Christian Hill – Central Jersey Sports Radio

Starting out a season, there can be multiple goals. Win your division. Win your county. Win a state title.

Only ten teams will get to play in the last game of the year. And this year, the Montgomery boys’ basketball team was one of them.

But that wasn’t all. The Cougars checked off the box next to division champs, winning the Skyland Conference Raritan with a 10-0 record. And while they fell in the county semifinals to Rutgers Prep, they won a second straight Central Jersey Group 4 title – both coming at home – defeating West Windsor-Plainsboro North to claim another piece of hardware.

The state final? Hey, they went up against to No. 1-ranked team in New Jersey in Plainfield, which won the game and the Group 4 title, and should finish as the top team in the Garden State this year.

Not a bad resume.

And yet, even bringing key parts back from last year, who knew how it would play out?

Senior Christian Hill had to play a bigger role. Ethan Lin was coming off a horrific ankle injury late last year that kept him out of the entire postseason run, both in the county and state tournament; how would he rebound? Would Ukrainian import Bohdan Biekietov be as dominant with teams now aware of his skill. And how would his fellow countryman Kyryl Streltsov fit in with the bunch.

There’s no guarantee, even with a good core back, but Montgomery answered the bell time and time again. Their loss to Plainfield? It was their only public school loss this season, and only the second public school they’ve lost to in two years. The other? Lenape, which beat them last year in the regular season and again in the Group 4 semifinals.

But Montgomery checked that box, too, avenging those defeats with a dominant win over the Indians in this year’s Group 4 semis to get to Jersey Mike’s Arena this past Sunday.

Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko talk with Montgomery seniors Christian Hill, Braden Ginsberg, Bohdan Biekietov, and Kyryl Streltsov, junior Ethan Lin, and head coach Kris Grundy:

The questions came around in the off-season, “Where’s Ethan Lin?”

After a great start to last season, some on the recruiting trail wondered why they didn’t see him playing anywhere over the summer.

The reason? Well, he actually missed the last part of the season – their run to the Somerset County finals and to the Central Jersey Group 4 title – with a broken ankle, which looked downright unbearably painful when it happened in a late January regular season game against Hillsborough.

But when he came back? Boy, was he better than ever. And he’s only a junior.

If he continues on that trajectory, he’ll be high on everyone’s radar next year.

Christian Hill has also paid dividends for Montgomery this season. Appearing in just 14 games as a junior last season, he set four personal career highs this year playing in all 30 games, and is averaging 14.6 points per game in five state tournament games, with a team-best 17 triples. He’s scoring almost 3.5 points per game more in the states than the entire season.

And Montgomery will likely need all that and more if they’re to take home their first-ever state title Sunday night, when they take on Plainfield – the No. 1-ranked team in the state – for the NJSIAA Group 4 championship, which you can hear live right here on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

We got a chance to catch up with the pair after practice this week. Click below to listen: