While at one end of the Bellamy & Son Paving Girls’ Basketball Top Ten, Rutgers Prep sits atop the pile with its 25th appearance at No. 1 in as many weeks, North Plainfield has made its first list in all that time.

And it’s a remarkable turnaround.

Consider that since 2015, when the Lady Canucks went 12-13, they had not won more than four games in a single season, even going 0-12 in the COVID-abbreviated 2021 season.

But that year, the sophomore season for second-leading scorer Yasmen Zafar and top-rebounder Brianne Presley, was one of the formative years for them and the other seniors on this squad, who now find themselves 13-4 in their first year in the Greater Middlesex Conference, and 11-3 in the GMC’s White Division, good for a second place tie with Middlesex.

And that’s who they’ll play Tuesday night in a game that could have GMC Tournament seeding implications when the field is picked this coming Friday morning.

You can hear that game – No. 8 North Plainfield at No. 10 Middlesex (14-3, 11-3) – at 5:30 pm Tuesday, with pregame set for 5:15. Mike Pavlichko will call all the action. Click here to listen.

A win will determine the second-place team behind Edison in the White Division, an Eagles team which the Lady Canucks beat earlier this year, handing Edison its only division loss this season.

Click below to hear Mike Pavlichko talk with North Plainfield first-year head coach Derrick Eatman: