Tag: Francesca Schiro

by Mike Pavlichko

Central Jersey Sports Radio Somerset County Girls’ Basketball Player of the Year: Gill’s Gandy Malou-Mamel has stellar year, heads to UConn

All across the state of New Jersey, every year, dozens upon dozens of players will graduate and play at the college level. But only a handful get to go play for a major college program that has won multiple national championships.

But that’s the future for Gandy Malou-Mamel, the Gill St. Bernard’s senior who is the 2025 Central Jersey Sports Radio Girls’ Basketball Player of the Year.

Malou-Mamel didn’t start playing basketball in earnest until she was 12, and in her native Ireland. But playing for the Huskies and the legendary Geno Auriemma was her dream. Now that her career at Gill is over, that’s her reality.

She earned the chance to play in Storrs over the span of three seasons, in which she averaged almost 14 points per game in her career – 1,144 total – and a career-best 17 points a game this season, her senior year. She had double-doubles in 18 of her 28 games this season, and averaged a double-double, at 10.2 boards a game this season. She also recorded almost 200 career blocks (60 this year) and 40 steals.

At 6′ 6″, she was dominant much of her career, and especially this season, leading Gill St. Bernard’s to its first Somerset County Tournament title since 2014, as well as the Non-Public North B finals, where they lost to Immaculate Conception of Montclair, which is closing at the end of the school year.

Unfortunately – for us, not her! – Gill is on Spring Break this week and next, and Malou-Mamel is back home in her native Ireland, where coach Mark Gnapp says she often disconnects and recharges. So we had Gnapp speak on her behalf to talk about her season and career at Gill.

Click below to hear Gill St. Bernard’s head coach Mark Gnapp talk about Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Somerset County Girls’ Player of the Year Gandy Malou-Mamel:

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

  • Aleah Sunkins, Franklin: Sunkins had an impressive freshman campaign, and there was no hint of a sophomore slump in 2024-25. While Precious Wheeler is a tenacious defender, Sunkins averaged 15.5 points per game and 8.5 rebounds in her second season as a varsity starter, and eight double-doubles this season for a squad that may have gone 11-16 this year, but they also played in perhaps the toughest girls’ basketball division in the state, losing three times to Gill St. Bernard’s and twice to Rutgers Prep – both state sectional finalists – as well as twice to Hillsborough, the state Group 4 champs and No. 4 team in the final statewide rankings. That’s seven losses – almost half their overall total – to state-ranked teams just in their division alone.
  • Francesca Schiro, Hillbsorough: A talented all-around team, the Raiders don’t do what they did without “Cesci.” With back-to-back Central Jersey Group 4 titles, and this year the state Group 4 title – Hillsborough’s first ever – Schiro was instrumental in it all. This Siena-bound senior averaged 21.1 points per game this season, 6.3 rebounds, and led the tea, in assists (156) and steals (120). She was the undisputed leader of the team, and had big buckets down the stretch of the state finals against West Orange, along with fellow senior Mya Loniewski.
  • Taylor Francis, Pingry: The all-time leading scorer in school history, she finishes with 1,793 points before heading off to Georgetown to play softball. She averaged 27.3 points per game this year, with 66 treys, on a team that went 19-8 this season, and won the Skyland Conference Raritan Division by running the table to a 10-0 record.
  • Ava LaMonica, Rutgers Prep: Just a junior, it just seems like LaMonica has been an Argonaut for the last five years. A fierce competitor not afraid to hit the deck if she’s fouled hard or diving for a loose ball, she led a young, inexperienced group with 65 steals this season while averaging 13.4 points and 5 rebounds per game. And if the band stays together – last year’s team lost three starters to graduation, while another moved to Florida – next year’s group, with another year under its belt – could be primed for something big.
  • Charlotte Taylor, Somerville: While junior Kaylee Lauber also had a fantastic season, and was the team’s leading scorer, Taylor gets the nod here as a senior who’s been consistent her entire career. Averaging 11.5 points, four rebounds, and five asissts per game, Taylor played the senior leader role to a tee on a 23-6 team that went to the North 2, Group 3 semifinals.

by Mike Pavlichko

Hillsborough stuns Rutgers Prep, advances to SCT final for first time since ’06 with 58-54 win, powered by defense, three-point shooting

They say good defense fuels a good offense, when a team can get steals and get out in transition.

For Rutgers Prep, it’s almost the opposite. When they make baskets, they can set up their pressure. And once the second-seeded Argonauts did that Saturday afternoon against third-seed Hillsborough in the Somerset County Tournament semifinals, they started to take the game under control, and look like the team they were before losing four starters to graduation.

They built up a 14-point lead in the second quarter, and led 36-26 at the break.

But then a funny thing happened. In the third, second-seed Prep stopped hitting shots. Third-seed Hillsborough started making them, then turned on the pressure. And by the late third quarter, they’d wrested the lead back.

And in the end, the Raiders made more big shots than Rutgers Prep, including big threes in the fourth quarter from Reghan Bice and Francesca Schiro, who led all scorers with 23. It also helped that Hillsborough shot an excellent 11-of-13 from the foul line.

The result was a mammoth 58-54 win that will send shockwaves through the state rankings.

The win was the first for Hillsborough (18-5) over Rutgers Prep in 25 tries, dating back to at least 2008. It also sends the Raiders to the SCT title game for the first time since 2006, when they won their second of back-to-back titles, and their third of three overall.

For the Argonauts (17-5), they had won four straight SCT titles, but will miss the finals for the first time since 2014.

Hillsborough will face the winner of Saturday’s 2:30 pm semifinal between top-seed Gill St. Bernard’s and fourth-seed Franklin in next Saturday’s 1 pm SCT title game at Montgomery.

Click below for postgame reaction with Hillsborough’s Cesci Schiro and head coach Courtney Tierney, presented by the Sportsplex at Metuchen:

by Mike Pavlichko

Schiro, Loniewski reaching more milestones at Hillsborough, picking up where Raiders left off

The 2023-24 basketball season was a historic one for the Hillsborough girls’ team.

Going 21-9, the Lady Raiders claimed the school’s first-ever sectional title, when they beat Elizabeth at home, 59-46, on March first.

Under the question, “What do you do for an encore?” the answer for Hillsborough might very well be, “Do it again.” After all, they return all five starters from last year’s team.

In fact, only two seniors – who contributed just 22 points, or 1.2 percent of last year’s scoring – are gone.

That means among the returning players are Francesca Schiro, the team’s leading scorer, who finished with a 20.6 point per game average last year.

There’s also Mya Loniewksi, who averaged 13.4 points per game, while dishing out a whopping 131 assists.

No doubt, Hillsborough knows how to share the ball, and share the love.

This season, both those players reached new milestones. Loniewksi joined the 1,000 point club on a late free throw in a Linden in the season opener on December 14th.

And against Madison last Saturday, Schiro became the all-time leading girls’ scorer at Hillsborough, surpassing the 1,455 point standard set in 1986 by Jinny Gill Strawderman, who was also a star softball player, and attended Brown University, becoming one of the school’s all-time top three-point shooters.

Hillsborough’s Jinny Strawdeman, c. 1986. (Source: Hillsborough Athletic Hall of Fame)

Schiro is about 100 points away from another milestone, breaking the all-time school record. The boys’ top mark is currently held by Kevin Ryan, who also graduated in 1986.

All that is fun stuff for the two and their teammates, but their sights are set higher.

Maybe a Somerset County Tournament championship is in the cards? Their last came in 2006, the second of back-to-back finals wins over Rutgers Prep.

Or maybe a sectional championship again? The Raiders are back into Central Jersey Group 4 this year, moving out of North 2, but still should be considered a favorite in whatever section they’re in.

Click below to hear Hillsborough senior Francesco Schiro – a Siena commit – talk about this year’s Raiders with Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko:

Hillsborough (4-0) is back in action at home Friday afternoon when the Lady Raiders take on Ewing at 2:30 pm (1-3).