Despite a 22-point game from sophomore Jayce Rodriguez, North 2, Group 3 champ Colonia lost to South Jersey Group 3 champion Ocean City, 55-46, in the NJSIAA state Group 3 title game, giving the Red Raiders their first state title since 1964.
Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel call all the play-by-play from Rutgers University’s Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway on March 15, 2026.
Despite a 20-point game from Penn-bound senior Ethan Lin, Central 4 champion Montgomery lost 49-40 to North 2, Group 4 Champion Plainfield in the NJSIAA state Group 4 title game. It was Plainfield’s second straight state championship.
Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel call all the play-by-play from Rutgers University’s Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway on March 14, 2026.
North 2, Group 3 champion Colonia got 27 points from sophomore Jayce Rodriguez – including 14-of-14 from the foul line, all in the second half – and another 20 from senior Dylan Chiera, as the Patriots beat North 1, Group 3 champion Montville in the Group 3 state semifinals. The win sends Colonia to the state Group 3 finals for the first time ever, where they will take on Ocean City at Rutgers.
Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel call all the play-by-play from the Dunn Center in Elizabeth on March 11, 2026.
In the lowest scoring game in a non-public state final in at least 27 years, North B champion Gill St. Bernard’s topped South B champ Holy Cross Prep 39-38 to win its first-ever state title. Sophomore Connor Junker finished with 14 points in the win, while senior Dorsett Mulcahy added 13, and Prosper Sonkua had four blocks.
Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel call all the play-by-play from Jersey Mike’s Arena at Rutgers University in Piscataway on March 12, 2026.
Central 4 champion Montgomery got a career high 23 points and some big blocks from Shriyans Mallavarapu and a game-high 28 points from Mike Simborski – both sophomores – as the Cougars beat South 4 champion Cherry Hill East in the Group 4 state semifinals. The win sends Montgomery back to the state Group 4 championship game against Plainfield for the second year in a row.
Click below to listen to Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel call all the play-by-play from Deptford High School on March 10, 2026.
Gill St. Bernard’s got 19 points and five treys from Dorsett Mulcahy, plus 16 from Prosper Sonkoua and ten from Jahmal Dixon en route to a 58-49 win over Roselle Catholic in the Non-Public North B final, giving the Knights their first sectional championship since 2012.
Click below to listen to Alec Crouthamel call all the play-by-play from JFK High School in Paterson on March 9, 2026.
What Colonia basketball has done under Jose Rodriguez has been nothing short of incredible.
The Patriots are officially a public school GMC dynasty these days.
Back on Saturday, they won their fifth straight sectional title, taking down Chatham in the North Jersey, Section 2, Group 3 title game. It was also their sixth sectional title in seven playoff years under Rodriguez, now in his eighth year as head coach. The only year they didn’t win one was in his second year, 2020, when they lost to Irvington in the finals.
The one year there were no state playoffs, they beat St. Thomas Aquinas – on the road – to claim the GMC’s top four-team pod, the Karl Towns/Jay Williams pod. Then, in 2024 and 2025, they won back-to-back GMC titles.
That’s a lot of hardware.
The one thorn in their side the entire run has been Ramapo. They lost to the Raiders in the 2018 Group 3 semifinals, J-Rod’s first year at the helm, then again four years straight from 2022 to 2025.
But they won’t this year.
A sixth seed this year, Ramapo got knocked out in the opening round, coughing up a 31-17 halftime lead and losing in overtime to 11th-seed Morris Knolls, 68-67.
Finally, Colonia gets to prep for someone different.
That someone different is Montville, the four-seed that won the North 1, Group 3 title with a 65-61 upset win Saturday over second-seed Teaneck. The Mustangs are 23-5, and Colonia will play them in the Group 3 semifinals Wednesday at 5 pm at The Dunn Center in Elizabeth, in a game you can hear on Central Jersey Sports Radio. Pregame is set for 4:45; click here to listen to Mike Pavlichko and Alec Crouthamel call all the action.
Colonia, as many know by now, lost three huge pieces from last year’s team, with Aiden Derkack transferring to Spire Academy in Ohio, R.J. Wortman enrolling early at Rutgers to play football, and defensive specialist Zach Smith graduating, but rebounded from a 2-6 start to go 18-4 the rest of the way. That stretch included a run to the GMC Tournament semifinals, where they narrowly lost to Piscataway.
After two dominating wins to open state tournament play, the Patriots escaped with a Rolaids-worthy win over Mendham – the team they beat last year in the sectional finals – by four, 34-30 in an unusually low-scoring game. It was their lowest offensive output of the season, by one over a 62-35 season-opening loss to St. Peter’s Prep at the NJBAC Tip-Off Classic in Montgomery.
But they rebounded nicely with a 57-46 win over Chatham in the North 2, Group 3 final, in which they had a little more breathing room.
Montville, meanwhile, surprised many to get here, but Rodruguez knows the Mustangs have earned their spot. After wins over the 13- and five-seeds, they knocked off top-seed Tenafly on the road to get to the title game. Led by senior guard Chris Ferrare (19.3 ppg, team-best 112 assists and 55 treys), Montville has three double-digit scorers, including Eddie Camaj (12.4 ppg) and Joey Beyer, who’s averaging an even double-double of 10.9 points and rebounds per game.
Colonia, meanwhile, is led by Jayce Rodriguez, the coach’s son, averaging just a shade under 20 points per game, with a team-high 75 treys, while Desmond Rudanovic is tops on the boards at eight per game. Senior Dylan Chiera – also the QB on the football team – is averaging just under ten points per game, and has a team-best 39 steals.
The Patriots are looking for their first-ever trip to a state final, having won 11 sectional titles overall. Besides the six in the last seven playoff years under Rodriguez, they won Central Jersey Group 4 in 1973, Central 3 in 1985 and 1994, then North 2, Group 3 in 2007 and 2015.
Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko talk with Colonia head coach Jose Rodriguez about the Patriots’ Group 3 semifinal matchup with Montville:
Gill St. Bernard’s is back on the mountaintop.
Its been 14 years since their first – and only – sectional title, won all the way back in 2012.
The Knights (27-2) extended their winning streak to 23 games and won the Non-Public North B title 58-49 over Roselle Catholic in a rematch of last year’s sectional final.
It took a heroic closing effort, as the Lions (22-7) never went away, but Gill came up with just enough stops to come away victorious.
The upperclassmen trio of Dorsett Mulcahy, Prosper Sonkoua, and Jahmal Dixon led the way in a veteran-like effort. Mulcahy paced the game in scoring with 19 points — 14 coming in the first half — while Sonkoua found his scoring touch late and defended all over the floor, finishing with 15 points.
Similarly, Dixon wreaked havoc as a roving defender, coming up with three steals and eight points in the third quarter alone. He finished with ten. Sophomore guard Connor Junker hit some big-time free throws late to seal the win as part of a seven-point performance.
Gill took the early edge, led by two three-pointers from Mulcahy for a 14-8 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Roselle Catholic continued to battle, drawing back even with some tough shotmaking and effort from senior Caleb Jones, usually the team’s third or fourth option. He tied senior Trevon Lewis for the team lead with 15 points each, and Jones hounded the glass, resulting in easy looks at the rim, taking advantage of his 6-foot-7 frame. They were the only two Lions in double figures, though freshman Holland Johnson knocked down a trio of threes off the bench for nine points, thrice his season average per game.
By the time the dust settled in the first half, both teams went into the locker room looking to need a breather after a physical, intense 16 minutes of play. The Knights eked ahead 28-27 at the half.
Then in the third quarter, Gill finally put its foot down and took control. Dixon proved why he’s one of the top all-around glue-guy point guards in the area, running the half-court offense and hunkering down on the defensive end. He scored eight of the Knights’ 15 points in the quarter, with Sonkoua also knocking down a three-pointer to help keep Gill ahead. It held onto a four-point lead after three quarters.
Roselle Catholic threw its final haymakers in the fourth, as the game ground to a halt of half-court offense. The Knights tried — and succeeded — to slow the game down with their lead barely intact. Lewis came alive with eight points in the fourth, and brought the Lions back to within a possession in the final minutes.
With the game in the balance, Mulcahy knocked down a layup, then Gill worked a tough shot that Lewis missed, and it was smooth sailing from there. The Knights made their free throws and came away with their first sectional title in 14 years.
Gill will play in one last game, the State Non-Public B Championship Game, on Thursday at 7 pm at Jersey Mike’s Arena at Rutgers University in Piscataway against the South B champion, Holy Cross Prep, which beat Bishop Eustace Monday night, 55-42.
Click below to hear postgame reactions with Gill St. Bernard’s head coach Mergin Sina and guards Dorsett Mulcahy and Jahmal Dixon, presented by the Sportsplex at Metuchen:
It’s hard to be much better than near-perfect.
Gill St. Bernard’s will put that to the test in the sectional final.
The top-seeded Knights (26-2) bring a 22-game winning streak into the Non-Public North B title game against second-seeded Roselle Catholic, a rematch of last year’s final. The Lions (22-6) return a good piece of their core from that team, while Gill St. Bernard’s has seen a mix of returning talent and players stepping up into new roles.
Last year’s game was a true grinder, won by Roselle Catholic 43-35, though six of those points came in one trip to the foul line amid a wild finish, where the Lions attempted to let the ball stay on the ground with the clock running after a late basket by the Knights. Head coach Mergin Sina, irate with the precious seconds coming off the clock, picked up two technical fouls and was ejected.
This year’s iteration features two increasingly-explosive offenses from last year, and hopefully without the fireworks this time around. You can hear the game on Monday at 5 pm from John F. Kennedy High School in Paterson, with pregame coverage starting at 4:45, as Alec Crouthamel will call the action. Click here to listen.
Gill St. Bernard’s brings a balanced and multifaceted offense that can beat you in several different ways.
There’s senior guard Dorsett Mulcahy, a veteran who looks and plays similarly to his older brother Paul, but with his own skillset brought to the table. He can shoot over defenders, or post them up to set up passes to the outside. Many of those passes have gone to sophomore Connor Junker, a sniper from the outside who is beginning to fully round out his game on both ends.
Then there’s senior forward Prosper Sonkoua, a true two-way force. He has taken a step forward in nearly every part of his game, with a blossoming off-the-dribble driving game, a pull-up threat from the outside, and a strong passer while slashing. And that’s not even mentioning his ability to guard — and stop — any position, point guard to center. Senior Jahmal Dixon has also taken a step forward as a true Swiss Army Knife, with the ability to create for himself and set up others, while growing into a pesky defender.
To sum it all up, Gill can beat an opponent in so many different ways, and it’ll have to do so in a highly-anticipated matchup against the Lions.
Top scorers Trevon Lewis (15.8 points per game), Tyrease Hunter (13.2 points per game), and Kahlik Thomas (12.7 points per game) all played in this matchup last year and made their own impacts. Hunter and Lewis combined for 33 of Roselle Catholic’s 43 points in the game, while Thomas grabbed a career-high 15 rebounds as a force on the interior.
All three have improved their respective games as seniors, with Lewis even dropping a quadruple-double on Westfield earlier in the year.
Third-year head coach Todd Decker has done plenty of winning in his career, with prior stints at St. Peter’s Prep and the Patrick School, and has another crew ready to defend its Non-Public B title from last year.
But one year after a grind-it-out style game last season, both teams have the offensive horses to reach or even surpass those numbers.
By halftime.
It’ll be a hotly-contested matchup in Paterson between several veteran stars.
Click below to hear a preview interview with Gill St. Bernard’s head coach Mergin Sina and Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Alec Crouthamel:
Jayce Rodriguez scored 25 points and the rest of the lineup had balanced scoring as top-seeded Colonia beat second-seed Chatham at home to with the North Jersey, Section 2, Group 3 championship, its fifth straight and sixth in the last seven playoff seasons, all under coach Jose Rodriguez.
Click below to listen to Alec Crouthamel and Nick Hart call all the play-by-play from Colonia High School on March 7, 2026.
