Amboy 53: Bombers’ head coach John Wojick picked up his 200th career coaching win, as Sayreville (15-9) rallied from a seven-point halftime deficit – 27-20 – to come back and win by six. In fact, the Panthers even led in the final three minutes, but the Bombers made some big shots late for the victory. Read all about it, plus catch postgame reaction presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen, in Alec Crouthamel’s game story, at the link.
(2) Piscataway 95, (18) North Plainfield 40: The Chiefs (18-6) cruised to the win behind 18 points from Isaiah Fowler. Piscataway controlled this one virtually wire-to-wire, leading 59-26 at halftime.
BOYS’ GMC TOURNAMENT QUARTERFINAL ROUND – SATURDAY, FEB. 14
(9) Metuchen at (1) St. Joseph-Metuchen, 1 pm
(5) St. Thomas Aquinas at (4) East Brunswick, 12 pm
(6) South Plainfield at (3) Colonia, 3 pm
(7) Sayreville at (2) Piscataway, 1 pm
Fifth-seed Immaculata got 23 points from Riley Gorman and another 20 from Tyler Burns as they erased a 10-point halftime deficit to beat fourth-seed Pingry, 72-68, in the quarterfinal round of the Somerset County Tournament.
Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko call all the play-by-play from The Pingry School in Basking Ridge, NJ on February 7, 2026.
In the final Bellamy & Son Paving Boys’ Basketball Top Ten before the end of the season, The top four teams remained the same, while most of the rest got shuffled around, with Piscataway and Colonia trending upward.
Gill St. Bernard’s (20-2) remains No. 1, having won 16 straight, including two games last week. The Knight edged No. 3 Rutgers Prep Thursday in Somerset in a potential Somerset County Tournament final preview, 73-68. Then, Saturday, they beat Ridge in the SCT quarterfinals, 71-53. Gill will play Immaculata at 4 pm this Saturday in the SCT semis at Franklin High School.
Holding at No. 2 is St. Joseph-Metuchen (21-1). The Falcons swept their two games last week over a pair of GMC opponents: Sayreville on Tuesday, 66-55, and at St. Thomas Aquinas on Saturday, 76-38.
Holding in third is Rutgers Prep (15-7), which went 2-1 in the week gone by. Monday, they beat Watchung Hills at home, 93-54, then lost to No. 1 Gill St. Bernards, 83-68, at home Thursday night. The Knights bounced back Saturday in the Somerset County Tournament quarterfinals, rolling past Bridgewater-Raritan, 85-58. Their semifinal will be Saturday against Montgomery at 10 am at Franklin High School, a game you can hear live on Central Jersey Sports Radio.
On a 3-0 week, Montgomery (19-3) holds in fourth, winners of eleven straight. After opening with a non-conference win at St. Joe’s of Montvale on Wednesday, the Cougars topped Bridgewater-Raritan on the road, 49-42. Saturday, they beat rival Hillsborough, 53-38, in the SCT quarterfinals, setting up a date with Rutgers Prep this coming Saturday at Franklin High School, a game you can hear live on Central Jersey Sports Radio.
Moving up two spots to fifth is Piscataway (17-6). The Chiefs had a perfect week, starting with an 84-47 win Tuesday at Woodbridge. They came back home for a Friday non-league win over Franklin, 71-69, then won Saturday at Columbia, 59-51.
Immaculata (16-5) holds in sixth. The Spartans opened the week Tuesday with an 85-50 win over Pioneer Academy, but then lost to No. 8 Hillsborough Thursday night, 78-64. But they bounced back strong, rallying in the second half for a 72-28 win at Pingry in the Somerset County Tournament quarterfinals. Immaculata will play defending champion Gill St. Bernard’s Saturday at Franklin High School at 4 pm in the semifinals.
Checking in at seven is Colonia (14-8), rising three spots this week. The Patriots had a rough start adjusting to graduation and other losses, but have won eight straight, including four last week. After a 55-47 win over Bayonne on Monday, Colonia won 56-51 at Newark Collegiate Wednesday, 64-52 at Old Bridge Thursday, and capped it with a mammoth win at Wall, the No. 17 team in New Jersey, 52-46.
Hillsborough (15-6) holds at No. 8 on the strength of a 2-1 week. The Raiders beat Watchung Hills, 66-53, on Tuesday, then won at No. 6 Immaculata Thursday, 78-64, before falling 53-38 at Montgomery Saturday in the Somerset County Tournament quarterfinals.
Down four spots to nine is Pingry (11-7), which lost twice last week. Wednesday, they fell at Franklin, 63-59. On Saturday, they got knocked out of the Somerset County Tournament in the quarterfinal round, with a 72-68 loss to Immaculata.
And dropping one spot to tenth is South Plainfield (13-9), which split a pair of games last week. After a 74-72 win at Old Bridge Tuesday, they lost a non-conference game to a solid Chatham team, 59-57.
Click below for the full Bellamy & Son Paving Boys’ Basketball Top Ten for Week 9:
The 2026 GMC Tournament for basketball gets underway this weekend with 15 games in the play-in round, eight for the boys and seven for the girls.
All games will be played Saturday at higher seeds. Winners move on to the preliminary round, which will be played at higher seeds on Monday for the girls, Tuesday for the boys.
Click below for the full GMC Tournament brackets, which are posted in our separate stories on the boys’ and girls’ tournaments:
Here’s the schedule of first round games, with times as reported on the GMC’s website:
2026 GMC Tournament – Girls’ Play-In Round:
2026 GMC Tournament – Boys’ Play-In Round: