Tag: Connor Junker

by Mike Pavlichko

Historic Knight! Dominant defense by Dixon and Co. lead Gill St. Bernard’s boys to first-ever state title, 39-28 win over Holy Cross

A low-scoring game, with both teams feeling each other out, turned into a defensive clinic at Rutgers’ Jersey Mike’s Arena Thursday night.

No, it wasn’t a Steve Pikiell summer camp. It was the Non-Public Group B state title game.

And it was Gill St. Bernard’s – after leading just 6-2 after one quarter – ahead 20-2 at halftime.

While one might think it was over at that point in the Non-Public Group B final, the mantra for Holy Cross this post seaosn has been “We’re there, why not us?”

And with that, they got back into the game.

Tristan Ganges – who had the only points of the first half for the Lancers, quickly got the first six of the second half to cut into the lead. Holy Cross kept it around ten most of the second half, even getting it down to six in the fourth quarter.

But in the end, the Gill defense was just too strong, led primarily by Jahmal Dixon, always assigned the opposition’s best player. But Prosper Sonkoua also had a number of blocks – as he does – and even Connor Junker was cleaning up with loose floor rebounds. The Knights forced 16 turnovers, while only committing nine, and they outrebounded the Lancers 34 to 17.

In the end, Gill held on for a 39-28 win, earning the Knights’ (27-2) their first ever state championship.

Their season also ends with a 24-game win streak, matching a school record set in the 2010-11 season, head coach Mergin Sina’s first year leading the program after coaching the Gill girls for six years.

Junker, the sophomore who hit some big threes to lead Gill to the 2025 Somerset County Tournament title – a feat they reprised this year – finished with a game-high 13 points, while senior Dorsett Mulcahy had a dozen. Each also had a triple, while Dixon had one, too, and finished with seven.

Holy Cross finished its season at 27-4.

Click below for postgame reaction from Alec Crouthamel with Gill St. Bernard’s head coach Mergin Sina, as well as guards Connor Junker, Jahmal Dixon and Dorsett Mulcahy, as well as forward Prosper Sonkoua, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

by Mike Pavlichko

Gill St. Bernard’s wins 10th Somerset County championship, ties Bridgewater-Raritan’s mark, with 84-73 victory over Rutgers Prep

The Bridgewater-Raritan boys’ basketball team has held the record for most Somerset County titles for more than a quarter century, all by themselves. Their fourth title came in 1998, putting them ahead of Franklin, and then won six more through 2007.

But as of Saturday afternoon, they have some company.

Gill St. Bernard’s won its 10th Somerset County Tournament championship Saturday at Montgomery Twp. High School in Skillman, as the top-seeded Knights powered past second-seed Rutgers Prep, 84-73, in a game heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

The game was a back-and-forth affair, with high intensity and end-to-end action from the opening tip until just about the final horn. There were three lead changes in the first half, seven overall, but the last two were the most consequential.

Rutgers Prep’s Will Brunson hit an and-one with 1:43 to go in the third, and though he didn’t make the free throw, he gave his team a 49-48 lead. But that seemed to inspire Gill (24-2), which followed it up with a 9-2 tun to close the quarter with a 57-51 advantage.

They never looked back.

Jahmal Dixon led the way for the Knights, tied for game-high honors with 25. Connor Junker added 20, including three treys, while senior point guard Dorsett Mulcahy added 18.

Rutgers Prep (16-9) was led by Nicolas Nsenkyire; the senior shared game-high honors with Gill’s Dixon, scoring 25, including one three.

The Argonauts – who led the state with 252 threes coming into the game, tops in the state, and a 10.5 per game average – only hit four in the game, three in the second half, with a couple in the fourth quarter from Dixon, as Prep tried to rally, but fell short.

It’s the eighth title in eleven years for Gill St. Bernard’s, which has now won two straight, swept three games from Rutgers Prep this year, and has now won six straight against their biggest rival in Somerset County.

Click below for postgame reaction from Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko with Gill St. Bernard’s head coach Mergin Sina, as well as sophomore Connor Junker and senior Dorsett Mulcahy, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

by Mike Pavlichko

Central Jersey Sports Radio Somerset County Boys’ Basketball Player of the Year: Ethan Lin comes back from horrific injury to help Montgomery to back to back CJ4 titles

Having a number of key returning players back next season is never a guarantee for anything. Injuries, slumps, anything could derail the best-laid plans.

Which makes what Ethan Lin of Montgomery did this year all the more remarkable.

Lin had a tremendous breakout sophomore year as point guard for the Cougars until he broke his ankle against Hillsborough on January 30th of last year. He missed the rest of the year, including Montgomery’s run to the Somerset County Tournament Final and their Central Jersey Group 4 championship.

He also missed summer ball, which led recruiters to wonder where he was.

Well, come December, they knew where he was. He picked up almost right where he left off, going for a new career high in his first game of the season, scoring 26 points in a 48-44 Game One loss to Hudson Catholic in the NJBCA Tip-Off Classic at Montgomery.

Then, he topped that with 27 against St. Joseph-Metuchen at the Friends of South Amboy Tournament a week later. He matched it three weeks later at Ridge, topped it less than two weeks later with 29 against Camden Catholic. Then eventually did it again with 31 against Rutgers Prep in an SCT semifinal loss, and matched it in their state playoff opener against Monroe.

Yes, Lin came back even stronger, and led his team to the Central Jersey Group 4 title he couldn’t participate in last year, and even further, to the Group 4 championship game where they would fall to the No. 1 team in the state, Plainfield.

And for that, Lin is our Central Jersey Sports Radio Somerset County Boys’ Player of the Year.

Just a junior, he’s already scored 1,125 points. This year, he piled up the assists, and finished the year averaging 19.7 points per game, while hitting 90 treys, including a career high seven against Prep in the county semis, trying to will his team back into the game.

Click below to listen to Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Somerset County Boys’ Player of the Year Ethan Lin:

Here are our Honorable Mentions for Somerset County Boys’ Player of the Year:

  • Jackson Morrison, Bound Brook: One of the top scorers in Somerset County the last three years, Morrison averaged 24 points per game this years, the best of his four-year varsity career, while also averaging 6.7 rebounds a game. He’ll finish his career with 1,673 points, the all-time leading scorer in Bound Brook history.
  • Edryn Morales, Manville: A four-year varsity player, Morales has been in 107 games for the Mustangs and scored 1,350 points in his career. He’ll graduate as their all-time leading scorer as well. And he saved the best for last in his senior season, averaging 19.5 points per game for the season along with 6.8 rebounds. Morales also dished out 108 assists (3.9 per game) and grabbed 88 steals (3.1 per game).
  • Kobe Closeil and Dorsett Mulcahy, Gill St. Bernard’s: On a team loaded with talent at various grade levels (Connor Junker had an outstanding freshman campaign, and Kieran Quinn established himself in the post), this wasn’t an easy one. Even Senior Stanley Njweke had a big presence. Closeil, however, was the team’s leading scorer by a good margin on a team that was very balanced en route to winning the Somerset County Tournament title. The senior averaged 10.9 points per game and was also an excellent free-throw shooter, as well as a distributor, with a team-best 83 assists. Mulcahy, a junior who was in his third year as a starter, was the team’s point guard, and put together his best season yet: 9.6 points a game, 5.3 assists per game. More than that, he was a steadying force on a team that can get up and down the court with the best of them.
  • Myles Parker and Jacob Canton, Rutgers Prep: Like Gill, there are so many talented players here – one area coach told us they may have the most pure talent in the state – but their top two scorers both had stellar seasons. Parker is a senior, and averaged 14.8 points per game, while also logging a team-best 81 steals on a squad that had 287 of them on the year, almost ten per game. Canton is just a sophomore, but was the team’s top scorer, at 15.3 points a game, but also distributes the ball: He had a team-high 141 assists, almost five per game, while also tallying 60 steals, second only to Parker, who is the only significant senior that won’t be back next year.

by Mike Pavlichko

Gill’s back on top, as Knights take Somerset County boys title, 52-46, over two-time defending champion Rutgers Prep

Call the 2024-2025 high school basketball season the Season of Gill.

The last two years, it was Rutgers Prep sweeping the Somerset County Tournament on the boys’ and girls’ side. This year, Gill St. Bernard’s wields the broom.

A couple hours after the Knights’ girls took the title with a win over Hillsborough, the top-seeded boys held up their end of the bargain, coming from behind in the second half to beat third-seed and two-time defending champion Rutgers Prep, 52-46, at Montgomery High School in Skillman, in a game heard on Central Jersey Sports Radio.

And the hero was, perhaps, an unlikely one. The big names for Gill are Dorsett Mulcahy – who had 12 before fouling out with just under five minutes to play – and Kobe Closeil and Kieran Quinn and Stanley Njekwe.

But on this Saturday afternoon, it was 5′ 11″ freshman Connor Junker who played the hero. He finished with 15 points – the leading scorer – on four treys, two in the third and one in the fourth, then hit three of four free throws on a pair of late trips to the line that helped seal the deal.

Gill improved to 20-5 with the win, while Rutgers Prep dropped to 18-9. It was GSB’s third win this season over the Argonauts.

Gill couldn’t hit a bucket to save its life early in the third, as Prep took a three-point halftime lead and got it to as much as nine in the third quarter. But the Knights battled, and kept it close enough until they could make a move.

Junker provided that spark, and the rest of the team followed.

Not bad for a freshman. Now, what can he do for an encore?

Click below for postgame reaction from Gill St. Bernard’s freshman Connor Junker and head coach Mergin Sina, presented by Sportsplex at Metuchen:

Gill St. Bernard’s freshman Connor Junker. (Photo: Mike Pavlichko)